BT to start rolling out 21CN after trial success

BT has completed testing of its 21st Century Network (21CN) and is now planning to roll it out across the UK.

The trial network - linking BT exchanges in central London, Woolwich and Cambridge - carried over 160 million (VoIP) calls, with the same or better quality levels than the existing PSTN network, according to the telco.

The 21CN IP-based network went live in Wales in November of last year. Next, 350,000 customers in Cardiff and the surrounding area will be connected and the completion of the trial mean that BT can now begin implementing nationwide migration from the existing PSTN network. This will start with broadband services in early 2008.

"This trial has been hugely significant in informing our plans for the nationwide deployment of 21CN," says Matt Beal, CTO of BT Wholesale. "Its completion demonstrates the tremendous strides that we've made together with our strategic vendors and communications provider customers in bringing 21CN from concept to reality for end-customers."

Beal recalled that the "pioneering" 21CN voice trial network made communications history in 2005 when it carried the world's first phone calls over an all IP next generation infrastructure.

BT is staking a huge amount on 21CN. Having rejected fibre-to-the-home - with at least some justification - the telco will rely on this infrastructure to deliver bandwidth intensive services, such as HDTV.

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