Bell Canada, Cisco Form Alliance to Build Major IP Network

Bell Canada and Cisco Systems recently formed a major alliance to dramatically expand the size of the telecommunication company's Internet Protocol (IP) network and deliver a comprehensive set of IP services to Canadian businesses. This agreement is a key milestone in the evolution of Bell's IP network. By building its network capability and aligning its investments towards a single, next-generation service delivery network Bell will provide the foundation for an integrated suite of IP data, voice and video services.

News@Cisco spoke with Lui Fogolini, vice president of service provider operations for Cisco Systems Canada, and Tim Hewat, senior director of corporate alliances for Bell Canada, about the alliance and the telecommunications company is a world leader in IP communications services.

What benefits will a pure IP network bring to Bell Canada and its customers?

Tim Hewat: First of all, the expanded IP network will allow us to consolidate all of our communications operations onto one infrastructure. That naturally provides significant operational efficiencies. But more importantly, the IP network will allow us to converge and integrate all communications-whether that's voice, video or data-on one network, making it far easier to offer a simplified set of integrated business communications services.

That's really the ideal of multimedia communications. Such capabilities will certainly open the door in the future to new applications for consumer, but our businesses customers are now asking for such capabilities now. So the IP network will bring immediate benefits to our businesses customers, both the largest "enterprise" organizations, as well as small and medium businesses.

With a converged IP network, we can more quickly and easily provide a virtually limitless array of applications based on customer requirements. This contrasts to the way in which many service providers currently operate, using one infrastructure to provide a certain set of services and another infrastructure for other services. Relying on a particular infrastructure to deliver specific applications makes these services limited and inflexible.

Our expanded IP network will free us and our customers from such constraints. This improved responsiveness on our part will help businesses better serve their customers.

Lui Fogolini: By combining the strengths of two industry leaders, Bell and Cisco are offering customers the opportunity to source their mission-critical applications over proven, reliable networks. The reach and reliability of Bell's Cisco-based network will provide our mutual customers a clear and measurable benefit. Managed services will help companies lower costs while increasing their ability to adapt to changing business needs and technology capabilities.

In the past, telecommunications companies have worried that IP-based networks could not provide the reliability and performance they required for all of their services, especially public phone communications. Why does Bell Canada believe IP networking technology is now ready to take over all of its communications operations?

Tim Hewat: Well, our own experience has shown us that IP technology is now ready to succeed traditional circuit-switched networks. We have been running an extensive IP network with Cisco as our vendor for a number of years. So we know what IP technology can and can't do. And we know from our own network and from the technical insight Cisco provides to us that IP technology is now ready to serve as the infrastructure for next-generation communications.

For us it is a matter of meeting our customers' needs. A unified IP network provides for integrated, simplified communications unlike any other infrastructure technology on the market. And from everything we have seen with IP communications and how we expect it to evolve, this is by far the best networking infrastructure for delivering the kinds of communications our customers want.

Lui Fogolini: Bell Canada - and more than 200 global service providers - have been proving the dependability and potential of Cisco-based IP networks for several years. Doctors in Canada, for example, are now using Bell Canada's IP network to conduct tele-robotic surgery. Certainly, such a procedure goes beyond the demands of any mission-critical corporate application. But beyond dependability, Bell Canada's IP network makes such a procedure possible because of its unparalleled ability to run integrated voice, video and data communications. Such an example is just the beginning of the possibilities with the state-of-the-art, next-generation IP network Bell Canada is creating.

Only imagination will limit communications options. It's not a question of whether or not IP technology is the future of communications, just a question of when. And what is clear from our alliance with Bell Canada is that the time for IP networks is now.

Why did Bell Canada select Cisco Systems to help with this major IP networking project?

Tim Hewat: Well, most importantly, we wanted to take advantage of Cisco's IP expertise. Cisco is the clear leader worldwide in IP-based networking equipment. And since our goal is to be one of the world's leading communications providers, Cisco was a natural choice for us. We have worked closely with Cisco for almost 10 years on other projects, so Cisco has an excellent understanding of our business, culture, and, most importantly, our networking needs. In past projects and on this current alliance, they have demonstrated a willingness to provide significant technical consultation and deployment support. Also, we wanted to take advantage of Cisco's knowledge of business networking. Since more businesses worldwide use Cisco equipment to run their LANs (local area networks), Cisco knows more about the business networking requirements than just about anyone. And given their strong relationships with businesses, Cisco can provide excellent help in marketing our evolving IP communications services to Canadian companies.

What will Cisco contribute to the alliance?

Lui Fogolini: There are three key areas. First, Cisco technology will be used to dramatically expand Bell's national IP network. Bell Canada will triple the footprint of its existing Cisco-based IP network with our carrier-class 12000 Series Routers. The 12000 Series can run multi-protocol label switching (MPLS), a networking technology which provides for advanced traffic consolidation and convergence.

Second, we will jointly create and commercialize an integrated suite of simplified managed network services and value-added solutions to new and existing business customers. These managed IP services will include virtual private networking (VPN), IP telephony, security and wireless LAN.

Finally, we'll work with Bell to help business customers migrate their legacy communications networks, such as including ATM and Frame Relay, onto Bell's Cisco-based IP/MPLS network.