BT outlines 21C network upgrade

UK incumbent British Telecom (BT) revealed further plans for the transition to its next generation 21st century network (21CN) Monday.

Starting in late November, BT aims to begin the planned upgrade of voice and broadband services for customers in Cardiff and the surrounding area.

All work will be carried out at BT’s telephone exchanges, with the first stage of the new network to be delivered in three phases. Phase one, to run from November until March 2007, will see the upgrade of voice services to some 10 per cent of customer lines in Cardiff and the surrounding area. Phase two, from April to mid-May 2007, will deliver a further 10 per cent of upgraded lines.

By the summer of 2007, BT expects to have upgraded all 350,000 customer lines. 90,000 of these lines also support broadband and ISDN2 and ISDN30 services. Private circuit-based services, which typically support business-critical corporate applications, will not be migrated on to the new network until much later in the programme.

At the end of the final stage of the Cardiff upgrade, BT and other UK communications providers plan to begin an in depth review before moving to the planned national upgrade of all remaining customers across the UK, comprising some 30 million lines supported from over 5,500 telephone exchanges, from January 2008.