Tesco turns to VoIP

Supermarket giant Tesco has signed a £100 million outsourcing contract with Cable & Wireless (C&W) that will help reduce telecommunications costs by improving network efficiency.

The five-year deal will see C&W create an integrated network that encompasses 1,800 sites owned by Tesco across 14 countries.

As part of the contract, C&W will deliver a VoIP solution designed to help the retail firm achieve savings of around £10 million per year.

Nick Folkes, IT director for UK infrastructure and operations at Tesco, told silicon.com: "Not only will we get savings from converging the voice and data we will also be bringing the separate global networks together. We are radically altering the capacity of the data network. It will open up a new set of opportunities for us."

Tesco recently launched a trial with Australian telecoms provider Freshtel that will give customers the chance to make free VoIP calls to their fellow shoppers.