Cable & Wireless

, the global telecommunications group, has announced that it has won a contract, worth an estimated £1.3 million over three years, to upgrade the core communications network of Ryanair. Ryanair’s traffic will be delivered over Cable & Wireless’ high performance Internet Protocol Virtual Private Network with Quality of Service (IP-VPN QoS), to accommodate the demand from its growing passenger base.

The upgrade will enable the airline to handle the increased levels of traffic from customers logging onto its website. As well as being able to complete all customer transactions quickly and securely, the Ryanair website will offer additional features to enhance its customer service. www.ryanair.com currently processes more than 95% of the airline’s bookings and was recently rated the world’s number one travel website by Google.

The additional speed and resilience of the new network is especially important for Ryanair’s frequent marketing promotions when transaction surges occur. Cable & Wireless will fully manage the network 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

As the number of routes and planes increase, Ryanair expects to migrate more of its engineering bases onto the new network. The speed and reliability of Cable & Wireless IP-VPN QoS will make essential flight operational information readily available to Ryanair’s pilots and engineers, thereby improving its fleet management and helping Ryanair to deliver on its commitment to punctuality and service.

“Ryanair is aggressively extending the number of routes and services we offer in Europe. Passenger numbers are expected to grow by 50% in the next year alone,” said Howard Millar, deputy chief executive, Ryanair. “Cable & Wireless’ cost-effective, quality IP solution and global reach, allows us to expand at the rate we want to. Their expertise and professionalism help us to make the right technology decisions. We have full confidence that our internal and external networks can match our growth expectations and customer requirements.”

Cable & Wireless IP-VPN QoS is a managed end-to-end virtual private network that runs over a dedicated, high-speed, high-availability network, offering Quality of Service for voice, data and IP traffic across a wide area network. The 15-site migration will provide Ryanair with increased capacity to process large volumes of data, prioritised depending on how critical it is to the business, such as customer transactions, or whether it needs to be delivered in real-time, such as voice. IP-VPN QoS is designed to allow customers to migrate new sites onto the network quickly and easily, as the need arises.

Cable & Wireless has been the preferred networking partner for Ryanair since 1996 and currently links its entire corporate network, over 100 sites, using the Cable & Wireless Frame Relay network.

“We are delighted to extend our relationship with Ryanair,” said Gareth James, managing director, UK & Ireland Corporate Markets, Cable & Wireless. “We can integrate, deliver and manage the enabling technologies that allow Ryanair to continue its progressive expansion plan. New services and business-critical applications can be added quickly and seamlessly, giving Ryanair the flexibility it needs in its highly competitive industry.”
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