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BT Group and Verizon to form joint venture, creating a scaled international connectivity platform for multinational customers

Mon, 29 Jun 2026 07:00:00 +0100

BT Group and Verizon agree to combine their respective international operations in a 50:50 joint venture, creating a new company focused on multinational connectivity.
The joint venture will serve more than 3,000 customers across more than 180 countries, representing approx. $4 billion in combined annual revenue.
The combination of international networking businesses creates a future-ready, scaled organisation underpinned by a new platform designed for the age of cloud and AI.
Martijn Blanken is appointed Chief Executive Officer-designate of the new joint venture, conditional on completion of the transaction.
The transaction is expected to complete in 2027, subject to regulatory clearances and other customary closing conditions.

LONDON and NEW YORK, 29 June 2026: BT Group (BT) and Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ) today announced the signing of an agreement to combine their respective international enterprise operations into a 50:50 joint venture – in a move that is set to transform international connectivity.

The new joint venture will focus on serving multinational organisations. It is expected to serve more than 3,000 customers across more than 180 countries, representing approximately $4 billion in combined annual revenue. This breadth of operations will unlock significant scale efficiencies across the combined global network and service operations following completion.

Designed specifically for a cloud-first world in the age of AI, the joint venture brings together BT International, which serves multinational customers with secure and resilient communication and network services around the world, with Verizon’s international enterprise wireline arm, which provides secure connectivity to enterprises worldwide. Both BT and Verizon will hold equal voting rights and Verizon has agreed to pay BT an equalisation payment of $625 million.

By combining global scale with infrastructure designed and built to support local compliance and sovereignty needs, the joint venture will create a stronger platform for growth and accelerate the rollout of next-generation connectivity platforms. Customers will benefit from secure and resilient connectivity designed to meet data, operational and regulatory requirements.

At the same time, the parent companies will be better able to focus on their domestic markets, while providing support to the new joint venture as equal shareholders.

BT and Verizon have also today confirmed that Martijn Blanken has been appointed Chief Executive Officer-designate of the new joint venture, conditional on the completion of the transaction. Martijn has almost three decades in senior leadership positions across telecommunications, technology and digital infrastructure at Telstra, Openwave Systems, EXA Infrastructure and KPN, and a career spanning four continents. From 01 September he will join BT and will work with both parent companies, while observing relevant regulatory requirements, as they prepare for the launch of the proposed joint venture.

Clive Selley will continue to lead BT International as CEO, ensuring continuity of BT International’s ongoing transformation in readiness for the creation of the joint venture. Verizon’s leadership remains unchanged.

Allison Kirkby, Chief Executive of BT Group, said: “The world’s leading brands and international organisations trust BT International to connect them across the world. Bringing together this expertise and heritage with Verizon’s deep relationships with multinationals will create a stronger, scaled connectivity partner – one that has the reach, innovation and investment to succeed. Customers will benefit from new, secure and resilient connectivity platforms, which are designed for the age of AI and sovereign where it matters. It will create new opportunities for our people and long-term value for our owners. Today’s announcement marks a major milestone for BT International, and an important step forward for BT as a whole, as we deliver on our UK-focused strategy.”

Dan Schulman, CEO of Verizon, said: "Our international customers require secure, flexible connectivity that works seamlessly across borders and cloud environments. When we thought about how to best support them, this joint venture was the clear answer: a cutting-edge, AI-ready and secure platform run by a single global organization dedicated to their needs. At the same time, our relationship with those customers will stay equally strong as we continue to directly provide them with the connectivity they need in the U.S."

The transaction is subject to regulatory clearances and consultation with employee representations in countries where required. BT and Verizon’s international businesses will continue to operate independently until the transaction officially closes with a full commitment to their respective customers.

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Additional information

The new joint venture will be incorporated in the Bailiwick of Jersey and headquartered and tax resident in the United Kingdom.
On completion of the transaction, the new joint venture will establish commercial relationships with both BT and Verizon – providing a seamless, end-to-end service across borders including for our customers in the UK (BT) and the US (Verizon).
Goldman Sachs acted as lead financial advisor to BT, with Deloitte as transaction services advisors and Freshfields LLP as legal counsel. Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC acted as financial advisors to Verizon and Kirkland & Ellis LLP acted as legal counsel.

BT International simplifies enterprise communication with the launch of UC Edge

Wed, 13 May 2026 08:00:00 +0100

New single voice communication layer reduces complexity and costs for multinational organisations as they evolve their AI-powered workplace collaboration strategies.

BT International today announced the launch of UC Edge, a new managed service that gives multinational organisations’ CIOs a simpler, more flexible solution to manage their rapidly evolving AI-powered workplace collaboration strategies.

