The Mallusk, Co Antrim , electronics company Digital Engineering has secured a contract worth £15 million over three years with the Scandinavian company Viking Telecom for the manufacture and distribution of a digital least-cost routing service developed by Digital for use on ISDN lines.
The routing device will be made in China, and distributed throughout mainland Europe by Viking, which was a leader in analog devices, but which is now diversifying into digital telecom equipment such as that made by the Mallusk company.
Digital Engineering managing director Mr Aubrey Sayers said the company's greatest strength was product design and development, while Viking was a "well-established manufacturer and supplier" to the European telecom industry.
"The deal with Viking is particularly significant at the moment, when the European telecoms market is opening up to competition in much the same way that the UK one did recently," Mr Sayers said
Another element of the agreement gives Digital the distribution rights to some of Viking's products in the UK home market.
"The partnership arrangement is fairly typical of the way in which we are developing our business across the world," Mr Sayers said.
Digital was set up in 1983, and currently employs around 30 people. The biggest market for its current range of ISDN testing equipment is the United States, followed by Japan. Around a third of its business is in mainland Europe.
