£9.2M FOR JOINT INDIA-UK RESEARCH INTO NEXT GENERATION NETWORKS TO BOOST DIGITAL REVOLUTION

Bangalore, January 21, 2009 :A BT backed team of UK and Indian scientists and engineers will head a £9.2m research project to develop ‘Next Generation Networks’, vital to pushing forward the digital economy.

This collaboration between the UK and Indian Governments, universities and ICT specialists in both countries will work to develop Next Generation telecom networks, ICT services and applications in the two countries, along with work on wireless sensor networks, which could aid healthcare and early warning weather systems in rural areas.

Funding will be used by the India-UK Advanced Technology Centre (IU-ATC) to drive collaborative research and the sharing of new communications technology between India and the UK. The wider IU-ATC consortium currently comprises nine UK universities, six Indian research Institutes, seven industry partners in both countries including BT, Infosys, Wipro, Sasken, Tejas and Midas and a number of small business partners.

The grant money includes £5m jointly from the Research Councils UK (RCUK) Digital Economy Programme, led by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), and the Indian Government’s Department of Science and Technology (DST). This is matched by a further contribution of over £4m from a consortium of the IU-ATC academic and industrial partners.

The funding bid was led by Professor Gerard Parr at the University of Ulster in Coleraine and Professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, together with Professor Nader Azarmi of BT.

Prof Parr said: “This funding will support an exciting research and innovation programme for the IU-ATC in Next Generation Networks, Systems and Services which will give a massive boost to the digital economy of both countries.”

Funding will be specifically used to conduct research into Next Generation network enabled applications and services, converged network protocols and systems and wireless communications and mobility. The research is designed to underpin the development of policies and initiatives for both rural and urban Digital Economy programmes in India and the UK.

Chairman, BT India, Arun Seth, added: “These next generation networks forms the cornerstone of the digital economy and research in this area is crucial. The IU-ATC will allow us to explore unique solutions and provide research, innovation and wealth creation opportunities between the UK and India that are of benefit to citizens, business, government and industry.”

The Research Councils UK (RCUK) Office in India and the Department of Science and Technology have worked closely together to create a joint UK-India funding mechanism to review this proposal. Dr Alicia Greated, Director of the RCUK Office in India stated: “We are extremely pleased that this initiative has been funded as it is an excellent example of India-UK research collaborations being developed across both the private and public sectors.”

About BT

BT is one of the world’s leading providers of communications solutions and services operating in 170 countries. Its principal activities include the provision of networked IT services globally; local, national and international telecommunications services to our customers for use at home, at work and on the move; broadband and internet products and services and converged fixed/mobile products and services. BT consists principally of four lines of business: BT Global Services, Openreach, BT Retail and BT Wholesale.

In the year ended 31 March 2008, BT Group plc’s revenue was £20,704 million with profit before taxation and specific items of £2,506 million.

British Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group and encompasses virtually all businesses and assets of the BT Group. BT Group plc is listed on stock exchanges in London and New York.

For more information, visit www.bt.com/aboutbt

For further information, please contact:

Carson Dalton, Head, Corporate Communication, BT India
Mobile: +91-9971079922
Email: carson.dalton {at} bt(.)com

Notes to Editors
The full IU-ATC Consortium members

The UK academic and industrial members are:

University of Ulster (Academic Lead – Professor Gerard Parr)
BT (Industry Lead – Professor Nader Azarmi)
University College London
University of St Andrews, Scotland
University of Surrey
Queen Mary, University of London
University of Southampton
University of Cambridge
University of Lancaster
University of Bristol
University of Birmingham
The Indian academic and industrial members are:
Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (Academic Lead- Professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala)
Infosys Technologies Ltd (Industry Lead – Subu Goparaju)
Wipro Technologies,
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi
Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
Indian Institute of IT, Bangalore
Sasken Communications
Tejas Networks
Midas Communications Technologies
TATA Consultancy Services Ltd
Centre of Excellence In Wireless Technology
NMSWorks Software Ltd

The IU-ATC website can be found at: http://www.iu-atc.com