Many multinational organisations rely on a patchwork of collaboration solutions inherited through mergers and acquisitions or selected to meet different regional business needs, including sovereignty — be that data sovereignty, operational sovereignty or technical sovereignty. This mix of technologies can slow down transformation, increase costs and leave IT teams wrestling with complex, overlapping systems.

Now live, with initial customer deployments in highly regulated industries, UC Edge cuts through all of that. It lets organisations add or change AI-powered collaboration solutions and platforms quickly without restarting procurement or rebuilding compliant voice services.

An expansion of BT International’s Global Voice platform, it brings voice, collaboration and number management into one, vendor agnostic service. It works seamlessly across collaboration platforms, contact centre solutions and SIP services. IT teams can tailor the experience for each user, team or country while managing all their collaboration services through a single model.

Built as a single global communication layer, UC Edge’s intelligent voice routing automatically directs calls to the correct platform — no manual number alignment, no portal changes, no routing requests. IT teams can also move users between platforms with zero disruption and far less operational effort.

Denise Lund, IDC Research vice president worldwide UC&C and telecom, said: “As multinational organisations modernise their communications, they increasingly demand the flexibility to adopt best-of-breed and vendor-agnostic collaboration solutions that align with diverse business and regulatory needs. BT International’s UC Edge empowers enterprises to seamlessly integrate and manage multiple platforms, reducing complexity while enabling choice and agility.”

Matt Swinden, managing director of strategy & product at BT International, said: “Many multinationals are juggling legacy collaboration platforms, regional needs or simple user preference. With UC Edge, customers get one contract, one commercial model and one global product delivered seamlessly — giving them the freedom to use the platforms they want without the integration burden. So, when users ask: ‘Can we talk?’ the answer will always be ‘Yes!’”

ENDS

Notes to editors

BT International’s Global Voice platform
BT International’s Global Voice platform carries more than 16 billion calls a year across 70+ countries, integrating with leading collaboration solutions. As a SIP‑powered, cloud-first platform, it provides a strong foundation for future voice-and-AI innovations.

Key features of UC Edge

One global product for all voice and collaboration services — reduce vendor sprawl and hidden costs with one partner, one contract and one global commercial model
Enable sovereignty, compliance and regulatory alignment across every market without having to manage it market-by-market
Strengthen resilience and business continuity with a globally consistent voice layer
Modernise without lock in, supporting multi-vendor environments and protects for future change
Bring new sites and users online in minutes, not months
Learns and routes new numbers automatically through intelligent routing

Sovereignty

Data sovereignty ensures data is governed by the laws of the jurisdiction in which it was generated, with clarity over where it is stored and processed. Operational sovereignty relates to how services are run, including who operates them, from where, and under what governance and accreditation. Technical sovereignty is about long-term control and resilience, including the ability to operate, adapt and remain secure without undue dependency.

BT Group announces leadership succession within Openreach and BT International

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 07:00:00 +0000

BT Group today announces leadership succession within Openreach and BT International.

Katie Milligan, currently Deputy CEO of Openreach, will become CEO, Openreach on 01 April 2026. She succeeds Clive Selley, who will become CEO of BT International. He succeeds Bas Burger who has decided the time is right for him to leave BT after 18 years of service, including nine years on the Executive Committee, also on 01 April 2026.

Allison Kirkby, BT Group Chief Executive, said:

“Openreach is a critical national asset - the digital backbone of the UK - and a key driver of BT Group’s long‑term value. Its talented team, disciplined execution and customer focus continues to strengthen our position as the UK’s most trusted connector. Katie has helped shape that success. Her deep industry experience, strong people leadership and sharp operational instincts make her the right leader to take Openreach forward.”

“Clive’s contribution at the helm of Openreach has been exceptional. His leadership - particularly the scale, pace and quality of the full fibre broadband build, has set new standards for our industry. We are deeply grateful for the commitment, expertise and integrity he has brought to the role. Clive’s lasting legacy is a world-class digital infrastructure that will serve the UK for generations to come.”

“Clive is also the best person to lead BT International forward as a next generation, global telco platform business. No one has more experience building complex modern day infrastructure and supporting customers at scale in their digital transition. I’m delighted he’s staying within BT Group and look forward to working together with him in his new role.”

“I’d like to thank Bas for all that he’s done for us over the past 18 years, including leading Global, BT Business and, most recently, successfully carving out BT International as a standalone unit. He has laid the foundations and strategy for a more focussed, responsive platform business for our customers outside of the UK, ready to scale and grow with the help of next generation technologies.”

“Together these changes strengthen BT Group’s leadership for the next chapter – giving Openreach continued commercial and customer momentum in the UK, and speeding up the transformation of BT International.”

