LONDON -- Nuetel communications, the main alternative telecommunication provider in Bahrain, has announced today the award of a multi-million dollar operations, marketing and consultancy contract to BT, one of the world’s leading providers of global communications solutions and services in over 170 countries.

Under the agreement, BT will operate Nuetel’s infrastructure for the next three years and provide 24x7 technical support, monitoring and roll-out of leading converged services. This agreement is part of a strategic relationship between Nuetel Communications and BT covering technical consultancy and services development, joint marketing and the resale of BT’s worldwide services.

As part of this strategic relationship with Nuetel, BT will deploy its first global voice gateway outside of Europe. This will allow other service providers throughout the Middle East region the ability to switch calls, without the need to pass through the major international hubs in Europe, the USA and Asia, ensuring the highest degree of service quality. It will not only provide inter-regional voice services, but moreover through BT's global network, it will provide access to 650 other service providers worldwide, including more than 100 dedicated mobile operators.

“The outsourcing agreement with BT is a perfect fit to address this market demand, with BT bringing its global capabilities and proven outsourcing track record, and Nuetel contributing an advanced infrastructure, extensive sales capabilities and focus on the Bahraini and Gulf markets. In addition, this agreement will extend Nuetel’s portfolio of services significantly, allowing Nuetel to expand its services regionally and globally, leveraging the BT global infrastructure”, commented Labib Matta, CEO of Nuetel Communications.

BT Group plc (NYSE: BT; London: BTA)