Mitel bags largest ever IP phone deal - in France

French retailer Auchan has signed a multimillion euro deal with Mitel for the supply of IP phone handsets and infrastructure.

Its agreement to buy 40,000 terminals - including 10,000 DECT models for on-site wireless calls - is thought to be the largest contract yet for IP phones. Precise financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

Jerome Galerne, Auchan project manager, told silicon.com that "technically the [IP phone] solution is mature" from many manufacturers but that Mitel was chosen mainly for pitching in cahoots with systems integrator AMEC SPIE Communications.

IP phones don't use the circuit-switched approach of older telephone systems that use a switchboard and lines separate to IT networks, meaning they allow converged communications, greater flexibility and typically lower running costs.

Galerne said that at the end of 2002 Auchan started a tendering process that ended in the choice of Mitel, a new supplier, but that it had been testing IP phone systems at two sites since 2001. He added that functionality can be increased gradually but that "maybe in five or six years another big bang [upgrade] will be needed".

For now, Mitel 3300 Integrated Communications Platform (ICP) will be at the centre of the supermarket chain's approach.

Mitel has recently made IP phone gains in healthcare, hospitality, local government and especially retail, where other customers include House of Fraser and CompUSA. Businesses in retail that have many sites - Auchan has 250 in France - can benefit greatly from IP because the technology can connect a spread-out network of locations.