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BT awards and praise
BT IP Exchange voted "most innovative VoIP product of the year"
ITSPA - the UK's industry body for internet telephony Service Providers - has voted BT Wholesale's IP Exchange ITSPA - the UK's industry body for internet telephony Service Providers - has voted BT Wholesale’s IP Exchange "the most innovative VOIP product of the year".
The award was made at a ceremony at the House of Lords on 10 December 2009. It followed a month of rigorous independent testing by ITSPA of all the products entered for their 2009 competition to check robustness and stability.
Lee Hollis, BT Wholesale's Head of Product Management (IP Interoperability) comments: "It's great to receive this public recognition of a product we're really proud of. It's a costly and complex task to deliver IP interoperability. IP Exchange takes the pain away for VoIP Service Providers by letting them 'pay as you grow'. It saves them from having to make capital investments ahead of knowing how fast they will grow. And it spares them the hassle of negotiating and managing agreements with literally hundreds of network providers."
The IP Exchange platform is the ideal solution for Providers who have their own soft switch but who need a high-quality, carrier-grade VoIP or TDM gateway to deliver calls to fixed line, mobile and next generation network numbers as 'native VoIP'.
And it's proved a winning proposition for BT Wholesale customers, with many new ones signing up for IP Exchange every month. Among them is VoIP Unlimited, a company that helps IT and telephony dealers to provide VoIP services to their small and medium-size business customers.
They've made IP Exchange the heart of their offering. VoIP calls are delivered over their own BT Wholesale broadband interconnect to the VoIP Unlimited core network and then routed on via IP Exchange via their Session Border Controllers. Build or buy was an easy decision. "Speed to market was crucial" says VoIP Unlimited Sales Director Steve Bieniek. "We didn't want to invest in legacy TDM technology. We wanted to do what we’re best at and buy the rest in."
Call quality, reliability, up-time and level of support were key influencers in VoIP Unlimited's choice of IP Exchange. "A lot of people can do VoIP but not many can do it well" Steve continues. "Our customers operate 24/7 and phone service is business critical. We partnered with BT Wholesale because they support our product quality standards."
BT Global Telecom Markets (GTM) is in final discussions with its first customer, a mobile operator in North Africa who plans to launch the service early in 2010. This will guarantee that mobile calls with VoIP signalling over 3G networks can be onward routed to many other mobile or fixed networks without the need to transcode to TDM and the associated loss of quality.
From the importance placed on IP Exchange by mobile operators and evidence from fixed operators in the UK and elsewhere it is clear that the move from TDM to VoIP is accelerating. IP Exchange has moved beyond concept to reality. BT has committed investment to grow capacity to reflect demand and is establishing a second IP Exchange platform in Germany.
For more information about interoperability with BT, see "Oscar’s outlook" by GTM President Oscar Ruiz and the article "Interoperability supports successful business models for IP" in this issue of Global Telecom News. You can also contact your account manager or write to globaltelecomnews@bt.com
In two awards competitions BT is top for customer care
BT has once again proven to be the best in customer service by winning the best customer service award at Telecoms World Middle East and the best customer care award at the annual World Communication Awards (WCA) in 2009
BT has won the prestigious Telecoms World Middle East 2009 award for Best Customer Service.
 According to the organisers of the award, the panel of judges in this specific category examined evidence of a well designed and successfully implemented customer care strategy that has produced tangible and quantifiable results.
In particular, the panel looked at pro-active and pervasive customer care culture, application of technology to reinforce customer relationships as well as future plans to improve or enhance the standard of service to customers.
The Telecoms World Awards Middle East event, running for the third year, is organized by a business media and events agency Terrapinn.
Olivier Campenon, BT President E*MEA1, BT Global Services, said: "At BT, we put customers at the heart of everything we do and I am delighted by this recognition of our efforts. While each award provides an opportunity for reflection, it also adds new impetus to our continuous drive to become the industry’s number one in customer service excellence."
BT has consistently been recognised as a global leader for the quality of service it delivers to companies and public sector organisations across the world. Over the past couple of years, BT's focus on customer service has been acknowledged by such prestigious industry awards as a Diamond Award by Telemark in 2009, Frost & Sullivan's Customer Value Enhancement Award in 2008 and the World Communication Award for Best Customer Service in 2009 and 2007, as well as the Bathwick Group's ranking of BT as number one for customer innovation in 2009.
