{"id":242,"date":"2006-01-23T10:16:00","date_gmt":"2006-01-23T10:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwilson.me.uk\/blog\/2006\/01\/bts-view-of-networks-in-21st-century.htm"},"modified":"2007-03-16T10:15:00","modified_gmt":"2007-03-16T10:15:00","slug":"bts-view-of-networks-in-21st-century","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2006\/01\/bts-view-of-networks-in-21st-century.htm","title":{"rendered":"BT’s view of networks in the 21st century"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last year, I wrote about the emergence of MPLS as an alternative network technology to traditional leased lines<\/a>. It seems that everyone I work with is in the process of, or thinking about, dumping their kilostream\/megastream\/frame relay links and moving to something more cost-efficient.<\/p>\n

Thus<\/a> have a full-page advert in this week’s IT Week<\/a> for their National Ethernet<\/a> (a UK-based network with points of presence from the Shetland Islands to the south coast of England, but strangely none in Wales, east or south-west England). COLT<\/a>, have their EuroLAN<\/a> (only three UK POPs, but coverage in many major European cities) and BT<\/a> are touting their global presence, whilst investing heavily in their 21st Century Network<\/a> (dubbed 21CN).<\/p>\n

Last week I was present at a presentation given by BT about what they call the “digital networked economy” (and their 21CN). Although they wouldn’t share their slide deck with me, I’m not aware of any non-disclosure agreement and much of the following information is available from a Google search anyway!<\/p>\n

BT explained that the “inter-human web” has arrived. After the Internet had existed for many years as an e-mail and file transfer mechanism, mainly used by government and educational establishments, Sir Tim Berners-Lee<\/a> invented the world wide web, making the Internet user-friendly. Now we have a collaborative infrastructure built on e-mail, file transfer and the human aspects that the web provides and furthermore, according to BT, “a hurricane is ripping our industry apart”:<\/p>\n