BT has implemented the first phase of its next generation internet protocol (IP) network in South Wales.

Customers in the town of Wick, near Cardiff, were the first to be put onto the IP-based 21st Century Network, known as 21CN, which BT plans to create across the UK by 2011.

Access to the system means business and domestic customers will be able to get voice, internet and multimedia services quicker than before with download speeds of up to 24Mbit/s, BT claims.

The UK telecoms corporation has already done a large amount of infrastructure work to prepare for the first customer users, laying down more than 2,300 kilometres of new fibre optic cable in South Wales and creating IT systems to support the new network.

The beginning of the IP network roll out is a momentous occasion for BT, says BT Wholesale and 21CN sponsor, Paul Reynolds.

'Years of research and development, network build and design, rigorous trials and testing, together with open collaboration with the communications industry have culminated in this historic moment,' he said.

'A network transformation on this scale has not been attempted anywhere else in the world, it’s happening now in South Wales, and the rest of the UK will follow over the next few years.'

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