Alcatel-Lucent is a preferred supplier to the 21CN project with the 7750 Service Router (SR) operational in many locations. The 7750 SR deployments will now be expanded in line with BT's announced customer-driven plans to extend its Ethernet services with additional points-of-presence in the metro elements of the network. The value of the contract has not been disclosed.
After the introduction of 21CN Ethernet and broadband services early this year, BT is now expanding the footprint and functionality of both services. When completed by April 2009, the project will see next generation Ethernet services available across the widest footprint in the UK.
“BT has a commitment to meet our customers’ increasing demand for Ethernet services and has therefore set out an aggressive expansion strategy for our 21CN Ethernet footprint,” said Karl Penaluna, director, IP and Data platforms at BT. “Alcatel-Lucent’s existing involvement with 21CN gives us confidence we can achieve these timescales.”
The Alcatel-Lucent 7750 SR solution enables BT to offer true Ethernet any-to-any, multi-site solutions as well as multiple classes of service on an on-demand and application-by-application basis.
“This further expansion of our industry-leading 7750 SR solution in BT’s 21CN network is a clear endorsement of the technological lead this product has. Its Quality of Service, reliability and service awareness features are critical factors in the delivery of mission-critical Ethernet Services to BT’s customers,” said Basil Alwan, President of IP activities at Alcatel-Lucent. “Alcatel-Lucent is supporting BT’s project to roll out Ethernet-based services as customer demand grows and is pleased to be playing an expanded role in the delivery of this exciting new all-IP network.”
In addition, Alcatel-Lucent is also supplying professional services to BT 21CN, including development of automated programs to migrate subscribers to the new networks. It is also providing a service to manage provision of spares for BT’s existing network under a single-point-of-contact multi-vendor contract.