Posted: 05th May, 2010 By: MarkJ

BT has signed a major five-year agreement that will see Alcatel-Lucent, a broadband networking development and convergence firm, being given the responsibility for creating and maintaining "
an evolution" of BT's next generation 21st Century Network ( 21CN ) services.
The work will use Alcatel-Lucent's High Leverage NetworkTM (HLN) architecture to further evolve BT’s infrastructure, enabling the company to speed-up network convergence, increase capacity and deliver content cost effectively as BT prepares to introduce new "
video-rich" services to an expanded base of wholesale and retail subscribers.
We assume that "video-rich" is referring to BT Vision, the operators broadband television (IPTV) service. It probably also covers a vague reference to Project Canvas, the forthcoming open broadband TV standard, and general rises in broadband video viewing by UK internet users.
George Nazi, Managing Director of BT 21CN Core Convergence, said:
"21CN is a huge transformational programme. It's about providing a network for the future which requires a game-changing approach. Alcatel-Lucent came up with an innovative solution that will help us keep 21CN at the forefront of innovation and radical change."
The move will also mean that Broadband Network Gateways (BNGs), previously centralized and becoming an increasing bottleneck in the network, will be distributed closer to subscribers using next generation service routers. This will apparently result in increased capacity and performance for consumers.