To read Openreach’s announcement on its leadership succession, see here https://www.openreach.com/news/katie-milligan-appointed-next-ceo-of-openreach/

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Katie Milligan biography

Katie Milligan is Deputy Chief Executive of Openreach, the UK’s largest digital infrastructure provider and the engine behind the nation’s Full Fibre upgrade.

She has been instrumental in Openreach’s return to revenue and EBITDA growth and reshaped the company’s commercial strategy through major product and pricing innovations. This included landmark wholesale pricing agreements such as Equinox and 112 – and she has strengthened long-term partnerships with hundreds of communications providers across the UK.

Katie joined BT Group in 2004 on its graduate programme, developing deep commercial and operational expertise across a range of senior leadership roles. She then moved to Openreach in 2009 and has held positions including Commercial Director and Chief Commercial Officer.

Clive Selley biography

Clive Selley leads Openreach, the UK’s biggest digital infrastructure provider. He’s responsible for the nationwide full fibre build that’s transforming how people live, work and stay connected.

Since 2016, Clive has driven one of the fastest broadband upgrades in Europe, taking full fibre past more than 22 million homes and businesses and helping shape the UK’s digital future. His focus on engineering excellence, innovation and skills has helped Openreach create the UK’s first fully fibre city and build one of the largest engineering workforces in the country.

Clive has spent more than three decades in telecoms, previously leading BT’s technology division and major network transformation programmes. He was awarded a CBE for his leadership during the Covid-19 pandemic and serves as Honorary Colonel of 81 Signal Squadron.

BT completes sale of its Radianz business to TNS

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 11:00:00 +0000

BT today announced that it has completed the sale of its Radianz business to Transaction Network Services (TNS).

The transaction, first announced on 2 September 2025, and cleared by the relevant regulatory authorities, aligns with BT International’s strategy to become a global leader in secure multi-cloud connectivity through sharpened focus on core products and services.

Launched over 20 years ago, Radianz provides financial information exchange networks and connects a global community of brokers, institutions, exchanges and clearing and settlement houses to the thousands of applications and services they need for the everyday running of the world’s capital markets.

TNS is a global provider of ultra-low latency trading infrastructure, connectivity and market data services.

Bas Burger, CEO of BT International, said: “Today’s announcement is another key milestone in focusing our international business on what it does best: providing secure multi-cloud connectivity to large organisations globally. Our Radianz business unit will enter a new era with TNS and we are confident that TNS will continue to deliver exceptional service to customers.”

Evercore served as financial advisers to TNS and Jones Day served as legal advisers to TNS. Citi served as financial advisers to BT and Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner served as legal advisers to BT.

ENDS

BT completes the sale of its BT Federal unit to 22nd Century Technologies

Tue, 06 Jan 2026 13:00:00 +0000

Sale of the specialised unit serving US federal institutions part of BT’s strategic focus on UK and transformation of its international unit

BT and 22nd Century Technologies, Inc. (TSCTI) today announced completion of the sale of BT Federal Inc., BT’s US government contracting subsidiary, to TSCTI. BT Federal will now operate as 22nd Century Networks, a wholly owned subsidiary of TSCTI.

The transaction expands TSCTI’s managed network services capabilities, including coverage across all 50 states, with BT Federal’s deep telecommunications and networking expertise. The new 22^nd Century Networks unit delivers fully integrated solutions “from enterprise to edge” under a single, interoperable platform – enabling organisations to modernise legacy environments, integrate across domains, and execute missions securely.

For BT, this sale marks another milestone as it simplifies its portfolio and pursues a more UK-focused strategy. It also allows BT International, now a standalone unit, to build on its unique position in the market as it serves the needs of multinational customers and aims to become a global leader in secure multi-cloud connectivity. BT International will continue to have a strong presence in the US with regional offices and employees based in New York, Dallas and Reston.

“This marks a transformational moment for our company and the missions we serve – strengthening our ability to deliver future-ready, cyber-secure network solutions our government partners rely on,” said Anil Sharma, Chief Executive Officer of 22nd Century Technologies.

“With 22nd Century Networks, we are advancing digital modernisation while also securing the network layer that underpins our nation’s most critical operations across the Department of War, Department of Justice and Department of State. By delivering secure, sovereign infrastructure engineered for Zero Trust, interoperability and mission continuity in any environment, we are deepening our commitment to protecting the people, systems, and missions that keep our nation safe.”

“This acquisition is a growth catalyst for us, our customers, and the agencies we have yet to serve,” said Satvinder Singh, President of 22nd Century Technologies. “The expansion of solutions and reach allows us to bring more innovation and reliability to a wider set of federal missions that depend on secure, high-performance network infrastructure.”

