[27 MAY 99] MARCONI
COMMUNICATIONS PRESS RELEASE
NTL Sign £15m Deal With MarconiNTL, the
rapidly expanding provider of communications and entertainment services to business and
domestic users, has signed an eight-year deal with Marconi Communications of Coventry to
support key parts of its network.
The support package covers the installation, management and
maintenance of a systems portfolio which currently includes 20 Marconi System X exchanges,
critical elements of NTL's Coventry-built SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) transmission
network, over 10,000 flexible access multiplexers, and several management systems. Before
signing the new deal, NTL had a portfolio of one-year support programmes.
The new arrangement gives NTL a single contact number and
escalation procedure and a service level agreement which specifies call out and repair
deadlines. Tough penalty clauses kick in if Marconi Communications falls to hit any of the
specified targets.
Marconi Communications will now manage NTL's key resources
from its Coventry site and report straight into NTL's national control centre in
Winchester.
Engineers can resolve many issues over the line from
Coventry and can also send out rapid-response teams from Coventry and a large number of
regional centres.
Welcoming the agreement, Colin Whitbread, NTL's group
director network management centre, said:
"The new arrangement gives us the optimum level of
support while controlling our costs. We are expanding rapidly at the moment in both the
business and domestic markets and it's vital that we can assure all our customers of the
highest levels of reliability."
NTL has recently taken over several cable franchises,
including ComCast Teeside, ComTel, Cambridge Cable and Diamond Cable.
Marconi Communications Coventry-based director of UK
business Kevin Hourigan, said:
"We believe that this kind of long-term support
package is the best possible option for Marconi Communications and its partners, allowing
us to confidently guarantee the highest levels of service to companies whose own customers
are equally demanding."
Marconi Communications is a world leader in smart broadband
transmission, access equipment and network integration. It has sales to more than 140
countries, a major presence in the United Kingdom, the USA, Italy and South Africa and is
wholly owned by GEC, a global manufacturer of intelligent electronic systems.
NOTES
NTL Incorporated is a leading alternative
telecommunications company, owning and operating one of only five independent national
telecommunications networks in the UK. It offers national business telecommunications,
national and international carrier telecommunications services, plus satellite and radio
communications services. Through its local telecommunications division, NTL offers
residential telephony, residential cable TV and Internet services over advanced broadband
fibre networks in six franchise areas in the UK. Its broadcast services division operates
a national broadcast transmission network of over 1,200 owned and shared transmission
sites and offers digital and analogue broadcast transmission services to major TV and
radio stations nationwide.
MORE INFORMATION:
Marconi
Communications Press Office 0115 906 4687
|
