DSB opens €120.6m IT infrastructure call

DSB has launched a €120.6m call to outsource IT infrastructure and services, with offers due by 3 December. The Danish rail operator’s Future S-network programme is intended to move Copenhagen’s S-train network towards driverless operation, making infrastructure partners worth watching beyond the immediate procurement.

Landkreis Gießen has also opened a €104m call for supported gigabit expansion, closing on 22 January 2027. The district is advancing fibre broadband under Germany’s Gigabitförderung 2.0 programme for addresses not reached by commercial rollout.

Where this market is going

Networking represented 19.38% of all classified notices in the week to 9 November, a fall of 1.58 percentage points against the 29-day baseline share of 20.97%. The 465 notices should be read as classified activity rather than a market-volume measure.

The weekly share moved from 20.31% on 12 October to 20.61% on 19 October, then 20.16% on 26 October, before reaching 22.83% on 2 November and falling to 19.38% on 9 November.

How hard the competition is

Competitive awards with reported bid counts averaged 2.4 bids across 116 measured awards, with a median of 2. Single-bid awards accounted for 42%, or 49 awards, while 14 direct awards are counted separately because they were not competed. SMEs submitted 63% of bids, which is a bid share rather than a share of contracts won.

Ukraine reported 1.5 bids on 6 measured awards, Poland 2.2 on 34, Germany 2.7 on 15, Spain 2.4 on 15, and Czechia 3.4 on 8. In Czechia and Germany, technical quality and differentiation need to carry the bid. In Ukraine and Poland, qualification and delivery capacity are the more immediate constraints.

Bids are counted on contract awards from competitive procedures only. Direct awards (negotiated without a call, single-source) have one bidder by design and are counted separately. Shown only when at least 10 awards reported a bid count. Direct awards this window: 14.

What shifted this week

Whose technology is being named

Cisco was named in 20 notices, comprising 10 calls and 10 awards, 39% more often than the vertical’s usual mix would predict. MikroTik appeared in 7 notices, 50% less often than expected; Microsoft in 6, 36% more often; Fortinet in 5, 44% more often; HP Inc. in 5, 140% more often; and HPE in 5, 20% more often. These are notice-text mentions, not winner declarations.

Fortinet is tied directly to АТ «Ощадбанк»’s call for Fortinet equipment, which closes on 17 November and concerns office-network modernisation. Juniper Networks appeared in 5 notices, with no baseline comparison supplied. Ubiquiti appeared in 4 notices, 8% more often than expected; Starlink in 3, 29% more often; and Grandstream in 2, also without a comparison.

Who is buying repeatedly

Buyers that published more than one call for tender in this window. An organisation running several at once is usually working through a programme rather than buying once.

The biggest new open tenders

Of 284 calls, 159 stated a value. DSB’s €120.6m IT-infrastructure and services outsourcing call closes on 3 December, while Landkreis Gießen’s €104m supported gigabit-expansion call closes on 22 January 2027. DB InfraGO’s Tracks division is seeking an MCx system for autonomous railway operational radio over public networks by 7 December; its €11.4m framework value is a ceiling for future purchases, not a single contract. АТ «Ощадбанк» is buying Fortinet equipment by 17 November for €7.6m, in line with its network-modernisation work. Electricity Supply Board seeks supply and support for ESB IP network hardware in Ireland and the UK by 14 December for €7.2m, and Transelectrica seeks traffic monitoring, detection and protection for €6.7m by 23 November.

Calls for tender published in this window and still open, by the buyer’s estimated value in EUR; 159 of 284 new calls stated one. A framework agreement or a dynamic purchasing system (DPS) states a ceiling for several purchases, not one contract.

Closing in the next two weeks

Contracts awarded

These are signed contracts, not opportunities. Myndigheten för Civilt Försvar awarded Telia Sverige AB its radio-access network contract at a €176m framework ceiling; Agencia para la Administración Digital de la CM awarded ORANGE ESPAGNE S.A.U. €92.3m for telecommunications services; and Province de Liège awarded NeWIN a €75m framework ceiling for network connectivity and related services. Ministerie van Defensie awarded ELCOS BV a €19.8m framework ceiling to sustain FM-9000 radios, Utility Connect B.V. awarded BAM Telecom B.V. €17.5m for mobile-network sites, and Dopravný podnik Bratislava awarded Technopol International €7.6m as a framework ceiling for radio and telecommunications services. No listed award is marked direct. By award count, ACUNTIA, Deutsche Telekom Business Solutions GmbH KFLR ME, HPE and Telia Lietuva AB each had 3 awards; ORANGE ESPAGNE S.A.U. and Paradyn each had 2.

Contract award notices published in this window, by the signed contract value in EUR. These are contracts already placed, not open opportunities.

Who won

Browse every open public IT tender on SalesDots

Sources consulted

Pages the writer read for context while drafting this column. The figures above come from the notices, not from these.

• dsb.dk
• lkgi.de
• salesdots.ai
• ted.europa.eu

Move quickly on Město Cheb’s 5G application for autonomous mobility, which closes on 13 November, and the French telemetry and data-analysis framework, which closes on 16 November. DIAMO’s €800,000 DNS, firewall and NGFW dynamic purchasing system has no bid deadline: it stays open to new suppliers until 23 November.

Method

Built from 465 public procurement notices published from 2026-11-03 to 2026-11-09 and classified into the Networking vertical: 284 calls for tender, 158 contract awards, 4 prior information notices and 14 other notices. A tender republished in a new version is counted once. Values are converted to EUR at reference rates. Comparisons use the previous 29 days, classified by the same classifier generation. Every figure on this page is computed from the notices; the commentary is written around them. Sources: TED, Prozorro, e-Zamówienia (BZP), Bekanntmachungsservice (DÖE), CVP IS (Lithuania), ЦАИС ЕОП (CAIS EOP), IUB (Latvia), SEAP / SICAP (e-licitatie.ro). Tenders named in earlier editions of this column are not named again.