21CN Trial Progress Update - May 2009

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It's been a while since we update everyone regarding the status of our 21CN trial so thought now would be a timely juncture to post the latest information. We'll start off with a few numbers. We now have just under 800 lines live on the WBMC ADSL2+ trial including staff and test lines. Removing the staff and test lines we have over 750 customers on the trial. We've also started a low volume trial of IPStream Connect; IPStream Connect is a new service from BT Wholesale that allows an ISP to utilise the 21CN backhaul to carry its 20CN traffic. As far as the customers' ADSL connection is concerned this would stay exactly the same (unlike ADSL2+) the difference is the route that traffic takes from the exchange to us. This helps the ISP transitioning to 21CN as they don't have to run two separate networks in parallel (the expensive 20CN 622 Central Pipes and 21CN Host Links), instead all traffic would be routed across just the 21CN Host Links and the 622 Central Pipes closed down. The initial trial involves 20 staff and customers, at the moment we don't need any additional volunteers but if we do we'll let you know. Apart from a couple of little initial teething issues the trial is going quite well. Coming up will be a series of tests with the customers on the trial aimed at comparing performance on IPStream Connect with the normal 20CN network. Some of the customers are also on the RIN trial so we'll be able to compare performance with that too. For those that don't know, the RIN trial was trial of the BT Retail broadband network we started a year or two ago. That trial is shortly coming to an end (we had intended to close it at the end of this month, but that date has been extended by a month, in part so we can run comparisons with IPStream Connect). Going back to ADSL2+, we did experience a performance issue a few weeks ago on the network which was causing slower speeds, packet loss and increased ping times for some customers. While we were investigating the cause of the problem we put a temporary halt on new migrations to the trial so that we didn't compound the problem or switch customers across to a service that wasn't at 100%. The cause of the problem has now been resolved, however we are closely monitoring the network performance and working with BT to ensure that the problem doesn't happen again. It is our intention to review the decision as to when we restart migrations on 9th June. There has also been a higher than expected number of early life faults (faults raised within the first 28 days or where the service doesn't work immediately after migration) as such when we resume migrations to the trial places will continue to be limited so we can closely monitor any faults that come out and ensure they are resolved as quickly as we can. We are working very closely with BT to ensure that issues identfied in the trial are fed back up the chain and that improvements are made with the systems and processes. We have also begun building our automated provisioning and fault tools which will be required when we start adding larger number customers to 21CN later in the year. We have about 150 customers queued up to go on the trial, as such once we resume migrations there will be roughly a four week waiting list to go on to the trial. If you would like to go on the trial, please check that 21CN is available in your area, that you have an ADSL2+ compatible router and then raise a ticket to us here. (Please note, we won't acknowledge your ticket before 9th June when we will look at restarting migrations. If you are raising the ticket after this date please allow 7-14 days for acknowledgement which will include an approximate waiting time to go on the trial). If you have any questions, would like to see what customers on the trial have been experiencing or would like any more information then please take a look at our dedicated 21CN trial forum. If you are on the Muswell Hill exchange in London or Whitchurch in Wales please stay tuned for a new trial to be announced very soon. Dave Tomlinson Plusnet Network Transformation