BT signs European Commission IT deal

03 Apr 2007 10:44

British telco takes over from US-based Verizon in providing internet access and services to the EC

BT will supply and manage key European Union government internet services for at least the next four years.

The contract with the European Commission's Directorate-General for Informatics (DIGIT) will see BT providing internet access and related services for the EC and ten other high-level European organisations, including the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union.

The associated budget may rise as high as €22.5m (£15.2m), and the contract could potentially be extended to eight years. The deal also builds on another between BT and DIGIT, announced in 2004, which saw BT providing external network services to key European institutions under a contract valued at €162m (£108.3m).

Aside from internet access — which will provide bandwidth ranging from 10Mbps to 1Gbps to at least 17 sites — BT will be supplying Wi-Fi access, spam filtering, protection against denial-of-service attacks, the registration of domain names and support with internet content distribution, BT said on Tuesday.

"We are proud to have signed this contract, particularly since the missions with which we've just been entrusted were previously in the hands of the competition," said Michel De Coster, chief executive of BT's Benelux operation. The contract was previously held by US-based Verizon.

Story URL: http://news.zdnet.co.uk/communications/0,1000000085,39286606,00.htm