Britain's Barclays Bank has signed a seven-year contract, worth around £500m, with BT for the provision of a secure IP-based voice and data network for its UK operations.
The new contract is for provision of a secure IP-based wide area network, local area network and voice services. The value of the contract, including existing business over the seven years, is expected to exceed £500m.
By moving to IP-based technology, BT expects Barclays to achieve efficiency savings of more than 30% over the life of the contract. BT says the network will also provide a platform for developing and delivering improved services in the future.
Emile Sanchez, director, enterprise technology infrastructure services, Barclays, says the new infrastructure will "enable the bank to reduce cost and enable the front line staff to better serve our customers".
BT currently provides network services to 18 of the top 20 high street financial services firms in the UK.
In December, Lloyds TSB signed a seven-year £500 million voice and data services deal with IBM which included the supply of a new high-speed network core and an order for 70,000 voice over IP telephones.