BT has signed contracts with four of the equipment vendors it named as preferred suppliers to its 21st Century Network project: Ciena, Huawei Technologies, Lucent Technologies and Siemens.

BT named a total of eight preferred suppliers in April. Huawei and Fujitsu Network Communications were both chosen to provide multiservice access gear in what analysts say may be the largest contract. Alcatel, Cisco Systems and Siemens were chosen for metro IP routing and signaling. Cisco and Lucent were picked for core IP routing (with Lucent supplying gear from its partner, Juniper Networks). Ericsson was chosen as a softswitch supplier. And Ciena and Huawei were chosen to supply optical networking equipment, from Ethernet to long-haul transport. (According to a statement issued today by Ciena, BT will deploy its CoreDirector optical switch, its CoreStream multiplexer for long-haul transport and its CN 4200 for optical Ethernet transport.)

BT expects to conclude negotiations with the other four preferred vendors--Alcatel, FNC, Cisco and Ericsson--early next year, the company said today in a statement.

BT expects to spend up to ₤10 billion (about $17.4 billion U.S.) over the next five years building the network, replacing its legacy technology with next-generation equipment to reach 30 million customer lines. The value of individual vendor contracts, however, is unknown.