Colchester Business Enterprise Agency (Colbea) has signed a five-year deal with telecoms and internet provider Zen Systems - one of its former clients.

Under the contract, Ipswich-based Zen will install a dedicated 100/100 Mbps DIA (Dedicated Internet Access) fibre leased line at the enterprise agency’s Colchester Business Centre, along with improvements to the centre’s existing ICT infrastructure.

The deal builds on an agreement struck between the two organisations in 2013 under which Zen provided broadband and IP telephony systems on a not-for-profit basis.

James Howard Dobson, business development director at Zen, said: “We’re delighted to be working with Colbea for another five years.

“The new contract is phase two of our commitment to invest in and maintain Colbea’s network infrastructure to an ultra-competitive level, alongside ongoing management of the system and telecoms contracts with tenants in the Central Colchester Business Centre,” he added.

Colbea board director Dan Tidswell, of Pretty Good IT, added: “The new leased line represents a significant investment in COLBEA’s offering to tenants – superior speeds and an enterprise class 99.9% uptime.”