Not to be outdone by BT, Cable & Wireless (the U.K.'s second largest network operator) unveiled plans earlier in April to build its own NGN over the next few years.  The total CAPEX earmarked for the project is roughly $988 million (from 2005-2008).  The plan calls for the collapsing of 70 voice switches to 10 softswitches, to be housed in "IP routing nodes".  Furthermore, the few hundred metro nodes will be replaced by roughly 80.

Last week, C&W announced Tellabs as the first supplier for its NGN.  C&W will rely on the 8800 metro Ethernet multiservice routers, whose strong suit is the aggregation of multiple types of legacy traffic.  Another deal was announced with Marconi (this one on the access side).  Marconi is one of the incumbents on the Bulldog Communications (C&W's access business unit).  However, more announcements are expected within the next few weeks.  Cisco could likely win a piece of the IP core.  Nortel could potentially get a piece of the softswitching piece of the upgrade, thereby capitalizing on its Succession win last year.