BT IRELAND has won a €3.5 million deal with Applus+, the company which runs Ireland’s NCT service, to provide the computer network for the national car-testing service.

Under the three-year deal, BT Ireland will design, build and manage the network for the NCT service. Last year, Spanish company Applus+ was awarded a 10- year contract by the Road Safety Authority to run the NCT centres. It took over the running of the centres in January this year.

Under the deal, BT will provide an end-to-end managed service, which includes procuring hardware in the 46 test centres around the country and hosting infrastructure in its Dublin data centre.

BT Ireland’s Colm O’Neill said BT’s status as a global company had been an advantage in delivering the service on time and to the required standard.

“We are one of the few companies that can tap into a global knowledge base and experience of delivering large, complex projects of this kind,” he said.

He said BT had implemented a security system that ensured each site continues to operate in the event of network failure.

Data can be held onsite until the connection is restored. When it is back online, the regional systems automatically synchronise with the head office. In addition, BT has installed routers for switching over to a 3G network in the event of sustained downtime.

Mr O’Neill said he was confident the contract would be renewed.

Meanwhile, BT, which does not give a quarterly breakdown of its Irish performance, yesterday posted a 6 per cent rise in adjusted core earnings, slightly better than expected. BT employs more than 850 people in the Republic.