Edinburgh in multi-million deal with BT

The City of Edinburgh Council had signed a £3.2 million, three year deal for fixed rate telephony with BT.

The network will run on the BT Hosted Voice platform providing the city with a virtual private telephone network to all of the council's sites, and will give the council fixed rate tariffs for all calls, whether national, international or mobile, with the exception of 118 directory services.

The local authority estimates the network would save the city £250,000 per year, a saving of 25 percent.

City of Edinburgh Council convenor of finance councillor, Gordon Mackenzie, said: “It will deliver immediate savings through a fixed price for all of our calls, and give us the vital management information we need to move towards a future with all calls and data sharing a single high speed network.”

The contract broadens an existing 15-year strategic partnership with BT from ICT to telephony. The partnership has already brought more than £22.3 million in efficiency savings to the council, roughly £9 per council taxpayer each year.