UK telecoms managers are either unaware of BT’s 21st Century Network (21CN) upgrade or misunderstand its benefits. And many do not believe it will be completed by 2011, according to research published last week.

Outgoing BT chief executive Ben Verwaayen was instrumental in the conception of 21CN. But a survey of 200 telecoms and IT managers across public sector, finance, retail and media organisations, carried out by 2Europe in March and sponsored by NTL:Telewest, indicates the carrier has failed to explain the scheme’s benefits to customers.

Only three in five UK network and telecoms managers were aware of BT’s 21CN upgrade, despite the fact that it will mean sweeping changes to the way BT provides communications services to UK businesses in the future.

Some 61 per cent of those questioned said 21CN would improve wide area network (WAN) bandwidth, 35 per cent believe switching to 21CN would enhance voice and data efficiency, 27 per cent say it will improve networked IT services and 18 per cent think it will deliver converged voice and data services.

Speaking to Computing earlier this year, Scott Morrison, research director for analyst Gartner, said 21CN is primarily designed to help BT reduce its own operational costs, but will also enable the company to offer a range of new telephony and data products.

“21CN is about simplifying the core of the network to reduce cost, then looking at the edge of the network to see what BT can do for customers there, and entice those customers into spending more money with BT,” he said.