Bas Burger, CEO of BT International, said: “Today’s announcement is another milestone in delivering on our strategy to focus our international business on what it does best: providing secure multi-cloud connectivity to large organisations globally. Our BT Federal unit, which has been a leading provider of services to US federal agencies, will enter a new era with 22nd Century Technologies. We are confident that 22^nd Century Technologies will continue to build on the excellence and commitment of BT Federal to the US government sector.”

Both organisations are committed to ensuring a seamless transition for employees, customers and partners, with no immediate changes to ongoing operations.

The transaction was cleared by the US Federal Communications Commission.

ENDS

About 22nd Century Technologies, Inc. (TSCTI)

22nd Century Technologies, Inc. (TSCTI), founded in 1997, is a public-sector IT systems integrator with more than 6,000 professionals supporting over 500 contracts across DoD, federal civilian, state, and local agencies. With AI and innovation at its core, TSCTI delivers mission-critical solutions in Digital Transformation, Cloud Enablement, Cybersecurity, IT Infrastructure, and Enterprise Modernization. Learn more at www.tscti.com.

BT completes sale of its datacentre business in Ireland to Equinix

Mon, 03 Nov 2025 10:00:00 +0000

BT today announced that it has completed the sale of its datacentre business in Ireland to Equinix.

The transaction, first announced on 23 December 2024, and cleared by the Irish Competition and Consumer Protection Commission in August this year, reflects BT’s asset-light strategy internationally and, through partnering with globally scaled organisations, provides for a much more commercially scalable and flexible model.

Bas Burger, CEO of BT International, said: “We are delighted to conclude this successful transaction which represents the next step in our strategy to become a more agile and focused business. We look forward to our continued partnership with Equinix not only in Ireland, but globally.”

Following the completion of this transaction and an earlier divestment of the Irish wholesale and enterprise business unit in September, BT continues to maintain a strong presence in Ireland with over 300 colleagues serving multinational companies and large organisations. This team will also continue delivering the Emergency Call Answering Service. In Dublin, BT also employs over 100 experts in its global procurement unit, BT Sourced.

BT enters agreement with TNS for the sale of its Radianz business

Tue, 02 Sep 2025 17:00:03 +0100

BT and Transaction Network Services (TNS) today announced that TNS has agreed to acquire BT’s Radianz business. The transaction is expected to complete during the first half of 2026, subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory clearance.

TNS is a global provider of ultra-low latency trading infrastructure, connectivity and market data services.

The planned transaction aligns with BT's strategy to become a UK-focused national champion while exploring options to optimise its international business.

Phil Swindle, Managing Director, BT Radianz, added: "We are proud to have grown and transformed Radianz over the past years while delivering mission critical services to the financial markets community. I am confident that through this planned transaction the complementary strengths of both Radianz and TNS will unlock new opportunities, drive innovation and create sustainable growth for our existing and new customers."

“This is an exciting development for clients of both TNS and Radianz who will now have access to the combined suite of services in addition to our investments in new capabilities,” said Tom Lazenga, General Manager, TNS Financial Markets. “With a large global network of financial endpoints and our industry leading low latency platform, today’s news firmly cements TNS as the premier partner serving financial market participants globally.”

Evercore served as financial advisers to TNS and Jones Day served as legal advisers to TNS. Citi served as financial advisers to BT and Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner served as legal advisers to BT.

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Notes to editors

During the fiscal year 2024/25 the Radianz unit generated revenues of approx. £142 million.

BT completes the sale of its wholesale and enterprise business unit in Ireland to Speed Fibre Group

Mon, 01 Sep 2025 09:15:00 +0100

BT will retain a strong presence in the Irish market to deliver connectivity, cloud and security services to multinationals and large organisations

BT today announced that it has completed the sale of its Irish wholesale and enterprise business unit to Speed Fibre Group.

The transaction, first announced on 5 February 2025, has been cleared by the Irish the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission.

BT will maintain a strong presence in Ireland post divestment, with over 300 colleagues serving multinational companies and large organisations, and offices in Dublin and regionally. This team will also continue delivering the Emergency Call Answering Service. In Dublin, BT also employs over 100 experts in its global procurement unit, BT Sourced.

The transaction also includes a long-term agreement between BT and Speed Fibre Group to source connectivity for their respective customers from each other.

Bas Burger, CEO of BT International, said: “We are delighted to conclude this successful transaction which represents the next step in our strategy to become a more agile and focused business. We will continue to invest in this important market for our multinational customers to provide them with secure multi-cloud connectivity and deliver on our purpose to connect for good.”

BT was advised on the transaction by Citi, PWC, and Simmons & Simmons. Cordiant and Speed Fibre Group were advised by McCann Fizgerald, PwC, and Matheson.

