BT to drag T-Mobile onto 21st Century

Network that is

T-Mobile has dodged a massive investment in telco kit ahead of the launch of mobile TV and other bandwidth sucking services by striking a five year managed network deal with BT.

The deal, worth several hundred million pounds over the five years, will mean BT takes responsibility for connect the mobile firm’s base stations to its core network. This will initially be done via leased lines, before the links are shifted to Ethernet.

The network will, no surprise here, be compatible with BT’s 21st Century Network, which at some point will break out of its trial comfort zone of Swansea.

T-Mobile said the deal will provide it with a “key stepping stone” towards next generation services, and give it the network capacity to support high bandwidth services such as mobile TV, and music and video downloads.

More importantly, perhaps, it means T-Mobile doesn’t have to build its own network, “allowing it to benefit from reduced risk and reductions in capital and operational expenditure.”®