Microsoft confirms UK.gov to dodge licensing hike... almost

Cabinet Office to pay 1% more, but biz to feel the squeeze

Microsoft has confirmed that under the forthcoming Public Sector Agreement (PSA12) government customers will pay just 1 per cent more for volume licences.

The development was revealed by El Reg late last week but both the Cabinet Office and Microsoft refused to comment on the financial details at the time of writing.

The firm has now gone public, claiming that the new PSA framework runs from the start of May to the end of April 2015.

Microsoft said the agreement "provides price certainty by maintaining the current pricing available to UK public sector for the duration of the framework with four pre-agreed uplifts".

These include a 1 per cent price increase due on 1 July as Redmond aligns EU pricing to the euro, and then three yearly rises based on the Office of National Statistics official Consumer Price Index from April 2013.

Any new product or "substantial programmatic licensing changes" that come to market during the three-year framework will be available at the discounted pricing, the firm revealed.

For the UK private sector, Microsoft last week confirmed volume licensing prices would rise from 1 July by between 1.7 per cent and 25.9 per cent, lower than the initial preview in May. ®