Entanet selected as only non-BT company for the first BT 21CN broadband trial

13th September 2007

Leading voice and data Communications Provider (CP) Entanet has been selected as the only non-BT company to participate in BT’s first 21CN broadband trial. The other CPs to be involved in the trial are BT Wholesale and BT Retail. The announcement from BT of the trial participants demonstrates Entanet’s prominence in the UK communications market and marks its commitment to 21CN.

Commenting on the announcement, Entanet’s Chief Operations Officer James Blessing said: “To be selected as one of the three trialists is very exciting news for us. We’ve been extremely proactive in BT’s 21CN industry working group consultations and this involvement will give us first hand experience of its implementation and testing. It’ll give us significant insight into the network’s performance from an End User experience perspective and will help us accelerate our own product development.“

The trial will start on 1st November 2007 from one of BT’s Birmingham exchanges before expanding to ten exchanges by January 2008, after which other CPs will be joining the trials. Steve Lalonde, Chief Technical Offer of Entanet, said: "We’ll be making financial, time and resource investments in our network to participate in the trial, which will give us a critical edge in planning ahead for our network as 21CN is rolled out. The experience and knowledge we’re going to gain is invaluable.”

Entanet is one of few Communications Providers on the market that is looking at 21CN seriously enough to consider developing of a portfolio of voice and data services that capitalise on this next generation network opportunity. It will see the Company make a multi-million pound investment in its own network infrastructure, a move that will clearly differentiate it from other CPs while also enabling it to offer strongly competitive wholesale products to the channel.

Commenting on the announcement, Entagroup’s Chairman Jason Tsai said: "We’re delighted that Entanet is on the trial. We have the technical capability and financial stability to commit to such investment if the technology proves to be the best way for us to go forward. The trial will give us a unique 21CN experience, allow us to assess its potential and help us develop a competitive strategy going forward.”

Further announcements can be expected from Entanet in the coming weeks.