BTPLC Annual Report 2006 - Business review - Transform our networks, systems and services for the twenty-first century

Our UK network today

BT has the most comprehensive communications network in the UK, with around 5,600 exchanges, 680 local and 103 trunk processor units, more than 121 million kilometres of copper wire and more than eight million kilometres of optical fibre, and the most extensive IP backbone network in the UK. The network services we provide include frame relay, ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) and IPVPN.

Our global reach today

We have one of the broadest IP-enabled networks in Europe and our network-based services extend to and across North and South America and the Asia Pacific region.
As at 31 March 2006, our flagship MPLS network service provided coverage and support to over 90 countries from more than 1,200 points of presence. Our MPLS revenue grew by 34% during the 2006 financial year, exceeding £400 million.
Global customer service is provided via service and network management centres around the world, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Twenty-first century network

We believe that our 21CN programme is the most ambitious business transformation programme in the global telecommunications industry today and one of the largest ever investments by a private company in the UK’s infrastructure.
     An end-to-end, next-generation IP network, 21CN is designed to consolidate BT’s complex network and systems infrastructure to ensure that the delivery of the next generation of converged services is fast, efficient and highly cost effective. In the 2006 financial year, for example, we developed the first new 21CN services based on re-usable capabilities. Rather than being product-specific, re-usable capabilities form the basis for a range of products and applications, enhancing the customer experience by reducing product development and launch times and proving more cost effective for BT.
     In April 2005 we announced the preferred suppliers that will help us build the 21CN. Following one of the largest procurement programmes ever undertaken in the communications industry, formal contractual agreements were reached with all eight – Alcatel, Ciena, Cisco, Ericsson, Fujitsu, Huawei, Lucent and Siemens. The first equipment orders have been placed under these contracts.
     Following extensive technical trials in the 2006 financial year – including successfully carrying more than six million voice calls over a trial IP network – we developed a comprehensive national migration and roll-out plan, which is currently subject to industry consultation.
     As the first stage of the mass migration of customers to 21CN, we will be rolling out the new network to business and residential customers in Cardiff and the surrounding area, including many served by other telephone and internet service providers and mobile operators. We anticipate that the full, national roll out of 21CN will be substantially complete by 2010.
     We are committed to building open, transparent and inclusive relationships with the rest of the industry and launched Consult21 in the 2005 financial year in order to promote a shared understanding of the 21CN vision and the progress we are making towards it. Since then, many of our wholesale customers have contributed to what is now the largest voluntary industry consultation programme of its kind anywhere in the communications world today.

What 21CN will mean for customers

21CN will mean the ability to customise, personalise and change in real time services based on the convergence of voice, mobility, video, data and content. Ultimately, it is expected to support the introduction of many more new services than are currently available, offering greater customer choice.
Corporate and public sector customers will be able to work more efficiently with suppliers, structure their internal processes, enhance customer service and drive down costs by deploying integrated networked IT solutions across their entire supply chains.

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