Bt 21Cn Changes

[james.wilson]

BT has announced that it is to cease its migration of the PSTN to the 21CN IP core.

During a review of the 21CN voice project by BT, it was decided that the mass migration to the 21CN voice platform, including the 275,000 line migration planned for Pathfinder Volume POTS during 2010 will be ceased with immediate effect. This will also affect the planned trials of ISDN migration. It is not expected thatthe mass migration will be resumed or revisited in the near future.

This IMHO is welcome news for all of us. I still beleive we may have an issue with all pstn comms devices, as BT are now rolling out FTC and FTH (fibre to the cabinet / home) This may or may not be 21CN based, but being fibre no power will be available from the comms provider. So in the event of a power failure the site end comms equipment (obviously not the battery backed intruder alarm) will most probably power down. This needs IMO some serious thought as to how to combat this issue. Obviously 3g/gprs will play a part but i personally would prefer a way of powering these BT devices from the security system. Maybe BT's IP Comms product wasnt such a bad idea ofter all.

Dave Wilkinson, Technical Manager at the BSIA, comments: "The sheer volume of legacy communicators on this network has meant much time has been spent by BSIA members in probing and testing 21CN. This change of direction, which also affects ISDN, now leaves the focus on Fibre to the cabinet, and to the premises."

BT has cited customer experience, as well as an unexpected longevity of PSTN networks, as two key reasons why this decision has been reached. Alongside this, BT's need to recognise the direction that Openreach will take with a voice service over FTTP is important, along with the fact that large elements of the voice market have moved, or have announced plans to move, to fully unbundled lines no longer requiring a voice service from BT. BT also aims to avoid a negative customer experience for end users through multiple service-impacting migrations.

Dave Wilkinson continues: "The BSIA continues to break ground with Ofcom and now the newly-formed NGNuk forum to build on our understanding and awareness of the specifications of the network associated with the fibre offerings that BT and the other Next Generation Network Communications providers will deliver across the UK."

For discussion please see the Standard and regulations area in the trade areas.

[Guest RJBsec]

For 21CN now read Next Generation Network.

[A-G]

Never thought about it before, but if phone lines are gonna be FO and no voltage at the phone point that'll preumably mean standard phones won't work. That would have lot's of implications ....... eg. if the power fails in my house during a fire there wouldn't be any way of dialling out. (My mobile relies on a powered signal booster).

[james.wilson]

Never thought about it before, but if phone lines are gonna be FO and no voltage at the phone point that'll preumably mean standard phones won't work. That would have lot's of implications ....... eg. if the power fails in my house during a fire there wouldn't be any way of dialling out. (My mobile relies on a powered signal booster).

There may be. The info we have from bt is that there will be a unit, im assuming like the home highway box, that will contain battery backup etc. My concern is who is going to look after this bit of kit? us?