November 29th, 2006 by Wendy McAuliffe
BT’s next-generation communications network, that will replace the copper wires that we’ve lived with for the past 100+ years, was debuted in the Welsh village of Wick yesterday.
BT has a habit of picking unlikely places for its technology trials. Read more about the first IP phone call made across the 21CN network between an 11-year-old resident and a bishop on ZDNet UK.
The network upgrade will cost around £10bn, and the completion date is been extended to 2011 after BT admitted that the programme should have taken 10 years.
November 29th, 2006 at 3:56 pm
BT might be investing in a new network, but it needs to make sure that it has services to run on it. They do phone and they do internet, but where’s the TV mobile phone network? They have never had the former and sold the latter.
With Sky moving into broadband and NTL/Virgin Media offering TV along with phone and internet, BT might get left behind.
I have just left BT after many years (to NTL of all people – but they are cheaper for more services, not just expert at missing appointments). For me, BT needs a better customer package first and foremost.
November 29th, 2006 at 4:20 pm
Interestly, around four years ago BT was investing a lot of research into IPTV. I saw a demonstration of the service it was working on, which was based on the Homechoice model, at its home of the future in Adastral Park.
I’m a bit out of the loop now, but have heard very little about it since.
My ISP is Tiscali and in the past couple of weeks I’ve received letters about TV/talk packages they are planning for next year. I agree that BT is in danger of getting left behind.
Would be good to have a response from BT on this!