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Scaling up to the international challenge

Mon, 02 Jun 2025 10:58:00 +0100

Today, we launch BT International, serving our multinational customers as a dedicated operation within BT Group with its own people, products and platforms.

It comes as our customers face unprecedented disruption across their markets driven by geopolitics, regulation and technology — with AI catalysing change faster than ever. We have designed BT International specifically to help our customers meet these challenges head on and anticipate future opportunities to thrive.

The way we do this centres on two highly scalable telco platforms designed for the age of multi-cloud and AI: Global Voice and Global Fabric, with security built in by design. We’ve channelled our investments into these cloud-centric global platforms and concentrated our expert teams where customers need them most.

From asset-light to platform-rich

We have evolved our ‘asset-light’ strategy for several years, designing our platforms to reflect the trends we see in customer traffic crossing our networks — from data flows to and between the big cloud providers to the emergence of hybrid cloud as a preferred model for many businesses. We see that AI has unpredictable impacts on our customers’ networks — from the lumpy, bulky training workloads of large language models (LLMs) powering GenAI to the low latency demands of conversational AI and augmented reality. These trends are set against the backdrop of a rapidly evolving cyber security threat landscape and a fast-moving regulatory environment.

Telecoms gets its voice back

Our Global Voice platform enables businesses, governments and the people they engage with to communicate with each other effortlessly. We’re already world leading in the global voice services market, managing over 16 billion calls to customer call centres in over 70 countries every year. We’ve migrated these services onto a new SIP-powered, cloud focussed platform enabling voice to be carried across data networks. SIP has been around for a while but the fact that Global Managed Voice is both SIP-powered and cloud-focused means that it’s perfectly poised to unlock the full potential of integrating voice with AI.

Indeed, Gartner predicts that 30 per cent of Fortune 500 companies will offer customer service through only a single, AI-enabled channel by 2028. I believe our Global Voice platform is strongly positioned to enable this, backed by our experts who have delivered over 5,000 contact centres to over 2,000 customers around the world.

Wrapping the world in Global Fabric

Next, we have Global Fabric, our brand-new, AI-ready, cloud-centric network-as-a-service (NaaS) platform. This offers customers instant, secure and resilient connectivity to practically every app or digital service they want, including the world’s top cloud and software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers. It launched to live customer traffic earlier this year and it is the platform that will help us achieve our goal to be the world’s number one provider of secure multi-cloud connectivity.

Global Fabric could have hardly arrived at a better time. We were one of the first telcos off the starting blocks with a truly greenfield international platform to eliminate the drag that the previous generation of networks had on customer innovation. With traditional networks, setting up or making changes to connectivity for a new or existing app, including AI, could take days or weeks. With Global Fabric, it happens in an instant.

Now think of the increasingly complex international regulatory environment. Technology and data have become geopolitical pawns. That means customers must double down on sovereignty, ensuring the right data stays within the right jurisdiction while enabling them to unlock its value to the business. With Global Fabric, customers can choose both the cloud destinations their data goes to and the route it takes along the way. This means regulated data never leaves the designated national borders and helps customers stay compliant.

Sharing a platform for success

Looking to the future of our industry, we believe international networks will gravitate towards fewer, larger, telco platforms able to manage the demand generated by increased cloud and AI services. We invite other service providers to work with BT International, as we build out our ecosystem of partners, including our recently announced partnership with Google Cloud, and scale fast so we can, as an industry, offer the best value to customers across the globe.

We’re at a pivotal moment as an industry. It is an opportunity to move away from fragmented legacy international networks to a platform designed with the reality of AI, cyber and cloud at its core, reflecting customers’ expectations of speed, security, sustainability, sovereignty and naturally the skills to support future growth and prosperity.

Driving ahead with Google Cloud

Thu, 10 Apr 2025 08:49:00 +0100

A century ago, the evolution of the car hit a bump in the road. Highways at the time couldn’t support high-speed motoring. Today, AI is facing a similar challenge. Find out how BT and Google Cloud are collaborating to release the brakes on customers’ AI plans.

When I talk to BT’s multinational customers, they say it’s the end of the road for legacy networks. Like motorists 100 years ago, they realise that slow is the new down.

The invention of the automobile was transformational. Mass-produced, affordable cars expanded people’s horizons and created new opportunities for business. As Carl Benz’s “Motorwagen” evolved into modern-day cars, performance outstripped the ability of roads to carry them. For the car to reach its full potential, new infrastructure was needed. Autobahns, interstate highways and motorways became the transportation backbone of the modern world.

A similar story is being written today, but instead of physical items like you and me, it’s about transporting AI workloads in the digital world — from locations such as Google Cloud data-centres all the way to users and devices, wherever they may be.

