British operator is to retain ‘strategic’ presence in US
BT Federal has been sold to systems integrator 22nd Century Technologies. The latter will assume ownership of assets like the portfolio, offices and government contracts, and take on BT Federal’s staff. BT stresses it will retain regional offices and employees in New York, Dallas and Reston, at what was BT Federal’s HQ, to keep a “strong presence in the US”.
BT Federal will operate under its new owner’s brand, supported by BT’s managed network services and zero-trust security products. The value of the transaction has not been disclosed. The deal was approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). BT Federal was founded in 1999; the new entity’s customers will include the US Department of War, the Department of Justice and Department of State.
The sale continues the strategy put in place by Allison Kirkby, BT Group’s CEO to consolidate or dispose of global operations and concentrate on the operator’s role as national champion in its home market.
Since an Italian accounting scandal severely damaged BT’s share price and reputation a decade ago, the old BT Global Services was renamed BT Global (and now BT International) and has progressively disposed of or sought partnerships for overseas assets (such as in Ireland) and non-core businesses such as BT Sports and its specialist financial services platform, Radianz.
BT international’s operations and strategy are based on its Global Fabric service platform, which orchestrates local and regional cloud, edge, and network resources to suit customers’ needs through a software-defined layer, ditching the model of owning physical infrastructure. Register here for CTO Colin Bannon’s keynote at The Briefing, AI, efficiency and profit, on 5 February. Bannon was instrumental in designing and deploying the Global Fabric for the AI era.
