O2 Extends AA Supply Contract

O2 UK says that it has extended its current B2B supplies contract with the motoring breakdown assistance provider, the AA until 2011. The initial deal was signed in July 2006 and covers approximately 5,500 voice connections and over 3,000 data connections, mainly used for AA's breakdown service fleet in every corner of the UK.

"Mobile is critical to our business and O2 has proved itself as a reliable and valued partner," said Trevor Didcock, Director of Information Systems at the AA. "Extending this contract for a further two years demonstrates our commitment to investing in mobile services and delivering a fast and dependable service to our members."

One of the key priorities for the AA is the performance of GPRS which is essential for managing workflow and jobs out to patrols on the road. O2 has implemented its Network Manager for GPRS service which enables customers to measure the performance of the O2 network and to check overall network availability and latency.

Another major requirement is the resilience of the network. To ensure this, O2 built a bespoke product into its core network that provides the highest level of back-up. For users this ensures that should the GPRS network become unavailable for any reason there is an automatic transfer to GSM with no loss of service. Additionally, O2 installed a two-way link into the AA data centre allowing a permanent backup connection into the AA's VPN (Virtual Private Network).

Posted to the site on 14th August 2007