Alcatel-Lucent this week announced a five-year agreement with U.K.-based BT for the evolution of its 21st Century Network (21CN).
Company officials said that this project leverages Alcatel-Lucent's High Leverage Network architecture and transformational services. It is expected to further evolve BT's infrastructure and will allow the company to expedite network convergence, increase capacity and deliver content cost effectively.
In addition, the 21CN will help BT prepare to introduce new video-rich services to an expanded base of wholesale and retail subscribers. Customers in more than 170 countries will benefit from the development of this project and will help BT to strengthen its position in the U.K. by increasing performance, capacity and bandwidth to a larger customer base.
George Nazi, managing director, BT 21CN Core Convergence, said that 21CN is a huge transformational program that provides a network for the future that requires a game-changing approach. Alcatel-Lucent came up with an innovative solution that will help BT keep 21CN at the forefront of innovation and radical change, he said.
The demand for video-rich content continues to rapidly grow, making it more critical to accelerate the transition to a unified smart IP network, as well as an open application environment that will enable new business models. The 21CN will enable BT to increase revenues and reduce costs while migrating to new business models that offer much greater profitability.
An innovative end-to-end transport solution delivered by Alcatel-Lucent supports its HLN vision and aligns well with BT's business drivers. This solution tightly integrates IP and optical transport resources as well as professional services to help BT manage the rapid growth in network traffic while cutting operational and maintenance costs.
BT continues to face a growing residential subscriber base, creating greater demand for bandwidth expansion. As the company strives to meet this demand and prepare for new rich media services, it is also taking an innovative approach its residential IP service delivery architecture.
