Red Cross gets broadband tonic

NEWS BT is to link the British Red Cross's 1,000 sites with broadband internet to improve the rescue charity's communication infrastructure. The British Red Cross has around 55,000 volunteers in the UK, spread across 1,000 sites, some with limited connectivity. It trains around 100,000 first aiders each year and provides cover at thousands of events. No cost is being given for the three year contract. Steve Gallimore, head of infrastructure at the charity, said in a statement: "Communications are vital to us because we are often trying to save lives. Broadband is a necessity for us." For BT, the deal is one of several major contracts that it has announced in the run up to today's presentation entitled "BT affirms its strategy". Today BT announced a £23m four-year contract with the Security Industry Authority to design, build and manage its business information system and contact centre. The newly established agency will be licensing the half million people in the private security industry. The BT system will collect the fees, check the references, run a check against criminal records and check competences for the authority. The first groups to be licensed will be wheel-clampers and door supervisors. Late last week BT and Cisco agreed a joint marketing and installation deal in the UK and Europe for their convergent IP services. Simultaneously they announced a deal to install and maintain top bankers Lehman Brothers' IP network at Canary Wharf. Last Friday, Datamonitor said that it had called in BT to upgrade its net to IPVPN and claimed that it would cut the cost of its voice calls by 50 per cent.