UK telecommunication News

Unified Communications

Unified Communications is prime territory for any player after a share of the UK managed services market. Within the next 5 years it is anticipated that as much as 5% of all IP based unified communications will be hosted.

At the same time, businesses in the UK will be seeking to make more efficient use of their mobile phones. A recent survey revealed that more then 30% of the workforce use their mobiles to make work related calls whilst they are in their offices within reach of a land line connection. Corporate land line to mobile bills is at an all time high.

CommsIQ have an ideal solution to this problem by enabling company registered mobile phone users to still use their mobile phone whilst in the office but the main difference is that it will act just like a land line extension attracting land line rates rather than mobile call rates. This will have a tremendous effect on the call charges now faced by businesses.

It is not only the major corporations that can benefit from this new service, follow this link for full details.

118 101

Named as the best newcomer 118101 has been re-branded and re-launched this week. It has proven to be a highly reliant and cost effective alternative to other providers of directory enquiries and is as much as 40% cheaper than many of them.

You can have the number you are requesting sent via text messages to your mobile phone regardless of whether the initial call is from a mobile or a land line phone and what is more that service is free of charge.

Not often, you use those words when talking about communication services full details here.

Wireless Charging

Almost everyone who owns a mobile phone, PDA, Blackberry or other electronic gizzmo has had the experience of a flat battery just when you need the gadget most. Then again with so many devices each needing a different type of charging unit, it takes excess baggage just to carry them around.

Arizona based mobile technology company WildCharge could be coming over the horizon with a solution that does away with the need for all of this hardware.

The WildCharger pad is a thin, flat surface. Once a mobile phone or other electronic device is placed on the pad it begins to charge. A single pad can re-charge all of your devices, no wires, no different types of connection.

The only catch is that you need to enable your device to work on the charger by replacing the back cover with an adaptor. The adaptor contains tiny external contacts that close the circuit with the pad.

The company claims that the pad does not interfere with the operation of electronic equipment, has no impact of reception quality emits no harmful radiation and delivers power as efficiently as your device was plugged into a wall socket.

For around £45 you can say goodbye to borrowing colleagues or hotel chargers.

BT online billing problem

Throughout October a number of BT clients had money taken out of their bank accounts before they had access to their online BT bill. This is against the banking variable direct debiting rules which state that a bill must be made available to clients before money is taken from the account.

Bt have acknowledged that a number of clients were unable to view their bills before BT removed funds from their bank account.

DELAY IN OFCOM LEGISLATION

There has been a great deal of talk about the decision by Ofcom to change the rules regarding 0870 and 0871 numbers.

Because the cost of these calls is just above the normal National rate they fall outside the scrutiny of ICTIS who govern premium rate numbers in the UK. ICTIS governs calls that cost more than 10p per minute.

These numbers are used by businesses for a number of reasons one of which is the out payment they can receive.

One of the key changes was to align the cost of calling a 0870 number to that of the National Rate from 1^st February 2008. The effect of these changes was that out-payments on 0870 would cease and the owner of the number would be charged to receive the call.

At last weeks, Ofcom Numbers Translation Service Forum the telecoms industry was informed about the following:

0870:

Ofcom has announced a delay in the implementation of 0870 regulations due to concerns about pre-call announcements. The 1^st February, 2008 is therefore not applicable; no firm date has yet been set.

0871:

Ofcom has also announced a delay in the implementation of the 0871 regulations until Summer 2008, due to the late submission of the PhoneplayPlus (ICTIS) Statement. The 1^st February, 2008 is therefore not applicable, but no firm date has yet been set.

For the full range of 08 numbers, please visit our site

If you want to avoid your clients hearing an engaged tone when they try to call you, you can do so with our Inbound Call Management Service Just follow this link.

SECURITY DANGER

A recent survey has shown that 35% of businesses with mobile workforces leave computer security employees to their own devices when protecting confidential information stored on lap tops and mobile devices when out of the workplace.

Almost a third of mobile workers share their company provided lap tops and other mobile devices with at least one other member of their family including revealing their passwords

Post Office and Broadband

Today the Post Office launches it’s Nationwide Broadband and Home Phone offer, using the BT network, it is primarily aimed at the over 50’s who make up 25% of the UK’s Broadband subscribers. It will also allow subscribers to pay for their broadband service in cash at local Post Offices, removing the need to set up direct debits.

They hope to attract 1 million users by 2010.

Broadband Hints and Tips

As a main provider of <a href=”http://daviddutch.com/commsiq.co.uk/gpage4.html>Broadband for businesses</a> I am always pleased to locate valuable information that helps my clients and non-clients get the most out of their broadband connection.

