BT looks to double business across Turkey, the Middle East and Africa

BT has announced a series of initiatives aimed at doubling its business across Turkey, the Middle East and Africa.

These initiatives build on similar programmes in Asia Pacific and Latin America, where orders in the first nine months of this financial year were up over 50 per cent.

According to BT’s research, the addressable market in Turkey, the Middle East and Africa was worth a combined GBP5.4 billion (US$8.48 billion) in 2011. IT spending growth across the regions is expected to top 10 per cent in in 2012 according to IDC.

As part of the new programme, BT will hire around 170 new employees across the three regions, including highly skilled professional services specialists to provide local support to customers and deliver consulting, integration and managed services.

Customers in the regions will be able to access a wider range of “intelligent” network services provided by the BT Connect portfolio.

Network reach and access options are being improved in sub-Saharan Africa. These include the recently announced international routing facility in South Africa and a new network connection between Cape Town and Johannesburg. These will make BT the first global operator with its own network infrastructure in the country. Specific interconnection agreements with local partners extend BT’s network reach into Sub-Saharan Africa.

Three new network nodes are being launched in the Middle East, while additional network interconnections will be rolled out in Turkey.