Edinburgh City Council has struck a deal with BT, which will save £250,000 a year. The council signed a £3.2m deal over three years with the communications giant to provide a telephone network, reducing the council's ‘phone bill by around 25%. The system will provide the council with a virtual, private telephone network to which all council sites will be connected. Cllr Gordon Mackenzie, convenor of finance and resources said: ‘This will give us the vital management information we need to move towards a future with all calls and data sharing a single, high-speed network.'