Delivering 21CN Across the UK

BT will confirm that Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and each of the English regions will benefit from £100s of millions of direct 21CN investment and regional development organisations will be encouraged to get ready to capitalise on the opportunity that 21CN presents for the benefit of the people that live there and businesses that operate there. BT believes it is the only operator in the world to commit to a planned national rollout of a next generation network for all – including customers in remote parts of the country.

Following the conclusion of the industry consultation on the UK rollout plan, each area of the UK will be given details on when 21CN migration starts and ends for them. Customer line and network upgrade statistics will demonstrate expected year on year progress in each area. 

Migration will be underway in all regions of the UK during the initial phases of national migration which starts in January 2008. One of the benefits is a new generation of broadband with speeds of up to 24 Mbit/s – triple the fastest speeds currently available for most UK customers. The prioritised broadband migration – underway in all regions by October 2007 – will maximise the early customer footprint for the launch of this wholesale service in January 2008.

Deb Covey, Managing Director of BT Wholesale’s network says: “The tightly managed, industry agreed, rapid rollout plan will get 21CN across the UK in the quickest possible time. The rollout plans are challenging with economic and practical realities governing rollout speed – including spend; availability of skilled labour to install and test the new equipment and the capability to manage migration volumes.” 

The new secure and intelligent communications infrastructure will deliver existing and future services designed to make people’s lives more productive and businesses more efficient. While the initial focus is ensuring we migrate existing services successfully, once customers are migrated to the most advanced communications infrastructure anywhere in the world, they will start to enjoy a range of new products and services. Services based on the convergence are now being launched, for example, BT Fusion and BT Movio and IP television. In time, there will be many more of these types of new services providing customers with more control, choice, flexibility and enjoyment – enabled by BT's 21CN investment.