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5th May 2005:
Demon
THUS deploys
MPLS VoIP enabled network for ScottishPower’s converged call centre
connectivity connectivity
THUS plc today announced that it is
connecting ScottishPower to its advanced IP-based MPLS core network. The
network will provide the backbone for ScottishPower’s voice and data
services carrying VoIP traffic between five ScottishPower locations at
Cathcart, Falkirk, Warrington, Wrexham and Caernafon, and IP data connectivity
between all sites and Kirkintilloch in Scotland.
As a leading
international energy business, ScottishPower required an integrated, resilient
and transparent network infrastructure that would support continued evolution
of the business, and allow ScottishPower to reduce risk and ensure maximum
return on investment. ScottishPower’s IT Business Services (ITBS) had a
requirement to provide voice links between its new call centre switches and
chose to facilitate this requirement by making a strategic decision to move
onto THUS’s MPLS network providing them with VoIP capability. The solution
is currently being deployed and will carry voice and data traffic on an
any-to-any basis across a secure and dedicated IP VPN. Each connected call
centre site will be directly connected to the MPLS network using resilient
Ethernet links.
“The MPLS network will bring a number of immediate
benefits to ScottishPower including reducing the number of links required to
each site. The ITBS team will have access to online tools to monitor, in
real-time, the actual traffic usage on each link, enabling us to forecast
bandwidth requirements in the future,” said Jim McEwan head of ITBS at
ScottishPower. “THUS provides ScottishPower with appropriate solutions to
meet our overall networking needs and stringent quality of service
requirements. Through our relationship with THUS, ScottishPower is now starting
to experience the benefits of technologies such as Ethernet connectivity over a
wide area network and use LAN extension services, MPLS and Voice over IP for
our call centre applications.”
When using a single IP network the
separation of voice and data traffic is achieved by using defined Class of
Service (CoS) metrics rather than using physical links to differentiate the
services. Integration of voice and data services into a single packet-based
infrastructure using IP requires the careful planning and implementation of a
Quality of Service (QoS) strategy for the underlying network infrastructure.
THUS has full operational responsibility for ScottishPower’s networks and
has clearly defined service level agreements with ITBS.
Phil Male,
Chief Operating Officer at THUS plc, explained: “As the requirements for
business success continue to evolve, network and IT infrastructures must evolve
with them. Greater security, mission-critical application availability,
simplification and increased transparency are all challenges that Scottish
Power’s ITBS must meet to remain competitive and at the forefront of
telecommunications developments. Using MPLS to converge voice and data is the
most efficient way to accomplish all its objectives. When the network is fully
deployed ScottishPower will experience a streamlined communications network
that eases the logistical barriers that companies usually experience when they
have offices and call centres spread over a wide geographical
area.”
THUS has been providing ScottishPower with a fully managed
solution covering voice and data network services across all its UK sites for
the past six years. Following a rigorous open tender process, THUS was awarded
a £26m contract in September 2004 to continue to support
ScottishPower’s existing and future networking needs.
[Demon broadband]
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