Global investment company UBS Warburg has signed a $40m (£25.5m),
three-year deal to receive global data and IP network and voice
services from telecommunications company Cable &
Wireless.
The deal builds on an existing relationship between the companies.
Cable & Wireless already provides telecommunications services
to UBS Warburg around the world, and Cable & Wireless's Digital
Island division provides Web hosting services to the company.
Cable & Wireless will provide a package of voice and data
services, including Asynchronous Transfer Mode and frame-relay
networks, leased lines and Internet access to UBS Warburg's offices
in about 20 countries, mostly in North America, Europe and Asia.
Under the deal, Cable & Wireless will help UBS Warburg
streamline its use of telecommunication service providers to save
money, improve service and reduce the number of providers it now
uses. The system will be based on IP virtual private network
technology.
"We require a global provider that has the capability of meeting
our needs and ability to manage future growth," said Chris
Puetzfeld, managing director at UBS Warburg. "Cable & Wireless
offers network expertise and reliability from a single supplier
with good financial strength."
Doug Loewe, president of global enterprise markets at Cable &
Wireless, said telecommunications customers are not looking merely
for one vendor because of concerns about business continuity in
case their providers face problems. They are looking for reliable
and economically stable business partners that continue to roll out
new services that can help their businesses, he said.
"They have true global connectivity needs," Loewe said, referring
to UBS Warburg. In the past, financial services companies would
have to build and maintain their own costly global communications
networks because vendors had not filled the marketplace, he said.
But that has now changed.
"They can concentrate on banking, and we can concentrate on the
network," Loewe said.