A rear-view mirror

Most businesses still use networks built for a previous generation of IT, where users sat in offices and accessed apps and data stored in their own data-centre. Traffic was predictable and connectivity specified at the start of a fixed-term contract. Few changes were needed, and those that were took days or weeks to make.

AI is changing that. AI traffic is unpredictable. For example, training large language models (LLMs) can cause surges in bandwidth demand, congesting inflexible networks. This impacts not just AI performance, but that of other apps too. Moreover, AI workloads can be split between many users in different places. The app itself may be hosted across multiple clouds.

AI-ready performance

At BT, we pride ourselves on delivering rock-solid foundations for our customers’ digital business. We understand AI demands and are building a brand-new network-as-a-service (NaaS) platform designed specifically to meet its needs.

Called Global Fabric, it offers multinational customers connectivity on demand to a full choice of third-party cloud, AI and SaaS providers. They can choose routes, types of connectivity (eg Internet, Ethernet, IP-VPN), scale, locations and services to connect to, all in an instant with the flexibility to make changes at any time. With Global Fabric, we want AI to run best on BT wherever customers are, wherever the data is. That’s a huge ambition and demands extraordinary scale. No single network provider can do this on their own.

That’s why we’re deepening our partnership with Google Cloud. We’re combining the power of Global Fabric with Cloud WAN, Google Cloud’s fully managed, reliable and secure enterprise WAN backbone that leverages the planet-scale Google network to optimise AI performance and cost.

Together, Global Fabric and Google’s Cloud WAN deliver:

An extensive network
A network engineered for speed
One of the most resilient networks
And the best outcomes for our customers.

To do this, we’re pre-integrating Cloud WAN’s low-latency subsea optical links into Global Fabric. Customers will have a wide selection of high-speed, reliable routes for their digital workloads, all available at the click of a button on Global Fabric’s web portal. They’ll be able to create fully modern, high-performance, secure and resilient flexible networks for their business — meaning they can put their foot to the floor with their AI plans.

Our partnership will also see BT offering customers Google Cloud Partner Interconnect via Global Fabric in 50 of the world’s top cloud locations, growing to 70 by 2026. This will give customers instant connectivity into Google Cloud, with a 99.99 per cent reliability service level agreement (SLA) backed by BT and Google Cloud.

BT will continue to deepen its collaboration with Google Cloud to ensure reliable, direct, and the fastest low-latency access to Google and Google Cloud services across BT’s network.

For customers on their AI journey, our partnership with Google Cloud offers a high-speed route to success. Traffic restrictions are being lifted. A brand new hyperscale highway awaits.

BT’s Global Fabric goes live with customer traffic

Tue, 25 Feb 2025 08:59:00 +0000

Debut of Global Fabric Internet, the first connectivity service delivered via BT’s new, transformational network-as-a-service (NaaS) platform, Global Fabric.
A growing pipeline of customers, services and features are being added over the coming weeks and months.

BT today announced that customer traffic is now live on Global Fabric, BT’s brand-new network-as-a-service (NaaS) platform for multinational customers.

The announcement marks the debut of Global Fabric Internet, the first service offered from the platform, which delivers a step change in flexibility, visibility and performance of connectivity.

Through the platform’s web portal, customers can view connectivity to their apps, network health, events and alerts. It allows them to make changes to their connectivity in an instant, such as scaling up and down bandwidth, as well as provisioning new connections. This offers customers unprecedented flexibility to achieve the best network performance and accelerate their digital business outcomes.

Thanks to the platform’s brand-new hardware and digital orchestration layer, Global Fabric Internet is available on the same physical port as other connectivity services BT will launch over the coming year. This allows customers to future-proof their connectivity, enabling them to switch between different services with the click of a button and scale up or down instantly rather than in hours, days or weeks.

BT is now adding more customers, scale and features to the platform, such as intent-based routing, building up to the launch of IP VPN and Ethernet connectivity services. These will be offered together with a choice of solutions such as DDoS cyber-security and SD-WAN.

Global Fabric transforms how businesses interconnect with their customers and suppliers securely and reliably across their full digital value chain. It provides people, devices and AIs with the best connectivity to apps and data hosted across multiple clouds.

James Eibisch, Research Director, IDC European Enterprise Communications Services, said: "The disruption and evolution of enterprise IT doesn't stop with digital transformation. The profound growth of AI and the unpredictability of today's geopolitics create uncertainty about how companies should plan and adapt for the future. To cope with this uncertainty, they need flexibility above all, and a platform approach to delivering connectivity and services provides that. BT Global Fabric helps businesses access technology and services in a secure and sovereign manner, wherever it is located and whenever it is needed."

