National Network Management Centre
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| National Network Management Centre | |
|---|---|
NNMC | |
 Main entrance to the site in August 2009 | |
  Location within Shropshire | |
| Alternative names | Whittington House |
| General information | |
| Type | Office |
| Address | Whittington, Shropshire, SY11 4TB |
| Coordinates | 52°52′12″N 3°01′44″W / 52.87°N 3.029°W |
| Elevation | 50 m (164 ft) |
| Completed | 1990 |
| Inaugurated | 5 September 1990 |
| Cost | £4m (1990) |
| Client | BT |
| Owner | BT Group |
The National Network Management Centre is the main national network operations centre of BT Group, situated in Shropshire.
History[edit]
BT moved to the countryside site in the 1980s. The NMC is also known as the Customer Experience and Management Centre, the International Network Management Centre (INMC), or the National Control Centre (NCC). The BT Global Media Network delivers television content around the world. BT Retail split into BT Consumer and BT Business.
The transformation of BT's network to becoming digital began in 1985, and finished in July 1990. BT's Worldwide Network Management Centre at Oswestry opened on 5 September 1990, at a cost of £4m.
The site appeared on the BBC Two documentary Genius of Invention.[1]
Structure[edit]
It is situated on the A495, within a few hundred yards of the road's western terminus at the roundabout with the A5, in the west of the parish of Whittington.
The site has a staff of around 440. Jamie Ford, the former chief executive of Plusnet, runs BT IT Services.
There were originally two buildings - A and B. Building C was built to link these together and forms the hexagonal reception building. Building D was built to be the new Network Management Centre, which has now been superseded by the New Wave Building.
Display screen[edit]
The site has a large display screen, built by Synelec (bought by Planar Systems), made from 140 composite screens.[2] The screen is ten feet high, and seventy feet wide.
Function[edit]
The site is the home of the UK's speaking clock. BT IT Services, headquartered at Barlborough in Derbyshire on the A616, have a main operation in the building.
It monitors network traffic on BT's network across the UK, including 0800, 0845 and 999 numbers. It monitors televotes provide by RIDE (Recorded Information Distribution Equipment).[3] RIDE is accessed via the SOAP protocol.[4]
At peak periods it implements call gapping load control. BT Wholesale controls its traffic from the site.
Every two minutes the site contacts around 700 of BT's telephone exchanges to find out how busy they are. 80% of BT's network consists of optical fibre.
See also[edit]
- Institute of Telecommunications Professionals
- Telecommunications in the United Kingdom
- Category:Network performance
- Erlang distribution
- Vodafone World Headquarters
- Yarnfield Park in Yarnfield in Staffordshire west of the M6 Stafford services, the former main BT training centre, which now has a training site for telegraph poles and fibre
References[edit]
- ^ "Genius of Invention". Archived from the original on 2013-05-22. Retrieved 2015-11-21.
- ^ "Display screen". Archived from the original on 2015-11-22. Retrieved 2015-11-21.
- ^ "RIDE". Archived from the original on 2015-11-22. Retrieved 2015-11-21.
- ^ "Network traffic in 2007". 17 November 2007. Archived from the original on 2022-06-18. Retrieved 2015-11-21.
External links[edit]
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- British Telecom buildings and structures
- Buildings and structures in Shropshire
- History of Shropshire
- Network management
- Organisations based in Shropshire
- Science and technology in Shropshire
- Telecommunications company headquarters in the United Kingdom
- Teletraffic
- 1980s establishments in the United Kingdom