LONDON -- BT has announced a £7.1 million, five-year contract with leading bettingand gaming operator Coral to supply a high-bandwidth managed network to its1268 branches throughout the UK. The deployment will replace a number ofexisting communications networks, significantly reducing costs andproviding increased bandwidth and management control to support futuregrowth. Under the terms of the agreement, BT will roll out an ADSL networkconnecting Coral's betting offices to BT's IP Clear solution.

Coral selected BT's MPLS-based IP Clear solution in July, following astrategic review of its retail infrastructure. The review concluded thatCoral's narrowband infrastructure was no longer able to cope withincreasing levels of traffic and lacked the flexibility needed to supportdeployments of new functionality and applications.

Coral's IT support and infrastructure manager, Neil McCrossencommented: "Information is the lifeblood of Coral. Time-critical,simultaneous data delivery to our 1,268 branches is key to delivering thehigh levels of service our customers have come to expect. To ensure ourcontinued success and future growth, we’re looking for a flexible andscalable converged network, which will allow us to communicate with ourstaff, suppliers and customers."

The BT MPLS infrastructure will also enable Coral to greatly reducethe time to market for new products and services without compromising thehigh levels of availability and quality demanded by the company'soperations.

"While only recently deployed, the new infrastructure has alreadystarted delivering cost savings against the legacy infrastructure. With aconsolidated network, we will now be able to overlay new business servicesand multimedia applications such as Voice over IP (VoIP), which previouslywould not have been cost effective due to high infrastructure costs," saidMcCrossen. "Also, as part of its managed service layer, BT is available24/7/365 to help ensure that the network is always running smoothly," addedMr McCrossen.

Gary Bullard, managing director, UK, BT Global Services, said: "Intoday's competitive business environment the demands and pressures onorganisations are continually increasing. In the digital networked economy,convergence provides businesses with increased flexibility andmanageability vital for successful business communication. Coral waslooking for a technology partner who had the experience and the resourcesto provide it with a reliable converged network. BT’s approach provides theright level of flexibility without compromising the process or costeffectiveness, essential in delivering high levels of service andavailability."

BT Group plc