Sweden-based Skanska (www.skanska.com has received two new telecom assignments in the United Kingdom for construction and maintenance work. One involves the construction and maintenance of British Telecom's external network for telecom and data traffic in the Thames Valley and London area.

Skanska has 50% of the three-year term contract being carried out in a joint venture with the British service provider MG Telecommunications. Under the agreement with British Telecom, the Skanska/MGT joint venture will become the main contractor to British Telecom in the Thames Valley for outsourced telecommunications cable installation services. The assignment includes copper as well as optical-fiber cable for data and telecom traffic. As part of the agreement, the joint venture will take on 140 engineering and management personnel from Corning Cable Systems.

The second assignment is for Nortel Networks. Skanska will be responsible for the installation of telecom equipment, including optical fiber cable, mobile networks and switching equipment, for Nortel Networks customers throughout the United Kingdom. As part of the agreement, Skanska will take on 76 employees from Nortel Networks.

�Outsourcing is a strong trend in the telecom sector. We foresee great future potential to grow through taking over planning, building and operations of the telecom companies' infrastructures when these companies are to an increasing extent focusing on the development of new services and service content,� says Daniel Johannesson, a member of Skanska's senior executive team and responsible for the group's telecom activities.

Recently, BT Airwaves selected Skanska to design and build-out a nationwide telecom network for the Public Safety Radio Communications Service. Skanska is also building out parts of the Orange Network in the United Kingdom.