BT related Press Releases

BT to expand footprint for UK's fastest broadband; 100Mb/s broadband to be rolled out to c.2.5 million premises

Mike Dolan — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 08:44:55 -0400

BT to expand footprint for UK's fastest broadband; 100Mb/s broadband to be rolled out to c.2.5 million premises
(M2 PressWIRE Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) BT today revealed plans to more than double the availability of its fastest fibre broadband service. The company said it now plans to deliver speeds of up to 100Mb/s - the fastest in the UK - to around 2.5 million UK homes and businesses using fibre-to-the-premise (FTTP) technology. This has the capacity to deliver far greater speeds in the future - of up to 1Gbps - should there be commercial demand.

BT had originally planned to roll out FTTP to approximately one million premises - within its overall plan to reach c.10 million homes with fibre by 2012 - with the remaining homes receiving fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) services (which will deliver initial speeds of up to 40Mb/s). BT will now deploy FTTP in some areas where copper services are already available. This represents a broadening of BT's strategy as initially FTTP was to be deployed in new build sites only.

BT has been making good progress with all aspects of its fibre programme and is commercially ahead of target. This has allowed the expansion of FTTP availability to be contained within its overall investment of GBP1.5 billion. The roll out of fibre services has begun and BT has confirmed that 1.5 million homes will have access by next summer.

The wider availability of FTTP services will help the government realise its aims for Digital Britain by helping the UK to climb the broadband speed tables. BT's recent announcement that it is rolling out faster copper broadband - offering speeds of up to 24Mb/s - to 75 per cent of UK homes will also have a beneficial impact.

BT is keen to deploy fibre more widely but, as has been seen with other countries, such deployment typically requires support from the public sector. This fact was recognised in the recent Digital Britain report. BT's network is unique in the UK in that it is open to all communications providers on a fair and equal basis and this will continue to be the case with fibre. This open platform will help to foster competition to the benefit of consumers and businesses.

Steve Robertson, CEO of Openreach, the part of BT responsible for deploying the technology said, "This development shows that we are determined to bring world-leading broadband speeds to UK homes and businesses. Service providers have asked us for more FTTP and so we have listened to them. The UK already leads the world when it comes to broadband availability and today's announcement will help the UK climb the speed league tables as well. The UK is well placed but we need to invest for the future so that customers can access the rich applications that will be popular in a few years time." Today's announcement closely follows Openreach's selection of Bradwell Abbey in Milton Keynes and Highams Park, London, as the first "brownfield" trial sites for FTTP. Up to 20,000 homes and businesses in each area will receive speeds of up to 100Mb/s by March 2010. Openreach will use the trial to learn more about the performance of the technology and the economics of rolling out fibre directly to homes in areas where copper services are already available.

Enquiries about this news release should be made to the BT Group Newsroom.

About BT BT is one of the world's leading providers of communications solutions and services operating in 170 countries. Its principal activities include the provision of networked IT services globally; local, national and international telecommunications services to our customers for use at home, at work and on the move; broadband and internet products and services and converged fixed/mobile products and services. BT consists principally of four lines of business: BT Global Services, Openreach, BT Retail and BT Wholesale.

In the year ended 31 March 2009, BT Group's revenue was GBP21,390 million.

British Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group plc and encompasses virtually all businesses and assets of the BT Group. BT Group plc is listed on stock exchanges in London and New York.

BT acquires Ribbit

Jim O'Neill — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 10:28:01 -0400

BT today announced it has acquired Ribbit Corporation, a Silicon Valley-based “Telco 2.0” platform company, for $105 million in cash, on a cash-free, debt-free basis. The acquisition will accelerate BT’s strategy to transform itself into a next- generation, platform-based, software-driven services company.
Based in Mountain View, California, Ribbit – “Silicon Valley’s First Phone Company” – provides an open platform which enables developers to create new and innovative voice applications and services by combining telephony and internet technologies in new ways.

JP Rangaswami, managing director of service design at BT, said: "Silicon Valley is emerging as a hotbed of telecommunications innovation. With Ribbit, not only do we extend our presence in the Valley, but we also gain a groundbreaking platform, a growing community of developers and a world-class team that share a common vision. Buying Ribbit lets us accelerate that vision.”

Ted Griggs, Chief Executive of Ribbit, said: “The communications industry is entering a new phase. Closed networks are becoming open platforms and developers are now driving innovation. By adding Ribbit’s capability to the power of BT’s global 21CN platform, we will now be able to give the development community the tools they need to innovate on a global scale. We are delighted – BT is exactly the partner we were seeking.”

