Ericsson secures £110 million next-generation network order from BT

Ericsson secures £110 million next-generation network order from BT - Turning BT's existing UK telephony network into Europe's first hybrid broadband/narrowband network for new generations of voice, Internet, data and multimedia services Ericsson has been awarded a contract worth GBP 110 million (USD 180 million) by BT to supply next-generation switch nodes that will transform BT's existing telephony network into a high-capacity, Internet-enabled network architecture for all types of future information and communication services. This is the second phase of firm orders received by Ericsson as part of the £270 million frame agreement announced with BT in January 1999. This tranche of the contract covers the supply of up to 51 Ericsson AXE/AXD 301 hybrid (narrowband/broadband) nodes for BT's inter-city backbone network. The contract also includes an element of managed services over the next five years. The hybrid nodes will give BT the potential to build a unified, multi-service backbone network capable of carrying all narrowband services such as voice calls, as well as broadband services such as Internet and multimedia services. It will be the first large-scale application in Europe of a new network migration strategy developed by Ericsson, to evolve an existing narrowband network into a hybrid broadband/narrowband network. "BT is pioneering a completely new way of building a 'next-generation' network," said Paul Reynolds, Managing Director of BT Networks. "This network migration strategy, being managed in partnership with Ericsson, allows us to build on the core strengths of our existing UK backbone network, and expand its traffic capacity. The deployment of the Ericsson hybrid nodes will provide the extra network capacity needed to cope with the rapid traffic growth from BT's own services, especially Internet-based services, and also handle rising levels of voice and data traffic carried for other licensed operators. This latest order follows the successful introduction into service of the first of the new AXE trunk switches in the BT inter-city network in mid- September. This was implemented in a 'hot swap' - a new technique developed jointly by BT and Ericsson, to allow a new switch to be introduced into a live network almost instantaneously, without the usual gradual transfer of traffic from the old to the new switch. Hybrid nodes Each of Ericsson's new hybrid nodes to be deployed in BT's UK inter-city network will consist of the latest Ericsson AXE switch, for circuit-switched voice traffic, integrated together with an Ericsson AXD301 ATM switch for packet-switched data traffic. This creates a common infrastructure for both voice and data traffic. It is the ATM switch part of the nodes that will allow Internet-based services to be carried economically and flexibly. BT currently has one of the Ericsson 40Gbit/s ATM switches undergoing evaluation in its laboratories. UK initiative attracts global interest BT was the first European telco to choose Ericsson's hybrid network strategy as the preferred way to introduce next-generation broadband capabilities into a legacy narrowband network. The BT decision has attracted considerable worldwide interest, and in recent months two other European telcos have chosen the same network migration path, and chosen Ericsson as the supplier. They are Telia Denmark and Dutch-based KPN International. Ericsson is the leading provider in the new telecoms world, with communications solutions that combine telecom and datacom technologies with freedom of mobility for the user. With more than 100,000 employees in 140 countries, Ericsson simplifies communications for its customers - network operators, service providers, enterprises and consumers - the world over. Please visit Ericsson's Press Room at: http://www.ericsson.se/pressroom FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT Paula Wagstaff, Media Relations Director Phone: +44 1444 234 354; E-mail: paula.wagstaff@etl.ericsson.se Antoinette Torell, Ericsson Corporate Communications Phone: +46 70 519 3699, +41 79 378 0069 E-mail: antoinette.torell@lme.ericsson.se