Shropshire Council Expands MLL Telecom Contract for SD-WAN and Teams Direct Routing

The contract covers more than routers and circuits. It includes a refresh of the network, expansion to 87 sites, an SD-WAN overlay, gateways to UK public-sector networks, and more voice capacity through Microsoft Teams Direct Routing. That last part is what makes it relevant to Windows and Microsoft 365 administrators.

What the contract covers​

According to Comms Business, the agreement includes:

• Five-year term with an optional two-year extension
• Value of more than £1.5 million, with no breakdown given
• A refresh and expansion to 87 sites, described as covering all Shropshire and partner locations
• An SD-WAN overlay, which MLL presents as the way to improve resilience, performance and capacity
• High-speed gateways to the Health and Social Care Network (HSCN), the Public Services Network (PSN) and the internet
• Expanded SBC/SIP voice services, supporting 200 resilient SIP channels with Teams Direct Routing into multiple sites
• A planned school SBC/SIP voice pilot

Ross Billington, MLL Telecom's strategic client director, said the company was pleased to keep working with the council. He described the deal as building on what MLL already provides by adding sites and introducing the new SD-WAN overlay.

The benefits in the announcement are plans, not results. This is a supplier's contract announcement, and "increased resilience, performance and capacity" is what MLL expects the design to deliver. None of it has been measured yet.

In short: MLL keeps an existing public-sector customer and takes on a bigger job covering network, cloud-edge and voice work.

Why Teams Direct Routing matters here​

Many announcements say a customer is "moving to Teams." This one names Direct Routing, which is a specific design choice. There are several ways to connect Teams Phone to the public telephone network. With Direct Routing, calls go through a Session Border Controller (SBC) and a telephony provider the organisation chooses, rather than through Microsoft Calling Plans.

Microsoft's own documentation sets some firm rules for this setup:

• Certified SBCs only. Microsoft's Direct Routing planning guidance says only Microsoft-certified SBCs are supported with Direct Routing, and Microsoft validates certified SBCs through interoperability testing to ensure compatibility with Microsoft Teams Phone.
• The SBC vendor handles support first. Microsoft says that if something breaks, you must contact your SBC vendor's customer support first. If needed, the SBC vendor escalates the issue to Microsoft via internal channels. Microsoft also reserves the right to reject support cases where a non-certified device is connected to Phone System through Direct Routing.
• Firmware versions matter. The certification is granted to specific SBC firmware versions, so upgrading an SBC is also a question of staying supported.
• Microsoft's resilience advice. Microsoft recommends that customers deploy certified SBCs, configure redundant SIP connectivity, use trusted public certificates, configure all Microsoft-required firewall rules, monitor call quality after deployment, and test failover scenarios before production rollout.

The announcement calls the 200 SIP channels "resilient," which fits Microsoft's advice on redundant SIP connectivity. It does not explain how that resilience is achieved. It doesn't say whether there are geographically separate SBCs, dual trunks, or what happens when a site or data centre goes down.

MLL's G-Cloud listing gives general background. The company says its Session Border Controller as a Service lets public-sector buyers buy SIP, Teams Direct Routing and SBCaaS through the framework, with options such as new direct-dial numbers, number porting and 0800/0300 numbers. That listing describes MLL's products in general. It does not confirm which product or configuration Shropshire will get.

In short: Direct Routing gives the council control over its carrier and routing, but it also means relying on a certified SBC, current firmware and a support process that starts with the vendor.

What "200 SIP channels" does and doesn't mean​

This figure is easy to misread:

• 200 channels is not 200 users. A SIP channel roughly equals one simultaneous call. The source does not say whether the 200 channels are a single shared pool for the whole council.
• 87 sites is not 87 phone sites. The network covers 87 sites. The voice work covers "multiple sites," with no number given. Don't assume every networked building gets Teams calling.
• Licensing isn't mentioned. Separate guidance on Direct Routing prerequisites notes that each user needs a Teams Phone license in addition to the Microsoft Teams license. The announcement doesn't say who pays for those licences, and nothing suggests they are part of MLL's contract.
• The school pilot hasn't started. No schools, dates or success criteria have been published.

The SD-WAN overlay and the gateways​

An SD-WAN overlay sits on top of existing circuits. It lets the network pick paths per application and fail over between links, instead of treating each connection as a fixed pipe. That helps a Teams calling rollout, because voice suffers from jitter, latency and packet loss far more than email does. A certified SBC won't help if the branch link carrying the call is congested.

MLL hasn't named the SD-WAN vendor for this contract. Its G-Cloud catalogue lists a Fortinet-based SD-Branch offering and a SASE service that includes SD-WAN. Readers shouldn't assume either one is what Shropshire is getting.

The HSCN and PSN gateways also matter. Councils that provide social care need secure access to NHS-connected services as well as government networks. MLL's catalogue describes its Secure Gateway Services as providing access to the internet, HSCN, PSN and public cloud platforms, including Microsoft Azure, from its core network. For council IT teams, connections to Microsoft 365 and Azure now sit alongside these public-sector links at the edge of the network.

In short: A properly built SD-WAN is what gives Teams voice a reliable path to run on. The council's calling setup will depend on both.

What we still don't know​

The announcement leaves out several things network and Teams administrators would want to know:

1. When the contract starts and how the rollout will be scheduled
2. Which SD-WAN platform and architecture will be used, and what service levels apply
3. Gateway throughput and how failover is designed
4. How the "resilient" SIP channels are actually built
5. Which sites will get Teams voice, and how many
6. How many schools are in the pilot, when it starts, and how it will be judged
7. What makes up the £1.5 million-plus value

No public award notice was found that independently confirms the value, term, site count or channel numbers. Those details come from Comms Business's reporting of the announcement.

Advice for IT teams planning something similar​

If your organisation is looking at the same mix of SD-WAN and Teams Direct Routing, the Shropshire deal points to a few questions to settle before signing:

• Ask for the SBC model and firmware version and check them against Microsoft's certified list.
• Get the escalation process in writing. Microsoft expects the SBC vendor to investigate first, so your contract should say how quickly that happens.
• Define "resilient" precisely. Ask which failures are covered: a site, a trunk, an SBC, a data centre.
• Test failover before users depend on it, as Microsoft recommends.
• Budget for Teams Phone licences separately from the network contract.
• Run a pilot first. Shropshire's planned school pilot is a sensible way to learn before rolling out to every site.

For now, the takeaway is modest. MLL keeps a council customer and adds sites, SD-WAN and Teams calling capacity to the contract. Whether users get clear calls and a network that stays up will only be known once the rollout is done.