Using Ribbit’s platform, developers are able to add voice and automation features to virtually any web-based application or community. For example, using Ribbit, developers have integrated voice into salesforce.com and built voice applications that run directly from Facebook or iGoogle. Since its launch, Ribbit has attracted thousands of developers, launched an innovative solution for the enterprise software market, and has begun testing a consumer application scheduled for general release later this year.

The acquisition of the Ribbit platform will complement BT’s existing capability in the software platform space with its award-winning Software Development Kit (SDK) initiative. BT’s SDKs enable developers to integrate new applications with BT’s services using a single line of code. Ribbit, which will maintain its management team and identity, will extend its global footprint by becoming part of BT, one of the world’s leading providers of communications solutions and services operating in 170 countries.

Michael Boustridge, President, BT Americas said: “The Ribbit platform makes it simpler, cheaper and faster to build communications functionality into applications, enabling developers to introduce new revenue-generating voice services in hours, rather than weeks. By combining the Ribbit platform with BT’s existing web services, we have the potential to deliver some of the world’s finest applications for communications innovation benefiting consumers and businesses alike.”

Ribbit Corporation was founded in February 2006 and funded by venture capital firms Alsop Louie Partners, Allegis Capital, KPG Ventures and Peninsula Ventures. Ribbit is being acquired from these firms and other stockholders of Ribbit’s, including founders and employees.

BT Selects Alcatel-Lucent IP Service Router to Expand its 21CN Ethernet Footprint

Jim O'Neill — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 06:47:44 -0400

PARIS, June 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext: Paris
and NYSE: ALU) today announced that it has been chosen by BT to supply its IP
Service Router in an expanded role within BT's 21CN all-IP national rollout.
Alcatel-Lucent is a preferred supplier to the 21CN project with the 7750
Service Router (SR) operational in many locations. The 7750 SR deployments
will now be expanded in line with BT's announced customer-driven plans to
extend its Ethernet services with additional points-of-presence in the metro
elements of the network. The value of the contract has not been disclosed.

After the introduction of 21CN Ethernet and broadband services early this
year, BT is now expanding the footprint and functionality of both services.
When completed by April 2009, the project will see next generation Ethernet
services available across the widest footprint in the UK.

"BT has a commitment to meet our customers' increasing demand for
Ethernet services and has therefore set out an aggressive expansion strategy
for our 21CN Ethernet footprint," said Karl Penaluna, director, IP and Data
platforms at BT. "Alcatel-Lucent's existing involvement with 21CN gives us
confidence we can achieve these timescales."

The Alcatel-Lucent 7750 SR solution enables BT to offer true Ethernet
any-to-any, multi-site solutions as well as multiple classes of service on an
on-demand and application-by-application basis.

"This further expansion of our industry-leading 7750 SR solution in BT's
21CN network is a clear endorsement of the technological lead this product
has. Its Quality of Service, reliability and service awareness features are
critical factors in the delivery of mission-critical Ethernet Services to
BT's customers," said Basil Alwan, President of IP activities at
Alcatel-Lucent. "Alcatel-Lucent is supporting BT's project to roll out
Ethernet-based services as customer demand grows and is pleased to be playing
an expanded role in the delivery of this exciting new all-IP network."

In addition, Alcatel-Lucent is also supplying professional services to BT
21CN, including development of automated programs to migrate subscribers to
the new networks. It is also providing a service to manage provision of
spares for BT's existing network under a single-point-of-contact multi-vendor
contract.

Alcatel-Lucent IP/MPLS solutions have been selected by more than 200
service providers in more than 90 countries. During the first quarter of
2008, Alcatel-Lucent reinforced its #2 position in IP/MPLS edge garnering 18%
of the market according to Ovum-RHK. For more information, please visit:
http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/ipnews

About Alcatel-Lucent

Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) provides solutions that
enable service providers, enterprise and governments worldwide, to deliver
voice, data and video communication services to end-users. As a leader in
fixed, mobile and converged broadband networking, IP technologies,
applications and services, Alcatel-Lucent offers the end-to-end solutions
that enable compelling communications services for people at home, at work
and on the move. With operations in more than 130 countries, Alcatel-Lucent
is a local partner with global reach. The company has the most experienced
global services team in the industry, and one of the largest research,
technology and innovation organizations in the telecommunications industry.
Alcatel-Lucent achieved revenues of Euro 17.8 billion in 2007 and is
incorporated in France, with executive offices located in Paris. For more
information, visit Alcatel-Lucent on the Internet:
http://www.alcatel-lucent.com