1E*MEA includes Switzerland, Nordics, Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, the Middle East and Africa.
BT has won the best customer care award at the annual World Communication Awards (WCA).
 The pan-BT entry beat off strong competition to secure the accolade at the awards ceremony at London’s Park Lane Hilton Hotel.
BT's 21st century customer experience managing director Mike Galvin, who leads the pan-BT Right First Time (RFT) programme, said: "BT's focus on delivering excellent service, measured by getting things RFT, was at the heart of the award-winning entry.
"The breadth of the programme spanning all customers - including consumers at home, communications providers and global corporate companies - impressed the judges, particularly through demonstrating how all business units are working together for the benefit of our customers."
The WCA congratulated BT on mobilising its entire business behind improving customer service and pointed to the clear examples of service improvement as key to influencing its decision.
Mike, who was presented with the award on behalf of BT, added: "It’s excellent that BT has been recognised externally for our focus on improving customer service.
"I'm delighted for everyone in our business involved in RFT programmes and I hope that this award gives us even more impetus to continue improving and deliver an even better performance for customers this year."
The best customer care category is one of the biggest and most highly contested. BT won the award in 2007, having been highly commended in 2006.
The awards recognise companies and individuals responsible for the innovations, achievements and new services that are helping to build tomorrow's industry.
If you're interested in reading more about BT's customer care initiatives and offerings, see the articles "Collaboration with communications provider brings success in BT hub" and "BT Next Generation Contact Centre: helping you enhance the customer experience" in this issue of Global Telecom News.
Industry award for Luis Alvarez
 Spain has awarded Luis Alvarez, President of BTGS Enterprises, the highest accolade for his contribution to engineering.
The country's Official College of Telecommunication Engineers (COIT) and the Spanish Association of Telecommunication Engineers (AEOT) awarded the title of Engineer of the Year 2009 to BT Global Services' president for BTGS Enterprises. (BTGS Enterprises includes BT Global Telecom Markets.)
COIT and AEIT chose Luis for his "complete and brilliant" professional career as a telecommunications engineer.
A senior member of COIT, Francisco Mellado Garcia, said: "We wanted to acknowledge [the] professional profile of a complete engineer - a great expert in different technical and management environments in many diverse geographic areas across the world."
The award was launched by COIT and AEIT in 1982 to recognise the personal and professional progression of the winner. The jury comprised members of the board of governors at COIT and the board of directors at AEIT.
Luis said: "It is always an honour to receive an award like this - even more so when it comes from your peers and is for your whole career. Personally, it is a special award because my father is also a telecoms engineer - and my wife and I have two older sons studying the subject at university. I feel it is also a recognition for BT, which has given me the opportunity to develop my career and be recognised with this prestigious award."
BT wins green award
BT rated top company in Northern Ireland for corporate environmental management and performance
BT scored a double success after being rated the top company in Northern Ireland for corporate environmental management and performance.
It comes after the business was recently named Northern Ireland's most responsible company for its corporate responsibility programme.
The latest accolade has come in the 11th ARENA Network Environmental Benchmarking Survey, which assesses how businesses integrate environmental management and best practice, demonstrate business benefits and engage their people.
Carmel O'Connor, head of corporate responsibility for BT Ireland, said: "The survey was conducted across 15 sectors and included 139 companies in total. BT was one of nine companies this year to receive platinum status and retain the top spot in our sector.
"This is great recognition for the hard work of all our team on the Ireland environment committee."
Business in the Community's ARENA Network is an independent organisation providing practical support on environment, waste and sustainability on a not-for-profit basis.
ARENA Network Chairman Peter Dixon said "The results indicate that organisations are integrating environmental objectives into business operations and taking the green path to improving performance."
Northern Ireland environment minister Edwin Poots said: "Resilient organisations have taken steps to improve their resource efficiency and minimise their environmental impacts. This puts them in a better position to capitalise on an economic recovery."
About BT
BT is one of the world's leading providers of communications solutions and services operating in 170 countries. Its principal activities include the provision of networked IT services globally; local, national and international telecommunications services to our customers for use at home, at work and on the move; broadband and internet products and services and converged fixed/mobile products and services. BT consists principally of four lines of business: BT Global Services, Openreach, BT Retail and BT Wholesale.
In the year ended 31 March 2009, BT Group’s revenue was £21,390 million.
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.bt.com/aboutbt
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