Building our twenty-first century network

The key driver behind our 21CN platform is customer choice. 21CN is our next generation platform that enables software-driven, open innovation by BT, our customers and partners and is critical to our transformation into a software-driven global communications services company.
     Following input from end users and communications providers involved in our South Wales pilot, we have evolved our deployment strategy from one focused on mass migrating customers onto the new network, with new services becoming available later, to one that delivers new services to customers from the outset.
     As a result of the new deployment strategy, new services, such as 21CN Ethernet and 21CN broadband, will be offered to customers during periods of voluntary take-up, after which customers will be mass migrated, enabling the closure and decommissioning of certain legacy platforms.
     Through this new deployment strategy, we will be able to deliver new services more quickly, with the associated benefits of increased revenue potential and improved customer experience. To date, 21CN has already delivered some £600 million in cost savings, relating to operating efficiencies and reduced spend on legacy networks, and we expect to deliver more savings in the future taking the total annualised savings to at least £1 billion.
     The 21CN programme has also been expanded to accommodate the increasing focus on software-driven services, as well as the potential of emerging technologies and the demand from enterprise customers for additional functionality. As a result, we will introduce the BT innovation platform during the summer of 2008, which will enable us and others to develop and integrate a wide array of new applications that will add features and value both to the new 21CN services, and to completely new services.