BT goes Latin with Comsat buy

BT is reinforcing its global ambitions with the purchase of Latin American data communications specialist Comsat International.

Comsat sells networking services to enterprises in South America. It has 700 staff and 2,000 enterprise, government and service-provider customers and operates in more than 15 countries.

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BT said it snapped up Comsat in order to expand its international presence and tap into the trend for globalisation.

BT declined to give a figure for the deal but some reports have put the sum at around $100m.

François Barrault, president of BT International, said the acquisition will help the telco expand its 21CN offerings internationally and "significantly enhances BT's position in the increasingly important Latin American market".

The acquisition will see the telco ramp up massively, from around 100 staff in the region to some 800.

BT has been on something of a buying spree of late as it aims to expand its worldwide business. Notable international acquisitions for the telco in the last couple of years include North American consultants INS, Counterpane Security and Indian IT specialist i2i.

The telco has recently highlighted the importance of growing overseas. In September last year, BT said it had plans to more than double its revenues in China, India, Japan and the US by 2008/09.