Telewest Wins IP VPN Contract

LONDON -- South West Water has teamed up with Telewest Business to upgrade a part of its existing corporate data network. A fully managed Internet Protocol Virtual Private Network (IPVPN) solution will enable staff based at 60 remote offices to access its corporate applications and email more effectively.

South West Water, which with 1,400 employees is one of the biggest employers in the south west of England, provides water and sewerage services to 1.5 million people in Devon, Cornwall and small areas of Dorset and Somerset.

The managed IPVPN has replaced the existing corporate data network in place since 1997. This consisted of a large number of kilostream leased lines linking smaller sites to Head Office.

The recent availability of the Telewest IPVPN solution in Devon and Cornwall together with the roll out of Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) capabilities throughout the region meant that South West Water could increase bandwidth to its remote sites whilst achieving a more cost effective wide area network WAN infrastructure.

“In our quest to provide even higher standards of product and customer service whilst outperforming tough regulatory efficiency targets, the ADSL solution has radically reduced our wide area network annual operating costs. It also significantly improved end user access times. We were delighted to work alongside Telewest to implement this innovative technology” said Margaret Waterer, Computer & Network Services Manager for South West Water.

Phil Lunn, Director of Data services for Telewest Business, said that deploying an IPVPN is a critical step forward in the evolution of a corporation’s network. “Widening bandwidth through the use of an IPVPN will streamline processes at South West Water and help them to further improve their competitive edge.”

Telewest Communications Networks plc