C&W Lands Huge Tesco VoIP/FMC Deal

Cable and Wireless [1] has landed a five year, $200 million dollar deal to consolidate and modernize Tesco's network, moving everything from voice to data onto a single IP network with more than 40 times current capacity.

Tesco expects to get both cost savings as well as "more value" out of the new network which will connect more than 1,800 Tesco sites including stores, regional offices and distribution centers.  Internationally, the network will connect Tesco's ops in 14 countries, including China, India, Japan, the United States and Turkey, in an 18 month rollout and support over 400,000 people.

More value will include mobile UC functionality, including pico cells to enable GSM cell phones to make calls through the company's voice network while in range, VoIP transport to reduce voice and data call costs, and high-def video conferencing technology enabled by Cisco.  Mark this down as one of the first and bigger deployments of femto/picocell technology in the enterprise. There's also going to be IP video broadcasts of staff training and customer in-store information kiosks.

For more:
- Computerweekly.com Tesco signs Cable and Wireless [2] for network £100m deal
- ITpro coverage of Tesco [3] signing Cable & Wireless in £100 million IT deal

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Orange to enable C&W FMC picocell service [5]