BT’s Big Leap: Open‑Source Meets 5G Core
On a Friday that turned a tech‑savvy day into a headline hit, BT announced they’re powering the next‑generation 5G core with Canonical’s Charmed OpenStack. That’s a fancy way of saying the company behind Ubuntu is giving BT the guts to run everything on the cloud.
Why This Matters
- Speedy Service Deployments: With open‑source software, BT can roll out new features in weeks instead of months.
- Future‑Proof Capacity: The cloud foundation means adding more bandwidth is just a few clicks away.
- Smart, Converged Network: Upgradeable without swapping out racks of hardware; think of it as making your phone software faster, but for a whole telecom network.
From Hardware to Code
Traditionally, a core network was a rigid collection of routers and switches. With OpenStack, BT turns these into software‑defined services. That means:
- Everything runs on the same hardware blocks—no need for extra servers when you need a “spike” in traffic.
- Continuous integration lets developers push updates instantly—no expensive and slow equipment swaps.
- Network applications can now share the same data‑center “space,” boosting resilience and scaling as demand grows.
Bottom line: Faster updates, smoother performance, and a future where 5G services can be built and deployed in the span of days.
Voices from the Front Lines
Neil J. McRae, BT Group Chief Architect: “Canonical delivers a cloud‑native foundation that turns our network into a smart, fully converged ecosystem. With open source and best‑of‑breed tech, we’re on track to give customers a world‑leading 5G and FTTP experience.”
Mark Shuttleworth, CEO of Canonical: “BT sees the power of an open architecture. We’re thrilled to help lay the groundwork for BT’s 5G strategy, letting them deliver fresh services faster and smarter.”
What Comes Next?
BT has already lit up 5G in six cities—London, Birmingham, Cardiff, Manchester, Edinburgh, and Belfast. The road map points to a fully cloud‑based 5G core by 2022, which means:
- Ultra‑Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC) for things like autonomous vehicle traffic control.
- Network Slicing to carve out dedicated slices for different services—think separate lanes on a highway.
- Potential multi‑gigabit speeds straight out of the box.
- New applications that could bring “tactile internet” or real‑time health monitoring right to the user’s pocket.
Imagine a mobile AR experience that reacts instantly, a fleet of self‑driving cars perfectly synced, or a nationwide sensor network measuring air quality in real time—all powered by this new, cloud‑first architecture.
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