BT's Next Generation Telecom Network

BT21CN (Next Generation Network)

So BT decided to upgrade their network, BT have come up with a totally new revolutionary technology that they are calling BT21CN (BT 21st Centuary Network). They have a plan to upgrade their current Telecom network by £10billion. It's the largest overhaul of BT's core network to date - instead of using traditional PSTN (pubic switched telephone network) lines to shunt traffic across the network, it's switching to a single, all-IP (internet protocol) network instead, which will carry all of its customers' voice and data traffic. Unsurprisingly, BT is hoping for cost savings from its endeavours. The whole 21CN project will cost the telco in the region of £10bn to finish off and it hopes to save around £1bn a year as a result. It's also one way for BT to jump on the VoIP trend, which is giving its traditional fixed-voice revenues a kicking, and avoid becoming just another transport pipe, instead making itself into more of a services company. The deadline for completion has been something of a moveable feast. The telco had been 'giving it large' about the ambitious project, saying almost all customers will be on the 21CN by the end of the decade but that timeline has since slipped and BT is now saying 2011 looks likely to see the end of the project. BT cannot do this alone they have enlisted many other forces in the Telco/Networking world and to name a few are Alcatel, Ciena, Cisco, Ericsson, Fujitsu, Huawei, Lucent and Siemens all made the procurement cut. This should be a very interesting time for new technology and I as many other should look forward to seeing what can be done. I also belive that BT are in talks with other countries to sell this NGN (Next Generation Network) as BT are far and beyond others in this race.