Fresh on the heels of securing the national long distance (NLD) and international long distance (ILD) licenses from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), BT recently announced the activation of a new multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) node in Chennai.

The Chennai node is the first in a series of several MPLS nodes that BT is planning to deploy across the country.

The UK based company was recently granted NLD/ILD licenses under which it will be able to offer virtual private network (VPN) services and other managed services to Indian outsourcing operators and Indian operations of multinational companies. BT intends to offer these services using technologies such as multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) and ATM (asynchronous transfer mode).

The telecom behemoth says that the expansion of its MPLS network in India will enable its corporate customers to maximise their benefits from BT’s networked IT capability in the areas of convergence, customer relationship management (CRM) and security around the globe.

The MPLS network expansion forms a part of BT’s initiative to replace its legacy TDM network with MPLS based network. This in turn is a part of its 21CN program, an advanced communications network design for the future. The company has invested a whopping $20 billion to initiate the program which will be spread across 178 countries.

Elaborating on his company’s intentions, C S Rao, MD, BT India said, "Our 21CN architecture will provide with an IP-centric, convergence ready platform for offering different types of telecommunication services. We are replacing complex networks and systems infrastructure with a simpler and more reliable network, ensuring that the delivery of the next generation of converged services is faster, efficient and more cost-effective."

The philosophy behind the 21CN network is to develop a global infrastructure that can support multiple services including voice, data, internet and video services.

Elucidating further, Rao said, "Currently, certain services such as voice require their own discrete networks with specifically designed infrastructure, systems, and management. However, since in an IP centric network, services are treated as applications, a voice service becomes an application running simultaneously with many other applications on a common platform. 21CN allows effective sharing of resources"

BT has said that besides Chennai, it will also deploy additional nodes in 6-7 different cities throughout India. These include Bengaluru, Hyderbad, Mumbai, Pune and Kolkata. BT expects to roll out MPLS nodes in Hyderabad and Bengaluru within the next few weeks and in others, over the course of this year.

Rajendra Chaudhary