BT's five-year 21st Century Network project launches in
Cardiff: total IT and telecommunications convergence featuring
VoIP, wireless broadband in 'super exchanges'
Next year Cardiff will be among the first cities to trial BT's
£10bn 21st Century Network (21CN). The network is being designed to
support faster and much more interactive communications services to
businesses and consumers. 21CN is based on the IP format, which
means it can deliver converged voice/data traffic across the
network.
The five-year project will enable businesses and consumers to adopt
more easily new technologies like voice over IP and wireless fixed
broadband, as well as emerging services such as video on demand and
broadband TV.
The building of the network is scheduled to be completed by 2010
and BT has already announced trials on the new architecture in
Cardiff and other parts of south Wales for next year.
The first 21CN trial will see around 350,000 customer lines in the
Cardiff area being migrated to the 21CN infrastructure, including
many served by other telephone and internet service providers and
mobile operators.
BT said the experience and customer feedback from this first mass
21CN migration project would help it finalise plans to roll out
21CN to customers across the UK by the end of the decade.
The Cardiff migration of customer lines to the new infrastructure
is expected to begin during the second half of 2006.
More than 50 local phone exchanges will be upgraded and BT will
implement various new IT systems to support 21CN. Three metro area
nodes or "super exchanges" will also be built in Cardiff, Swansea
and Newport.
BT's technology timeline predicts that UK internet penetration
among the population will reach 75% between 2006 and 2010, and that
the last ever phone call using the existing public switched
telephone network (PSTN) will be made by the end of the
decade.
These figures are reflected in research from the Communications
Management Association (CMA).
Its annual membership survey shows 77% of companies are using
broadband, and that the adoption of voice over IP is widespread,
with 42% of companies using VoIP to cut their communications costs
and deliver new phone features to users.
VoIP allows companies to bypass the public switched telephone
network and supports packetised IP calls to enable free or cheaper
calls. According to CMA, a further 15% are "planning VoIP
implementations within 12 months", and a further 28% are currently
evaluating it.
Recent research carried out by Deloitte shows that 84% of CEOs
regard cost savings as the biggest factor in any decision to move
to IP telephony, and research from AT&T shows that cost
reduction is of critical importance for 47% of businesses and
important for a further 40% of them.
Once completed, BT says 21CN will also save it £1bn a year.
Businesses are clearly moving towards the technology and service
areas that 21CN is looking to address, and they should be hoping BT
and its partners can stick to their tight schedule in building it,
particularly if BT's technology timeline proves to be accurate.
BT Technology Timeline
2006-2010
- Internet achieves 75% penetration in UK
- Fixed and mobile network convergence
- Wireless Lans become preferred access mechanism for mobile
internet use
- Wireless Lans in most shopping malls
- Last ever PSTN call
- 100mbps wireless speed in office/home
- Mobile phones outperform standalone music players in market
share
- Push-to-talk style video clips
- Calls can be addressed by e-mail address
2008-2012
- Use of microwave photonics in local access
- Video download over network at 10 times normal speed
- 60% of internet access from mobile devices
- Software radio available in portables
- Wireless Lan access covers whole cities
- Single address for e-mails, phone calls etc
- HDTV over broadband
2011-2015
- Domestic demand reaches 50mbps/connection for each home
- Gigabit wireless in home
BT's 21CN suppliers
BT has chosen eight preferred suppliers for the 21CN project,
after two years of discussions with over 300 potential
suppliers.
Fujitsu and Huawei have been chosen for the access area, which
will link BT's existing access network with the new 21CN.
Alcatel, Cisco and Siemens have been selected as preferred
suppliers for metro nodes which provide routing and signalling for
the 21CN's voice, data and video services.
In addition, Cisco and Lucent will be the 21CNÕs preferred
suppliers for core nodes, providing high capacity and
cost-efficient connections between metro nodes. And Ericsson has
been selected for the Òi-nodeÓ area Ð the intelligence that
controls the services.
Ciena and Huawei have also been chosen for the transmission area
to supply the optical electronics that will convert the signals
carried at high capacity over the cables connecting the metro and
core nodes.
The demand for faster and extra capacity in the UK
communications network is supported by research among
businesses.