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TELECOMS group BT today launched a £10bn, five-year programme to upgrade its network from its decades-old voice telephony system to a full broadband service using internet protocol.
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Paul Reynolds, head of BT Wholesale, said: 'The 21st Century Network will deliver our vision of a converged, multimedia world where our customers can access any communications service from any device, anywhere - and at broadband speed.'
Within five years the vast majority of phone lines in this country will be broadband and customers will not need to ask BT to switch them across because their computers, phones or TVs will automatically do it.
Reynolds said that while the system will deliver 'TV-like' services, BT has no plans to become a TV broadcaster.
The company reckons that by the end of the five-year programme it should save about £1bn a year as it cuts out duplication of systems and continues to shed jobs, although Reynolds said he did not expect this to add to BT's current net cutting of 5,000 jobs each year.
The first trial of the internet protocol network will start in October using the Woolwich and Cambridge exchanges. Customers should notice little change with the quality of voice calls potentially better than now.
At the same time BT will also test delivering the final connection to customers through fibre-optic rather than copper cables. Reynolds said this will happen only in greenfield sites including Silvertown in Docklands and that BT has no plans to dig masses of holes across the country.
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