Airbus selects ICON

ICON has been chosen as the IP wireless telephony provider for Airbus Industries as part of a consortium headed by France Telecom Group. The contract will provide a supply, integration, operation and maintenance contract to migrate from traditional exchanges to a fully IP based telephony system to cover 40,000 telephone extensions.

France Telecom Group, with their fully owned subsidiary, Equant, have announced that they have been selected by Airbus for a five year contract to implement an IP telephony solution across all Airbus sites, starting in France and the United Kingdom. Part of this solution is a KIRK IP-DECT wireless infrastructure provided by ICON.

ICON was chosen as the wireless telephony partner as the company provided quality service and a superior solution with the KIRK wireless product range. For many years ICON has helped their partners in implementing wireless technologies and this experience was invaluable in the early phases of this project. Effective integration with the Cisco IP telephony infrastructure was also key to the success of the project. Tests were conducted with a panel of end-users to ensure the ease of use and suitability of the system and KIRK passed these tests with flying colours.

The solution will allow Airbus to:

"I am enthusiastic about this contract. The convergence of all business communications - voice video and data - brings about huge benefits; greater ROI through reduced network and administration costs, improved productivity from end-users and the IT department and new, high value, customer care and productivity applications," said Barbara Dalibard, Executive Vice President, France Telecom Enterprise Communication Services.

"In winning one of the largest managed IP telephony deployments ever, France Telecom, Equant and their partners now assume a leadership position in the global IP communication services market" added Charles Dehelly, CEO, Equant.

"The Airbus Contract with France Telecom and Equant is an excellent example of how customers can make a smooth transition to advanced IP-based business communications" said Chris Dedicoat, senior VP at Cisco. "The France Telecom team has the global expertise to help multi-national organisations to maximise their infrastructure investment and demonstrate not only significant cost savings but added value through increased productivity and efficiency over the long term for Airbus".

"Professional wireless telephony is vital to any business, large or small, and KIRK leads the way. ICON's value added service was a key factor in ensuring that KIRK was the chosen product." said Andrew Coster, Director of ICON.

"As UK distributor for KIRK, enquiry levels from Cisco integrators have risen sharply since they learned that ICON is part of Europe 's largest Cisco Call Manager installation. We are very excited about the future, with several other major deals on the horizon", said Mark Shane, Sales Manager at ICON.

About France Telecom
France Telecom is the second largest wireless operator and internet access provider in Europe, with over 130 million customers worldwide. The company is a world leader in telecommunication solutions for multi-national corporations

About KIRK
KIRK telecom is the world's largest company dedicated to wireless communications with installations in over 100 countries worldwide and it holds number one position in the UK, with a market share exceeding 20%. KIRK solutions are available to integrate with almost any PBX and the stylish, ruggedised handsets meet ATEX, IEC and IP standards.

About ICON
ICON is the UK importer and distributor for advanced communications products from world leading companies, including KIRK telecom, Vertical Communications, System Solutions and Linktivity. The company has expertise and experience in both telecoms and IT, ensuring quality service for these leading edge products, which provide quantifiable benefits for companies large and small.

For further information contact 0870 758 7600 or visit www.icon-plc.co.uk.

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