The deal puts BT onto the same footing as Microsoft's other global telecoms partners, Verizon in the US and Korea Telecom in Asia.
Microsoft and BT did not disclose full details but said in a joint statement that they will focus on 30 projects to develop applications and services for: multi-media home computing; increasing the productivity and flexibility of large organisations; mobile computing; .Net and web services; and portals.
The alliance follows another deal that BT signed with Microsoft in September to offer broadband connections to users of Microsoft's Xbox.
The statement is available at:
www.microsoft.com/uk/press/content/presscentre/releases/2002/11/PR02896.asp