BT and Microsoft Corp. today announced a global strategic alliance to deliver a next-generation, integrated real-time communication and collaboration solution to BT and Microsoft customers worldwide, starting with immediate availability in the United Kingdom and United States. The combined solution joins BT's audio conferencing services and Microsoft� Office Live Meeting to help businesses more effectively and efficiently communication and collaboration with their globally dispersed customers, partners and employees.

Through the alliance, BT will be the first telecommunications company to simultaneously launch this type of service in multiple global markets. Live Meeting is the leading Web conferencing service that will be deployed by BT in enterprises worldwide. The combination of BT's world-class global telecommunications network and Microsoft's expertise in real-time collaboration technologies will empower businesses of all sizes to collaborate in real time, thereby minimizing travel-related expenses and ultimately increasing productivity.

Throughout much of the past fiscal year, BT deployed Live Meeting as an internal pilot program. The company estimates that in 2003 alone, the use of the combined solution saved the company more than 6.2 million miles of business travel and resulted in significant cost savings to BT's profit and loss center. In addition, using Live Meeting has enabled BT to reduce business travel, thereby minimizing negative environmental impact. For example, a staggering 112 million liters (230 tons) of carbon dioxide was not pumped into the air from BT vehicles on their way to meetings. As a result of these savings and other business benefits realized during the pilot program, BT is further deploying Live Meeting across its organization, including its current internal MeetMe audio conferencing users.