Expansion of Europe's Largest Fibre Optic Network
British Telecommunications PLC
11 May 2000
BT ANNOUNCES MAJOR EXPANSION OF EUROPE'S
LARGEST FIBRE OPTIC NETWORK
BT today announced that it is to extend substantially its
pan-European communications network to an additional five
countries. Its transborder network will cover 12 countries
and comprise 65,000km of optic fibre, making it
significantly larger than any of its competitors. The
network will provide the backbone for BT's newly-created
broadband Internet Protocol (IP) business, Ignite, announced
last month as part of the radical restructuring of BT.
The 20,000km expansion, involving a £32 million
investment, will extend the European fibre optic network run
by BT and its European partners to cover Ireland, Spain,
Sweden, Norway and Denmark, starting from the summer.
Europe's biggest transborder network, Farland, was
launched in March last year with a 45,000km network,
consisting of 9,000km of fibre laid by BT and its partners,
connecting the 36,000km of fibre in BT's joint ventures
networks.
Currently, it covers the UK, France, Germany, Italy,
Netherlands, Switzerland and Belgium. A third phase will
extend the network to eastern Europe.
Linking in-country networks and using leading edge
technology will enable customers through BT, its European
partners and Concert, BT's global venture with AT&T, to
transmit high volumes of Internet, e-commerce data and voice
traffic to more than 300 European cities from its current reach
of 220.
Each fibre link initially has the potential to handle
transmission rates of 160Gbps, the equivalent of about two
million simultaneous telephone calls per second. They are
ready to support 1.6Tbps using 160 channel dense wave
division multiplexing(DWDM) technologies.
Ignite, in turn, will have the broadest network
coverage in Europe and deliver a full range of services to
customers in the UK and throughout continental Europe,
supporting IP and Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM).
Its current web hosting facilities and backbone of
50,000km of fibre, including BT's current 5,000km UK IP
network, is being expanded as part of a £4 billion
investment programme to cover more than 70,000km by 2001.
This will help extend Ignite's current reach from the
100 most important commercial centres to 250 by the end of
next year.
Alfred Mockett, chief executive-designate of Ignite,
said: 'Ignite has been created by BT as a data-centric
broadband IP business, offering exceptional services to the
corporate and wholesale markets.
'It is unique in its breadth of services, reach and
depth of network and the capabilities it can give customers.
BT's European network is one of Ignite's key assets and is
the largest and most sophisticated network in Europe.'
Chris Clark, chief executive of Farland, said: ' The
extension of BT's and its European partners' transborder
network marks a milestone in the development of Europe's
largest and fastest broadband network. It will extend
Farland's leadership position in terms of capacity and
reach.
'The extension of the network is an exceptional
example of co-operation and will allow Farland, BT and
its partners to address the growing needs of customers
requiring access to unlimited bandwidth.'
Farland's web site is at www.farland-net.com