European telecom provider BT today announced its preferred suppliers for its 21st Century Network (21 CN) initiative. The carrier is investing up to £10 billion over the next five years to upgrade its network to support converged and multimedia applications.
BT named eight preferred suppliers. Fujitsu and Huawei will link BT's existing access network with the new 21 CN. Alcatel, Cisco Systems Inc. and Siemens will supply the metro nodes for routing and signalling the new network’s voice, data and video services. Meanwhile, Cisco and Lucent will be provide the core nodes that support high-capacity connections among metro nodes. Ericsson will deliver the i-node domain, which BT describes as the intelligence that controls the services. Finally, Ciena Corp. and Huawei will work 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.
"21 CN is a key infrastructure that will fuel the UK economy and provide a flexible way for consumers to use new services,” said Paul Reynolds, BT Whole CEO, in a prepared statement. “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 1 billion pounds a year."
Ciena executives said today they will use the company’s optical switching and transmission and Ethernet transport platforms to enable network convergence and accelerate service delivery. “Ciena’s applications-driven technology is ideally suited for innovative networks like 21CN,” said Gary Smith, president and CEO of Ciena, in a press release. “Ciena’s platforms … provide BT an unsurpassed level of network flexibility to enable a practical, seamless migration from TDM to IP.”
Cisco officials, too, expressed their pleasure at having won a contract with BT.
"We applaud BT for having the foresight to create a network capable of delivering the most advanced video, voice and data services to businesses and consumers globally,” said Cisco CEO John Chambers. “BT's 21st Century Network represents a major step forward for the entire communications industry, and we're proud to play such a key role in its creation."
Similarly, Alcatel said it looks forward to continuing its work with BT. “As a long-term supplier to BT, combined with the growing market success of our IP router technology … Alcatel is well suited to assist BT in this massive, ground-breaking project,” said Jacques Dunogue, executive vice president and president of Europe and South for Alcatel, in a statement.
