BT ups 21CN trials

UK incumbent British Telecom (BT) Wednesday said that trials on its 21st Century Network (21CN) have been ratcheted up, with the next generation network now handling more than 625,000 live customer calls every day.

In the latest trial stage of the 21CN, the network has carried more than 23 million customer calls successfully over an IP link between two major network nodes at Cambridge and Woolwich. The IP network link replaces the circuit switched technology used on the traditional analogue telephone network (PSTN).

The volume of calls being handled by the trial platform represents around one per cent of BT’s current PSTN trunk network call traffic, the company said.

At present, BT is in the process of upgrading equipment to bring the trial network closer to the ultimate 21CN design that will be rolled out across the UK. Multi service access nodes (MSAN) from Huawei and Fujitsu are being installed at 18 exchanges in South East London, Kent and East Anglia.

Commencing in November, the first mass migration of customers will begin, with some 350,000 end customer lines in Cardiff and the surrounding area being moved to the network.