BT Wholesale has signed Cisco's Content Delivery System (CDS) to operate its long awaited BT Content Connect (BTCC) service and handle the growing demand for broadband internet video / TV services (e.g. Project Canvas UK). BTCC will be capable of caching popular video content, effectively on the ISP's own network, as opposed to dragging it over several Internet servers to reach the end-user; this lowers congestion, cuts costs and speeds up performance.

Many media groups already use Content Delivery Networks (CDN), such as Akamai, but these services often only reach the edge of an ISPs network. Naturally BT's position in the market allows them to get much closer and avoid congested areas.


BTCC will be deployed nationally and include Quality of Service (QoS) assurance alongside detailed reporting and analytics on how the customers' content is being consumed. We've know about this service since last year and reported on it before, although interested ISPs will need to wait until early 2011 before it becomes available. That's just in time for the new BT-backed open broadband TV standard, Project Canvas.