BT Helps Connect The De Beers Group

IRVING, Texas, June 3, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- BT has won a significant new contract with The De Beers Group of Companies.  The six-year agreement, worth US $37m, sees BT orchestrate a wide range of IT services across 70 De Beers Group sites, including exploration and mining locations across the world. 

Established in 1888, De Beers is the world's leading diamond company. Its diamond exploration, mining and marketing operations directly or indirectly employ more than 20,000 people globally.

De Beers and BT teams are bringing together a full range of BT Connect networking technologies including fiber, microwave and satellite. These will give De Beers staff, whether they are located in the frozen Northwest Territories of Canada, the Bushveld regions of southern Africa or the cites of Europe, Middle East and Asia, access to business applications and data storage as well as voice and conferencing services.

BT is also helping De Beers to tune its network to its business needs.  BT Connect Accelerate allows De Beers to prioritize its critical business applications accessed across its global network to ensure a better and more productive user experience for all employees.

BT One high-definition video conferencing is a crucial application for De Beers. As many of its sites are remote, travel is expensive and time consuming.  Furthermore, it is important that De Beers can extend the reach of its experts wherever they may be, allowing them to work effectively with its global workforce.

Craig Charlton, CIO, De Beers Group of Companies, said: "Whether it's connecting our mining assets or our global distribution network, we need a partner with a strong track record.  Using BT's network will better connect our global operations."

Luis Alvarez, chief executive officer, BT Global Services, said: "IT has become an art as much as a science.  We're working together with De Beers to orchestrate people, applications and systems around highly-tuned intelligent networks to deliver the best performance at the most competitive cost." 

"BT networks will bring together all De Beers sites whether they're in the frozen north of Canada, which can only be reached in person for three months of the year, or the far reaches of Botswana.  This is a master-class in the art of connecting, all designed to deliver stunning business outcomes."

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Notes to editors
BT is drawing on the full suite of its BT Connect portfolio to provide De Beers with fibre, microwave and satellite linkages, as well as BT Web virtual private networking for internet access and backup.  BT will also manage video and audio-conferencing services; BT One Voice telephony, a telehousing service from BT's Dublin data centre; and a 24-hour network operations centre in Durban, South Africa.

About The De Beers Group of Companies
De Beers is a member of the Anglo American group. Established in 1888, De Beers is the world's leading diamond company with unrivalled expertise in the exploration, mining and marketing of diamonds. Together with its joint venture partners, De Beers employs more than 20,000 people (directly and as contractors) across the diamond pipeline, and is the world's largest diamond producer by value, with mining operations in Botswana, Canada, Namibia and South Africa. As part of the company's operating philosophy, the people of De Beers are committed to Living up to Diamonds by making a lasting contribution to the communities in which they live and work, and transforming natural resources into shared national wealth. For further information about De Beers visit www.debeersgroup.com.

About BT
BT is one of the world's leading providers of communications services and solutions, serving customers in more than 170 countries. Its principal activities include the provision of networked IT services globally; local, national and international telecommunications services to its customers for use at home, at work and on the move; broadband, TV and internet products and services; and converged fixed/mobile products and services. BT consists principally of five lines of business: BT Global Services, BT Business, BT Consumer, BT Wholesale and Openreach.

For the year ended 31 March 2014, BT Group's reported revenue was £18,287m with reported profit before taxation of £2,312m.

British Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group plc and encompasses virtually all businesses and assets of the BT Group. BT Group plc is listed on stock exchanges in London and New York. 

For more information, visit www.btplc.com.

SOURCE BT