Supermarket chain taps AT&T VoIP

AT&T won a deal to transition the Food Lion chain of grocery stores to a managed VoIP system. Food Lion has 1,300 stores throughout 11 states in the United States, headquarters in Salisbury, N.C., and a parent corporation in Brussels, Belgium. The move to VoIP will substantially diminish the cost of the division's transatlantic communications.

The project encompasses a 1,500-phone private branch exchange that AT&T will migrate to a VoIP platform with unified messaging and other features. The move represents the initial phase of developing a completely converged communications environment. The financial terms of the deal have not yet emerged.

The Food Lion VoIP conversion is the third such transition of an extensive traditional phone system in recent months. General Dynamics secured an $18.4 million contract with the Pentagon last April, and Nortel won a $300 million deal to outfit the U.S. Social Security Administration last month. One might reasonably conclude that a domino effect is in motion.

For More:
- The official skinny from AT&T is here 

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