Plus: Powell urges VoIP providers to forge on; and industry consolidation continues!
Reuters Group has awarded BT Group a worldwide network services outsourcing contract valued at $3 billion over eight-and-a-half years. Reuters is also selling its Radianz unit, a provider of network connectivity to the financial services industry, to BT for $175 million. BT said the acquisition of Radianz fits strategically into its transformation into a global provider of networked IT services. (Read the story)
Outgoing FCC Chairman Michael Powell urged VoIP equipment vendors and service providers to keep pressing for regulatory changes. Despite the market-friendly decisions passed during Powell’s seven-year tenure, vendors and service providers still have work to do on upcoming FCC rulings. Powell said the government still needs an effective way to legally wiretap VoIP calls, and the industry needs to figure out how to pay into the universal service fund. “I’m pretty confident you don’t want [regulators] doing it for you,” he said. (Read the story)
Telecom consolidation continues… Netifice Communications is acquiring Aventail’s Managed Secure Sockets Layer VPN Services business unit, including all 120 customers, 85 employees and network assets. Aventail also has a healthy wholesale business: AT&T, BT Spain, IBM Global Services, Infonet, MCI and Sprint all resell the company’s Managed SSL VPN Services. Aventail says it’s selling its service business to squarely focus on its equipment business — the deal includes a four-year agreement between the companies in which Aventail will supply its SSL gear to Netifice. (Read the story)