Bas Burger, CEO, Business, BT, said: “Today marks the start of a new era of international business connectivity. Customers are now joining us on a journey to combine the full power of cloud and networks to drive adoption of digital services, such as AI. For BT, it marks a milestone in the delivery of our strategy for customers — to provide rock solid foundations for their digital business plans.”

ENDS

Notes to editors

Global Business Internet

Global Fabric Internet is available in increments of 1 Mbps up to 100 Gbps, burstable, and will provide greater geographical coverage than BT’s previous internet services.

It will be offered with four access points as standard, providing the diversity that underpins Global Fabric’s resilience. It will be connected to two separate PoPs within each major business district (metro area) to further ensure resilience should an individual location fail.

Global Fabric Internet is the first connectivity service available from the Global Fabric NaaS platform. Over the following year, BT will also offer Layer 2 Ethernet and IP VPN connectivity services as well as direct peering with SaaS, SASE and Internet exchanges (IXPs).

Global Fabric platform

Built from three fundamental components, Global Fabric includes a customer web portal, digital orchestration layer and a brand-new network hardware layer deployed across an international footprint spanning the world’s top cloud datacentre locations.

Uniquely, it provides observability of both access and core networks. Access networks link up individual customer locations whereas core networks interconnect central IT systems hosted across multiple clouds. By spanning both, Global Fabric allows customers to achieve the best end-to-end network performance all the way from users and devices in offices, factories and other operational sites, to the multi-cloud core where apps and digital services such as AI are hosted.

Global Fabric is deterministic. This gives customers control over the routes their workloads take as they move between clouds, enabling them not only to achieve the best network cost and performance but meet data sovereignty regulations too as they can ensure workloads remain within geographic boundaries.

Global Fabric will be available to customers internationally via 140 PoPs hosted in the world’s top cloud locations located in 40 countries. It will offer 74 per cent direct coverage of hyperscaler clouds and pre-provisioned high-bandwidth connectivity to over 700 data-centres.

Connecting to Global Fabric PoPs

Global Fabric’s core network hardware is installed in the world’s major carrier neutral facilities (CNFs) — large datacentres where cloud providers, software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies and network operators provide access to their services.

Global Fabric hardware locations are known as ‘points of presence’ (PoPs). BT makes it easy for customers to connect their sites to their business partners, and to their applications and workloads hosted in the multi-cloud, using our PoPs as global connectivity gateways.

Global Fabric and sustainability — key figures

The new high-capacity, fully programmable network’s state-of-the-art equipment offers improvements in efficiency, sustainability and resilience. BT estimates that when fully rolled out, Global Fabric will use 79 per cent less electricity than its current international business networks. This means customers on the new network will be able to reduce their Scope 3 carbon emissions.

Using the Greenhouse Gas Protocol ICT Sector Guidance by Gesi, BT has generated the following estimates:

In use, Global Fabric will consume 8,326 MWh/year versus its existing international networks at 39,890 MWh/year — a 79 per cent reduction.
Use stage gross carbon including PUE will be 2,964 tonCO2e/year for Global Fabric versus 13,596 tonCO2e/year for BT’s existing international networks — a 78 per cent reduction.
Global Fabric’s embodied emissions will be 363 tonCO2e/year versus its existing international networks 2,185 tonCO2e/year — an 83 per cent reduction.
This gives a total carbon in use plus embodied carbon figure of 3,327 for Global Fabric versus its existing international networks at 15,781 tonCO2e/year — a 78 per cent reduction.
BT estimates the average power consumption of Global Fabric will be 787 Watts per device, versus 2,201 Watts per device for its existing international networks.
Moreover, Global Fabric will be built using 1,326 devices versus 1,571 devices — a 16 per cent reduction versus its existing international networks.

BT and Equinix boost interconnectivity for multinational customers

Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:00:00 +0000

BT’s Global Fabric installed across an international footprint of Equinix data-centres to interconnect customers with their digital value chain

BT and Equinix today announced an expansion of their partnership to help multinational organisations transform interconnectivity across their digital value chain. The move will help customers boost innovation and accelerate business outcomes.

BT’s AI-ready, Global Fabric network-as-a-service (NaaS) platform is now deployed in over 30 Equinix data-centres, growing to over 40 in the next year. This will span the world’s top 30 business locations covering 95 per cent of the world’s cloud interconnection traffic.

It will add to Global Fabric’s international footprint, which BT believes will be one of the largest of any NaaS platform. When fully built-out, Global Fabric will be available to customers internationally via 140 points-of-presence (PoPs) hosted in the world’s top cloud locations across 40 countries. It will offer 74 per cent direct coverage of hyperscaler clouds and pre-provisioned high-bandwidth connectivity to over 700 data-centres.

