Need some help on a BT/Telecoms issue. If someone works for BT then great.

 

Can anyone tell me what 21CN PSTN means to a person in the REAL world. I understand that it's a upgrade of the old telephone exchanges from a switched system to an I/P system, but what does this mean to me? Will i actually notice anything?

 

The reason i ask is cause i'm about to upgrade some of my mobile broadband equipment, but don't want to do it if BT are eventually going to provide ADSL broadband via my exchange 6 months after i upgrade.

 

I managed to get a target date of Q4 2009 for the 21CN upgrade out of BT, but other than that, nothing. Am i hoping too much that they will offer broadband after the upgrade?

BT should already offer you broadband, unless you're somewhere in the deep countryside, miles from your nearest exchange. But, to answer your question, 21CN won't have much of an impact for a while; initially it's just going to increase network capacity - a bit like the change from analogue to digital TV. About the best the consumer can expect near-term is access to ADSL2+ with 'up to' 24Mb/s (Already available from other ISPs like 'Be', anyway)

 

What's your current broadband setup?

there is a website called sam knows that has information on telephone exchanges and when they are planned into be upgraded, might be useful in the future

 

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/

Okay, thanks for the info.

 

There's only about 200 house in the village, and BT never enabled the exchange due to low demand. Because we have our own exchange, 200 houses is next to nothing.

 

It makes me laugh cause i'm only about 15 miles from Cambridge.

 

I've been using 3g mobile broadband and a 3g router for about a year, and i'm generally pretty happy with it, but recently i've been looking at different options. Just don't want to shell out the cash (because it's quite expensive) and then BT go and enable the exchange!

Edited May 7, 200916 yr by lcridford

there is a website called sam knows that has information on telephone exchanges and when they are planned into be upgraded, might be useful in the future

 

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/

 

Thanks. I keep an eye on that site every now and again in case it's updated with some good news. Check out my crappy exchange info:

 

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/EAPRI

 

not many options there methinks!