The A to Z of broadband

Next generation

The nationwide 21st Century Network (21CN) project is BT's plan to switch its copper circuit-switched networks with a single IP-based core infrastructure, with a price-tag of £10bn over five years.

Announced in June 2004, the most radical shake-up of BT's national network in the 25 years since the first digital switches were introduced will see all calls on BT metro and core networks transformed into voice over IP.

The list from A to Z

Click on the links below to find out more...

A is for ADSL
B is for BT
C is for Cable & Wireless
D is for Dial-up
E is for Education
F is for Fibre
G is for Goonhilly
H is for HSDPA
I is for In-flight
J is for Janet
K is for Kingston
L is for Landlines
M is for Murdoch
N is for Next generation
O is for Ofcom
P is for Power lines
Q is for Quad-play
R is for Remote working
S is for Satellite phones
T is for Trains
U is for Unbundling
V is for VoIP
W is for WiMax
X is for Xbox
Y is for YouTube
Z is for Zombies

Competition has spawned 21CN, as prices continue to fall in every element of telecoms activity but costs don't, with the UK's PSTN being costly to maintain.

In 2005, BT named its buddies for the £10bn project, including Alcatel, Ericsson and Siemens, and raised a few eyebrows with the exclusion of Marconi.

The pilot scheme kicks off in Cardiff at the end of this year, with national implementation planned to start in January 2008.

On a separate and non-BT note there's also the next generation of the internet - which has the catchy name internet protocol version 6 (IPv6). This was born as a result of the previous incarnation - IPv4 - running out of addresses, with the boom in mobile users accessing the net via their handsets contributing heavily to the problem.

IPv4 holds more than four billion addresses and when it was introduced, in 1973, less than 1,000 computers were connected to the network. Nowadays, four billion is inadequate to give every person on the planet an IP address.

IPv6 will hold a stonking 3.4 x 10 to the power of 38 addresses - enough for every atom on your body to hold an IP address - but only currently accounts for a tiny percentage of live addresses, with IPv4 still dominating the publicly accessible internet.