Ferry operator Stena Line has signed a three-year €2.1m (£1.4m) managed network contract with vendor Vanco covering operations in eight countries.

The virtual network operator will underpin provision in the UK, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, Germany, Norway and Poland, comprising 43 international locations on Stena Line’s European wide area network.

The deal covers a mix of access technologies including leased lines and DSL, and is a step towards Stena Line’s goal of achieving a managed end-to-end network service across a diverse geographic footprint, while benefiting from contract flexibility.

Niclas Ingestrom, head of IT infrastructure at Stena Line IT Services, said: ‘Having Vanco as a single point of contact, managing our international network, will allow us to concentrate on our key business.’

‘Vanco provides us with the flexibility to extend the reach of our network beyond conventional asset based network carrier boundaries, by managing numerous infrastructure providers,’ he said.