BT's foray into NGN has been a costly lesson over the last two years, admits a senior executive.
"If we had known in 2005 what we know today it would have saved us $2 billion," said Karsten Lereuth, president of BT Global Telecom Markets.
He told the TeleManagement Forum China conference in Beijing on Monday that in running the NGN project, known as 21CN, the UK carrier had learned lessons in governance, and managing vendors and inventory.
The 21CN network is aimed at replacing BT's 30 existing networks with a single worldwide IP platform. The company believes that by 2015 network operating and capital costs will be one-half of those today.
Lereuth said the first lesson learnt was not to neglect the legacy network. "That's where the money comes from that is paying for the new network. Don't overlook it," he said.
"Everybody likes to talk about new stuff, but make sure you put the best people on both networks. Don't mix it - you have to spread the skillsets."
The second was in managing vendors. BT has engaged seven major vendors on the project, and the lesson was "not to put yourselves into the hands of just one or two vendors. Make sure you have different offers in every category. Make sure you have enough leverage and competition."
Other key lessons were in inventory management and standards.
BT's project was the biggest purchasing project in the telecom industry, and the carrier needed a total view of its snowballing inventory. "With your legacy and your new equipment, that's lot of stuff you are handling, especially if you are global like BT. Bring it under control."
Standards continue to be a challenge, he said. "The equipment and the standards that we wanted didn't exist." Thousands of engineers from BT and vendors have been working on developing and refining new standards. For that reason, "it's very important to get into a dialogue with other operators."
Finally, he said, it was also critical to keep up the dialog with BT's own staff. "You must bring the company with you."