BT wins £39 million NATO contract

BT and NATO have struck a new deal to the tune of 47 million (39 million), the telecoms firm announced today.

Under the five-year agreement, BT will provide NATO with a communications network connecting 70 NATO nations and the Balkans.

The contract includes the migration of NATO's existing backbone to BT Ethernet Connect.

Ethernet Connect is BT's intelligent virtual private network (VPN), designed for large companies. The network allows larger organisations to have complete control over their IP architecture and to evolve their own infrastructure.

BT will also provide NATO with its private E-LINE services to protect mission-critical applications between sites. In turn, NATO will benefit from BT's highly secure wide area network (WAN) and will receive hardware supplies from BT for network set up.

Georges D'hollander, NATO's Consultation, Command and Control Agency (NC3A), said in a statement: "Information and the ability to share it rapidly across a coalition plays a paramount role in 21st century operations, as well as political decision-making."

He said NATO was impressed by BT's progress, choosing to continue their partnership.

"BT has, over the years, developed an in-depth understanding of the specific challenges we face," added D'hollander. "Their BT Connect portfolio is particularly well designed to support our communications needs."

"We are proud that NATO has chosen our Ethernet Connect solution to support their technological evolution," said Luis Alvarez, president of BT Global Services in EMEA and Latin America.

"It is a great recognition that NATO has selected BT as communications provider. We have been successfully working with NATO over the recent years and look forward to the future of our relationship."