New World Internet Core to provide BT Ignite a further 500% increase in Capacity by April 2001 for Delivery of New, Enhanced Broadband Services across the UK

LONDON, UK, November 7, 2000 - Cisco Systems has been selected by BT Ignite, the international IP (Internet Protocol) and broadband division of BT, to enhance and grow the company's next-generation IP backbone - Colossus, which is being rolled out over 2 years. With Cisco on-board, BT Ignite's network capacity will increase from 50 G/bts to 250 G/bts. From the period prior to Colossus' launch in March 2000 to the completion of the new network, BT Ignite's network capacity will have grown by 10,500%.

Cisco's end-to-end IP core infrastructure will enable BT Ignite to meet the burgeoning broadband Internet requirements of its business and residential customers. According to International Data Corporation (IDC), the market for broadband access services is among the fastest growing and most dynamic of all telecommunications markets .

The expanded network will increase BT Ignite's ability to deploy a breadth of revenue-generating services rapidly such as application hosting, content distribution networks, IP Virtual Private Networks (IP VPNs) and entertainment services such as digital video or streaming media. The aggressive move will also benefit BT's broadband programme, which converts copper phone lines into high-speed data lines allowing for the delivery of higher speed multimedia services to the home.

"Today's agreement with BT further solidifies our existing relationship, and is recognition of our mutual belief that IP-based solutions are the here and now of twenty-first century communications," said Paul Mountford, vice president for Cisco's service provider line of business in Europe, Middle East and Africa. "The new network will enable BT to provide all of its customers with enhanced and innovative voice and data service over the same network, providing value-add while saving bottom-line operating costs."

"We aim to enrich our customers Internet experience by providing them with better and faster Internet access - while offering a broad variety of IP based services and solutions to meet the demands of 21st Century businesses and users," said Paul Excell, Vice President, BT Ignite Internet Engineering. "Selecting Cisco as our partner will enable BT to bring innovative, world class value for money IP products/solutions quickly to market whilst supporting the high volume growth of our existing successful portfolio of IP VPN, VoIP, IP Dial, Fixed IP and Broadband IP services. Today, for example, we have announced a new real-time multimedia VoIP service, which will be trialling with UK business customers."

With data traffic now becoming more prominent than voice on public telephone networks, telecommunications operators like BT are switching to IP-based networks as a cost-saving measure and a way to deal with increased data loads more effectively - benefiting both businesses and consumers. Single networks are easier to manage, requiring fewer resources and simpler administration.

About the solution

The end-to-end architecture, jointly developed by BT Ignite and Cisco, utilises the Cisco 12016 Series router, which will provide a core infrastructure based upon multiple STM-64 (10Gig) trunks. In order to enable the delivery of services that are scalable, cost-effective and capable of handling a wide range of customer requirements including security, Quality of Service (QoS), and any-to-any conectivity, the contract will enable BT Ignite to deploy technology from across the whole Cisco portfolio, from the 12000 Series backbone router family to the 10000 Edge Service Router.

The Cisco 12000 Series backbone router provides a highly available fully distributed architecture that provides unparalleled performance for delivery of revenue generating services. The Cisco 12000 Series backbone router's low latency, true QoS support, and multicast replication enable services such as VoIP, VPN and high bandwidth content delivery. In addition, the Cisco 12000 Series routers scalable architecture will enable BT's backbone to grow as the demand increases.

BT Ignite's network has more than a hundred service PoPs. These Service nodes aggregate BT Ignites wide range of access Services to a common, high speed, core. To reduce response time, these service Points of Presence (PoPs) act as interconnects for local repositories, providing a secure environment to host local content for VISP's (Virtual ISP's), ASPs (Application Service Providers) and a variety of e-businesses. The Cisco contract will enable these service nodes to be migrated to meet emerging IP services and applications.

About BT Ignite

BT Ignite - BT's international broadband and Internet Protocol (IP) solutions business - has been created to provide a complete communications portfolio to corporate and wholesale customers anywhere in the world.

It is the first global organisation to commit to delivering the entire IP value chain - from core networks and internet connectivity through to e-commerce consultancy and solutions with a unique blend of content hosting, application service provision, systems integration and outsourcing capabilities.

BT Ignite is already outstripping its nearest competitors in terms of traditional measures of route kilometres, number and size of hosting centres, local sales and service support teams and depth of country coverage. In Europe BT Ignite already has twice the broadband reach of its competitors and, through an aggressive 3 year, #4 billion investment programme, will be able to deliver its portfolio to more than 250 European cities over its own networks by the end of 2001 and to all the worlds' commercial centres through BT's international alliances and partnerships.