Global Fabric connects multinational organisations securely, flexibly and reliably. It transforms the ease at which they can deploy and scale interconnectivity with third parties such as customers and suppliers across their full digital value chain.

It provides visibility and control of both access and core networks. This allows organisations to achieve the best end-to-end network performance for their workloads, from users and devices in offices, factories and other operational sites, to the multi-cloud core, which interconnects apps and digital services such as AI. It is built on a fully resilient architecture and offered with a range of management options. With legacy networks, setting up or changing connectivity could take weeks. With Global Fabric, it happens in an instant.

Equinix’s global platform interconnects multiple clouds hosting the apps, solutions and marketplaces underpinning the digital economy. It provides access to approximately 2,000 network services, approximately 3,000 cloud and IT services, over 400 content and digital media services, and more than 4,800 enterprises.

The agreement expands BT’s ability to offer its customers a comprehensive choice of the best locations for their business to digitally interconnect with partners, suppliers, customers and other stakeholders across their full value chain.

It builds on BT Group’s quantum secure communications relationship with Equinix following the joint achievement of the UK’s first data centre to data centre connection using the technology.

According to Equinix’s Global Interconnection Index, digital ecosystems are growing exponentially. Eighty per cent of business-to-business sales interactions are expected to occur in digital channels by the end of 2025. By integrating industry value chains, leading businesses are innovating at a rate 25 per cent higher than their peers.

Arun Dev, Global Interconnections, Equinix, said: “Our partnership enables BT to offer its customers interconnectivity with the full Equinix global digital ecosystem of cloud and IT services, as well as hundreds of content and digital media services, and over 4,800 enterprises hosted at our datacentres globally.”

Matt Swinden, director, digital connectivity, Business, BT, said: "The BT-Equinix partnership is a terrific example of our strategy to build the strongest digital foundations for our customers. Global Fabric combined with Equinix’s global ecosystem of infrastructure, cloud and digital service widens the choice we offer to customers of the best locations to interconnect their full business value chain. It will help make trading, partnering and operating a multinational business, better on BT.”

ENDS

About Equinix

Equinix (Nasdaq: EQIX) is the world's digital infrastructure company^®. Digital leaders harness Equinix's trusted platform to bring together and interconnect foundational infrastructure at software speed. Equinix enables organizations to access all the right places, partners and possibilities to scale with agility, speed the launch of digital services, deliver world-class experiences and multiply their value, while supporting their sustainability goals.

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from expectations discussed in such forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause such differences include, but are not limited to, risks to our business and operating results related to the current inflationary environment; foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations; stock price fluctuations; increased costs to procure power and the general volatility in the global energy market; the challenges of acquiring, operating and constructing IBX^® and xScale^® data centers and developing, deploying and delivering Equinix products and solutions; unanticipated costs or difficulties relating to the integration of companies we have acquired or will acquire into Equinix; a failure to receive significant revenues from customers in recently built out or acquired data centers; failure to complete any financing arrangements contemplated from time to time; competition from existing and new competitors; the ability to generate sufficient cash flow or otherwise obtain funds to repay new or outstanding indebtedness; the loss or decline in business from our key customers; risks related to our taxation as a REIT; risks related to regulatory inquiries or litigation and other risks described from time to time in Equinix filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In particular, see recent and upcoming Equinix quarterly and annual reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, copies of which are available upon request from Equinix. Equinix does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking information contained in this press release.

BT first global telco to receive domestic telecoms licences in China

Thu, 24 Jan 2019 16:23:17 +0000

BT today announced that it has become the first international telecommunications company to receive nationwide licences from the China Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

The two ‘value added licences’, China nationwide Domestic IP-VPN licence and China nationwide Internet Service Provider (ISP) licence, enable BT China Communications Limited to contract directly with its customers in the country and bill them in local currency.

The value added licences represent a major step for BT in China where many of its multinational customers require secure and reliable connectivity to expand within the country.

Bas Burger, CEO of Global Services, BT, said: “We are delighted with this major benefit for our customers. Thanks to cooperation between the governments of the PRC and the UK, we are now able to offer a nationwide service in China that can be scaled up to match the ambitions and needs of our customers. Being able to service and bill locally significantly simplifies the process of delivering connectivity and other communication services. It is what our customers expect from us and we are very grateful for the opportunity to do this as of today.”

International Trade Secretary, Dr Liam Fox MP said: “I am very pleased that close cooperation between the UK and Chinese governments has resulted in BT securing these licences which will enable it to operate across the country. This major milestone exemplifies the vital work of my international economic department to open up markets and ensure that UK firms are represented on the global stage.”