SPOTLIGHT: N3 VoIP backbone delivers new UK health network

BT is the lead manager in an ambitious £530m project called N3 to link hospitals and medical facilities on a converged voice and data network. The N3 broadband backbone is part of a broader £12.4B modernization program for the entire National Health scheme. The N3 network links surgeries, hospitals, community pharmacies and other NHS sites and is being touted as the key to the delivery of new services, such as electronic prescriptions and the Picture Archiving and Communications digital X-ray system.

BT claims NHS organizations will make substantial savings on communications by converging voice and data over a single network. London facilities are being given free access so they can call each other for free which is a pilot with mobile network operator O2 to reduce mobile charges. Report