Nortel's Bengaluru International Airport IT contract extended

Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL), the operator of India's Bengaluru International Airport has extended its IT infrastructure and network security contract with Nortel by three years.

The end-to-end managed services contract will oversee the airport's data and wireless network systems remotely through Nortel's network operations centre in India.

BIAL chief executive officer Marcel Hungerbuehler said the contract allows it to focus on managing its core aviation business.

"Over the past year, the airport has handled 8.7 million passengers and over 120,000 aircraft movements. By managing our critical networks, Nortel has relieved us of our network concerns and has made it possible for BIAL to focus its valuable resources on managing our core aviation business, rather than our voice and data networks," Hungerbuehler said.

BIAL's passenger handling, ticketing, baggage handling and free Wi-Fi internet connectivity operate on Nortel's communication infrastructure.

To provide safe network access, BIAL operates a number of separate virtual local area networks which Nortel remotely monitors.

Nortel's data solution links nearly 5,000 endpoints, while its voice solution offers a carrier grade voice over IP (VoIP) network throughout the airport, linking virtually 1,000 VoIP points.

Nortel India's country manager of enterprise Ashish Dhawan said the contract enables BIAL to supervise its total IT infrastructure with only one partner.