UK telco BT is to switch voice customers in South Wales to an IP-based network.
BT [BTA.L] first announced plans in June 2004 to move its entire customer base on to an IP-based network. That move was a world first, as it was the first time that a major carrier had agreed to totally abandon a traditional public switched telephone network in favor of an IP-based network.
The change will have huge implications for business users, and remove most of the complications involved in setting up secure virtual private networks to enable remote workers to access company networks. It also opens the way for a flood of new services such as TV over IP that will challenge existing satellite and cable providers.
According to BT, customer feedback from the first mass customer migration project will help it finalize plans to roll out the 21CN to customers across the UK by the end of the decade.
This will require the replacement of equipment in more than 50 local exchanges, and the implementation of new IT systems to underpin the delivery of services to customers. Before services go live over the new infrastructure, all exchange sites in the area will be assessed for power supply, space, and logistics planning.
The 21CN project is just one of a number of strategies BT is implementing to take up the slack from its declining legacy business, and over the past few years it has transformed itself from a lumbering carrier into an innovative and proactive telecoms operator.
This transformation is mostly due to the fact that it cannot rely on a mobile operation to act as a growth engine. Unfortunately for BT, it fell victim to the prevailing financial wisdom of the time and spun out its mobile arm BT Cellnet in 2001 to pay off debts. This deprived it of a growing revenue stream that could have been used to offset the decline in its voice services business.
Realistically, however, the company has no alternative but to throw its energies into what it terms ‘new wave’ areas such as information and communications technology solutions, broadband, mobility, and managed services.
