Ericsson Supplies Hardware for the BT Group’s New 21st Century Network
February 26th, 2006 - Posted in VoIPBT Group will offer converged voice and data services to customers across the Asia-Pacific region.
Swedish wireless networking hardware manufacturer Ericsson will provide VoIP infrastructure for the BT (British Telecommunications) Group’s next generation network program. BT announced several of its preferred suppliers for its next generation network transformation program – the 21st Century Network (21CN) -late last December. Ericsson is still awaiting its finalized contract from BT but its status as a hardware provider is confirmed. It will supply its AXD multiservice switch, which includes VOIP processing capabilities, to the carrier’s international division, BT Global Services.
BT Global is making an investment of £12 million ($20.9 million) to update voice capabilities. About half of the investment will go toward developing the platform for the Asia-Pacific region. The BT Group’s current legacy TDM network will be replaced by an MPLS-based network across more than 30 countries worldwide.
The carrier’s primary objective is to upgrade its current Class 4 switches which are used to manage voice traffic for about 1000 corporate clients. The upgrade with allow BT to handle more traffic and enable it to supply voice services such as VoIP calls, email and videoconferencing.
Tom Craig, president, IP Networking, BT Global Services, states, “A single integrated voice platform with MPLS enables customers to leverage the true benefits of globalization, avoiding the complexities and overheads of a patch-worked networking environment. The investment also allows BT to easily integrate all of its global networks to achieve improved cost control and customer integration to convergence.”
VoIP services over the new platform are already offered in 12 countries after a successful phase one deployment. BT’s strategy will be to roll out to three new countries per quarter while the legacy platform will be withdrawn in 2008.