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BT Announces Preferred Suppliers for 21st Century Network ProgramLONDON, April 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- BT today took a major step towards delivering its 21st Century Network with the selection of its preferred suppliers. The 21st Century Network is the world's most radical next generation network transformation program. It will require an investment by BT of up to 10 billion pounds Sterling over the next five years and will put the UK at the cutting edge of innovation, providing industry with a real competitive advantage, and consumers with a world-class communication service for the 21st Century. A final list of eight preferred suppliers has been chosen to work with BT in five strategic domains: 1. Fujitsu and Huawei have been chosen in the access domain which will link BT's existing access network with the new 21CN. 2. Alcatel, Cisco and Siemens have been selected as preferred suppliers for metro nodes which provide routing and signalling for 21CN's voice, data and video services. 3. Cisco and Lucent will be 21CN's preferred suppliers for core nodes providing high capacity and cost efficient connections between metro nodes. 4. Ericsson has been selected in the i-node domain -- in essence the intelligence that controls the services. 5. Ciena and Huawei have been chosen in the transmission domain to supply the optical electronics that will convert the signals carried at high capacity over the cables connecting the metro and core nodes. The selection of these eight suppliers will allow dozens of smaller and innovative subcontractors to become involved in the delivery of the 21st Century Network. The program will attract significant new investment and employment to the UK. Matt Bross, BT Group's chief technology officer said: "The capability that BT is putting in place through this investment in 21CN is unequalled anywhere in the world. It will enable us to introduce new services at a speed that is simply impossible today." Paul Reynolds, BT Wholesale chief executive, the BT Board member responsible for the program, added: "21 CN is a key infrastructure that will fuel the UK economy and provide a flexible way for consumers to use new services. The selection of the preferred suppliers is an incredibly important building block towards that vision. 21CN will also radically reduce BT's cost base, with identified savings of around one billion pounds a year." In order to achieve world class delivery of the program, the selection of suppliers has been about much more than choosing technology and selecting partners. The commercial agreements, which the company expects to conclude over the summer, will include open standards and a focus on whole life costs. About BT BT is one of the world's leading providers of communications solutions serving customers in Europe, the Americas and Asia Pacific. Its principal activities include IT and networking services, local, national and international telecommunications services, and higher-value broadband and internet products and services. BT consists principally of three lines of business: * BT Retail, providing a comprehensive range of communications and related services to more than 20m UK consumers and businesses. * BT Wholesale, providing network services and solutions within the UK to more than 600 fixed and mobile operators and service providers including the provision of broadband and private circuits. * BT Global Services, providing IT and networking services to meet the needs of multi-site organisations globally. BT Global Services operates in more than 130 countries and also offers international carrier services. In the year ended 31 March 2004, BT Group's turnover was 18,519 million pounds with profit before goodwill amortisation, exceptional items and taxation of 2,013 million pounds. BT Group plc is listed on stock exchanges in London and New York. British Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group and encompasses virtually all businesses and assets of the BT Group. For more information, visit http://www.bt.com/aboutbt NOTES TO EDITORS: Preferred suppliers have been chosen across each offive strategic domains. The domains are access, metro, core, i-nodes,transmissions. Access Metro Core I-Nodes Transmission Fujitsu Alcatel Cisco Ericsson Ciena Huawei Cisco Lucent Huawei Siemens * Access - the access domain in this context is the aggregation equipment which will link BT's existing access network, initially carrying voice and data services from end users on to the 21CN core IP based network. * Metro nodes provide the routing and signalling functions for the unified 21CN network for voice, data and video. * Core nodes are the high capacity, large scale routers providing cost efficient connections between metro nodes. * i-node is where the service execution functionality is located - in essence the intelligence that controls services. In the 21CN context, this includes soft switches, network intelligence and bandwidth management capabilities. * Transmission includes the optical fibre transport infrastructure that connects all nodes in 21CN but also the electronics that converts the signals carried at high capacity over the cables connecting the MSANs, metro and core nodes. Much of the optical fibre infrastructure is already in place and today we are announcing the preferred suppliers for the optical electronics. (BT) BT CONTACT: Diane Noe, BT Public Relations, +1-703-755-6215,[email protected] Web site: http://www.bt.com/http://www.bt.com/aboutbt |