Post Office £750m deal with BT

[NEWS]

COMPUTERWORLDUK

The Post Office and BT today have signed a strategic partnership deal worth up to £750m that will see the telecoms giant provide wholesale communications services to the Post Office for resale to its customers.

Under the four-year deal – the largest ever signed by BT Wholesale – the telecoms firm will provide a suite of broadband and converged services from its managed services portfolio.

The deal will boost the Post Office’s moves to position itself as an integrated voice and broadband communications provider, allowing it to upgrade its 400,000 telephony customers to converged services.

Post Office customers will be able to receive a combination of high-speed broadband and telephony, plus web-based email and anti-virus protection, with online and telephone based customer support also supplied by BT.

Alan Cook, the Post Office’s managing director, said: “The Post Office wanted a partner that could help us provide one of the best and most customer-focused voice and broadband services in the telecoms market at leading edge prices - and with BT, we’re very confident we’ve got the best strategic relationship to provide our customers with a trusted and reliable service at leading edge prices."

There is a certain irony to the partnership agreement, bringing together the Post Office and BT. The telecoms firm was originally a division of the Post Office – then a nationalised company. The 1981 British Telecommunications Act created two separate corporations, both public sector bodies. The newly created British Telecom was privatised as a standalone firm in 1984. The Post Office, part of the Royal Mail Group, remains a nationalised company.

[POSTMAN]

Forget the irony,what with BT scabbing us on their deal with TNT.
But i guess good news for the PO guys,shame it had to be with them though!