THE UK’s equivalent of Telstra, British Telecommunications, plans to gradually shut down its traditional circuit-switched telephone network in favour of IP technology. The new system – to cost an estimated £10 billion ($26.4 billion) – is expected to be operational for most of BT’s 28 million customers by 2008, the company said. The change will involve electronic and computer-system changes, not construction work such as digging up roads or pulling down phone lines, BT said. The new program “will deliver our vision of a converged, multimedia world where our customers can access any communications service from any device, anywhere – at broadband speed,” chief executive of BT Wholesale Paul Reynolds told reporters. It would give each subscriber the ability to have one phone number, and the same bill, for mobile and fixed-line services. The new system would bring customers features such as family conference calls, video streaming and voice-activated phones, Matt Beal, in charge of implementing the changes, said in a BBC interview.