Nortel joins BT's 21CN gang

It's all about the Ethernet

Nortel has become the latest vendor on BT's books for supplying 21CN kit.

Nortel will now be one of the suppliers of BT's 21CN Ethernet, which will carry high bandwidth services including full streaming video.

Matt Beal, director core convergence, BT Wholesale, said in a statement: "We have been anticipating the widespread deployment of Ethernet in our 21CN architecture for a while but have been waiting for development to help make the technology viable for deployment in carrier-grade networks."

Alcatel, Ciena, Cisco, Ericsson, Fujitsu, Huawei, Lucent and Siemens all already made the procurement cut.

BT is the first telco to be making the switch to an all-IP network, which it expects to be finished by 2011 at a cost of around £10bn. The first customers have already been switched on to the network, in the Cardiff area.

BT recently announced a venture to resell its knowledge of next-generation networks to rival telcos, where some industry watchers believe its experience of procurement will be of benefit.