British Telecommunications outsources business cabling unit to Unisys.

BLUE BELL, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 10, 1996--Unisys Corp. has won a three year, $116 million contract with British Telecommunications p.l.c. (BT) to carry out the supply and installation of BT's specialized structured cabling products for business customers.

This alliance between BT and Unisys reflects the growing need to provide a single integrated cabling scheme to support all of a customer's communications needs, including voice, data, video and network services.

Under the agreement, Unisys Global Customer Services - the company's worldwide distributed systems service business - has created a dedicated facility in Milton Keynes in the United Kingdom to exclusively handle the planning and installation of BT's structured cabling.

The new business unit will initially employ 50 people and continue to work with current BT suppliers such as Krone UK and Anixter. Utilizing leading-edge business processes and systems that speed workflow and responsiveness, it will be able to provide, for the first time, off-the-shelf structured cabling systems without the need for a separate site survey.

BT chose Unisys because of the company's strengths and expertise in providing complex network integration solutions. These bring together consultancy and design, multivendor technologies, management of multiple site roll-outs and ongoing network support.

The new alliance combines these capabilities with BT's own experience in the marketing, design and development of structured cabling systems.

BT, the largest cabling installer in the UK and one of the largest in Europe, expects to install more than 18,000 km (over 11,000 miles) of unshielded twisted pair cable and approximately 500,000 user sockets in more than 6,000 customer premises in the first year of the alliance with Unisys.

Keith Towner, marketing manager of BT's Structured Cabling Services, said: "We are delighted to have reached this agreement with Unisys. Our cabling strategy has been to find the right partner to provide customers with world-class products and services which can support the rapid advances in data communications, on-line services and the emerging area of multimedia."

BT will continue to have responsibility for sales, marketing and billing for structured cabling, remaining the key customer contact. BT will also support cabling post-sale, owning the warranty and any maintenance agreements.

BT's structured cabling portfolio, which used to be known as Premises Cabling Services (PCS), includes both BT's O.S.C.A. and AT&T's Systimax structured cabling products as well as FibreGlide blown fiber.

Unisys will take responsibility for the planning and installation of all structured cabling plus the warehousing and distribution of cabling components while, in the short term, BT will continue to install and maintain FibreGlide separately.

BT will continue to install cabling where customers have specific requirements that dictate this approach as well as retain responsibility for quality assurance and customer satisfaction. In addition, BT Laboratories will continue to develop cabling systems and maintain its strong presence on national and international standards bodies.

Unisys Global Customer Services

Unisys Global Customer Services (GCS) is a Unisys business unit that provides comprehensive services and best-of-breed products in support of distributed computing environments worldwide.

GCS offers broad multivendor technical, project management and consulting skills for integrating and supporting open network and desktop solutions, with emphasis on maximizing system availability, reducing costs and improving end-user productivity.

Unisys -- The Information Management Company

Unisys is one of a select group of companies with the portfolio of services, technologies and third party alliances needed to deliver the benefits of information management - helping clients use their information asset to enhance their competitiveness and responsiveness to customers.

Our expertise in information management is founded on the strengths of our three global businesses: consulting, solutions and systems integration; industry-leading technologies; and comprehensive services and products supporting distributed computing environments. Access the Unisys home page on the World Wide Web -- http://www.unisys.com -- for further information. -0- Unisys is a registered trademark of Unisys Corp. All other brands and products reference herein are acknowledged to be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

CONTACT: Unisys Corp.

Pete Cavanaugh, 215-986-7884

Internet: [e-mail]