The tiny village of Wick, near Cardiff, is the first
conurbation in the UK to be served by BT’s new IP-based 21st
Century Network (21CN).
The £10bn 21CN will deliver improved voice, data, broadband and
multimedia services to users, and save BT money in operating
expenses.
The current basic broadband speed offered by BT nationally is
8mbps. BT says the 21CN will help it move towards a basic 24mbps
broadband speed.
BT has so far re-built around 10% of the UK’s core national
communications infrastructure, installed 21CN equipment at over 100
sites across the UK, and laid more than 2,300 kilometres of new
fibre optic cable in south Wales.
Following the first phase of customer migrations in Wick,
customers in Cardiff, Bridgend and the Pontypridd area will be the
next to have their voice and broadband services transferred to
21CN.
By the end of summer 2007, around 350,000 customer lines in
south Wales are expected to have been migrated to the new
infrastructure.
Comment on this article:
computer.weekly@rbi.co.uk