C&W secures £8m Group 4 outsourcing deal

Cable & Wireless has won an £8m communications-outsourcing deal with Global Solutions Limited, which is a subsidiary of Group 4 security.

The five-year deal is an extension of an existing three-year contract that was signed in 2001.

C&W will continue to manage the communications infrastructure for GSL, including voice, VPN, fixed-to-mobile integration, managed data network, remote access, internet access and managed PBX services as well as additional security services such as managed firewall, antivirus protection and disaster recovery.

Global Solutions business includes the running of prisons, young offenders' institutes, the transport of hospital patients and even the building and servicing of the new GCHQ. The C&W deal will cover GSL's operations over 30 locations.

Phil Bannister, business systems manager at GSL, told silicon.com that the security services were previously handled by a different supplier.

"We are consolidating and there is a trend to rationalise the number of suppliers," he said. "We have the benefit now of an end-to-end service from security to the network that connects us to the outside world."