BT announced today the opening of an international network traffic routing facility at Melkbosstrand in the Western Cape, further strengthening its position as a leading provider of networked IT services to multinational companies in South Africa and globally.
The facility, part of BT's continuous drive to enhance network offerings around the world, will enable BT to gain better control of its South African infrastructure and improve services to enterprises with a presence in South Africa.
The new infrastructure is of particular importance for the development of the regional and national economy. For example, Cape Town has established itself as a major global hub for call centres and is set to benefit greatly as BT introduces new services and solutions aimed at call centre operators.
BT operates one of the largest global Internet Protocol-based networks in the world. The network underpins mission-critical applications for leading global enterprises from a variety of industry sectors, including financial services, manufacturing, logistics, pharmaceutical and oil and gas industries.
The new routing facility will be linked to Teraco, a vendor neutral co-location site in Cape Town, through which other operators and customers will connect directly onto the BT network. Connectivity between the routing facility and Teraco will be provided by Dark Fibre Africa (DFA), an independent fibre network provider with 600km of fibre network in Cape Town and the surrounding areas.
Recent changes in the South African telecommunications regulatory environment have provided local and global telco providers with an opportunity to lower costs of connectivity and improve service levels offered to their customers. In 2009, BT was awarded individual Electronic Communications Services (i-ECS) and Electronic Communication Network Services (i-ECNS) licences from Icasa (Independent Communications Authority of South Africa) as part of the deregulation of the local market.
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BT
BT is one of the world's leading providers of communications services and solutions, serving customers in more than 170 countries. Its principal activities include the provision of networked IT services globally; local, national and international telecommunications services to our customers for use at home, at work and on the move; broadband and Internet products and services, and converged fixed/mobile products and services. BT consists principally of four lines of business: BT Global Services, BT Retail, BT Wholesale and Openreach.
In the year ended 31 March 2011, BT Group's revenue was lb20 076 million with profit before taxation of lb1 717 million.
British Telecommunications (BT) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group and encompasses virtually all businesses and assets of the BT Group. BT Group is listed on stock exchanges in London and New York.
For more information, visit http://www.btplc.com.
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