Inverness is among the first string of Scottish locations scheduled by BT to pioneer the new generation of Internet-call routing local exchanges.
The Highland capital joins other major Scottish cities in the first round of a £1 billion plus investment plan by BT to bring 21st Century Network (21CN) technology to Scottish exchanges over the next five years. The switch to internet routing from traditional copper cabling and fibre will enable superior voice, data, video and broadband services.
Work will commence from January 2008 in Inverness, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Stirling, Perth and Paisley as well as towns including Dunfermline, Falkirk, Musselburgh and Newton Mearns. Among the services that will be rolled out as a result is 24 Mbps broadband, which BT hope will be available to around half the UK from the beginning of 2008. The build should, it is hoped, be substantially complete by the end of the decade
Brendan Dick, BT’s national manager for Scotland, said: “Our investment in the world’s most advanced communications infrastructure will benefit everyone in Scotland and create an environment capable of transforming everything we do.
“It opens the door to a range of new products and entertainment options being developed by service providers, which customers will be able to enjoy once they are migrated to the new network, building on emerging innovations such as television down your mobile phone and video over broadband.”
BT is pledging to make 21CN available to communities in more rural parts of the country as well as densely populated towns and cities, and in doing so is “the only communications company in the world to bring next generation network services to all people, regardless of where they live.”
As an example, BT say that Crathie in Aberdeenshire and Dufftown in Moray will be connected to 21CN voice services in the same phase as large parts of Aberdeen, and the rural community of Tobermory on the Isle of Mull and the islanders of Gigha at the same time as wide areas of Greater Glasgow.
The project will involve the replacement of equipment at 1070 exchanges across Scotland. Eight super exchanges – known as metro nodes and providing routing and signalling for the unified 21CN network for voice, data and video – will be located at strategic points across the country.
More than 2.2 million lines in Scotland – serving business and residential customers of all UK telecommunications operators – will eventually be transferred over to the new network, as part of the biggest transformation the UK communications industry has ever seen.