I suggest you may like to look at the following pages by Mark Jackson as a valuable source of information. Broadband ADSL Connection Tip’s

BT DELAYS

Relatives of a severely ill Chorley (NW England) pensioner have been hit with a bill from BT for £171 for an emergency alarm system they don’t even have.

Signing up for the Help the Aged’s lifeline service – a security alert which dials an emergency number at the push of a button over the phone line. The problem is it relies on a phone line which this pensioner has never had. The family have been trying to get BT to install the line since June 2007 so you can imagine their shock when they received a bill for £171 for the line that does not exist.

Unfortunately, this is becoming a regular occurrence for new subscribers to BT who appear to have problems installing new lines.

It is not just domestic lines that are kept waiting I have heard of many businesses that are waiting for new or extra lines which are vital to the smooth running of their business.

If you have heard of or personally experienced problems with your application for a new line, please leave a comment explaining your problem.

Mobile Take Flight

Ofcom that will enable airlines to offer mobile communication services on UK-registered aircraft has set out new proposals.

It will be up to the individual airlines to measure consumer demand and even then, they will be subject to the relevant UK and European aviation authorities.

On board base systems will connect to the consumers hand set, both of which must still be switched off during take off and landing as a safety precaution.

Once the aircraft reaches 3000mtrs, the cabin crew may switch the system on, allowing users the facility to use the aircrafts network to make and receive calls which will be routed via a satellite link to the ground network. Their normal service provider will bill users.

Using mobiles on aircraft

The proposed system includes an on-board base station which connects to the passengers’ own mobile phone handsets. Both of these must be switched off during take-off and landing to eliminate interference with other terrestrial mobile networks.

Once the aircraft reaches a minimum height of 3000 metres, the cabin crew may switch on the system. Mobile handsets will then be able to use the aircraft’s network service to make and receive calls which will be routed via a satellite link to the network on the ground. Calls will be billed through passengers’ normal service providers.

For a number of years some airlines have offered customers in-flight outbound telephone services via the airline’s own network. Today’s proposals will allow airlines to enable passengers to use their own mobile handsets.

Seven year Itch!

CommsIQ reports that in the seven years since its mass market introduction, broadband has become one of the fastest growing communications technologies. More than 13 million UK homes and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are now connected to broadband, compared with 9.9 million a year earlier and 330,000 in 2001.

The demand for extra speed has seen some concern as some providers working within the advertising standards rules advertised potential speeds that could not be provided to all clients, the words ‘up to’ being in very small print.

Selecting a provider that delivers quality connections with top rate reliability is critical for businesses, and CommsIQ prides itself in providing its clients with connections and services that hit all the right buttons.

It Only Happens To Someone Else!

What am I on about? – Disasters!

It really does not matter what size of business you own if disaster happens – OUCH! It hurts.

What do I mean about disaster? I do not just mean earthquakes, pestilence and flood, I mean the day when something happens to your business like a fire – illness of key personnel – phones breaking down, etc.

Just imagine you have just launched a massive advertising campaign promoting your latest offer and the switchboard blows up! Not literally but you know what I mean. How on earth do you receive all those phone calls enquiring about your latest offer? Even without an offer just ordinary day-to-day business, just imagine being without you phone system for any period, not being able to communicate with the outside world. How many missed calls would there be and you know what I guarantee that if a caller fails to get through the odds are heavily stacked against you from ever hearing from them again. Now HOW MUCH DID THAT LOST CALL REALLY COST YOU?

Every business is a sales organisation, it doesn’t matter what you call your business you prime function is to sell, products or services whatever you sales are the life blood of any company. What are the arteries that carry the life blood, that jungle of wires between your switchboard or key phone system and the local telephone exchange?

Is there an answer – fortunately, as you well know if there were no answer I would not be writing this and you would not be reading it.

Even if your phones do not fail, how many lines have you got, what happens when they are all engaged with incoming and outgoing calls and an enquirer rings who could become a major customer? The same thing they try your competitor and if they get through to them I bet they do not ask them to pass a message over to you!

If only you had an almost unlimited number of lines that would handle all incoming calls even bypassing you switchboard if they were very busy, or getting through to that vital member of staff no matter where they were in the world. How about having your incoming calls handled even if your office did burn down or that flood did happen?

Avoiding every type of communication disaster is simple and very cost effective to find out more you only need to follow this link direct calls to the right person, first time, every time, whether they are in the office, on a mobile, at home or even abroad and you can receive virtually unlimited simultaneous calls on a single number, your customers need never hear the engaged tone again.

Important Changes to 0870 numbers

The UK’s communication regulator Ofcom is to change the guidelines for 0870 numbers from 1st February 2008. From this date all operators will be required to charge callers no more for calls to 0870 numbers than those to a number with a dialling code of 01 or 02.

As a result of this caller charges will be substantially reduced and this will end revenue generation for companies using 0870 numbers. If you have a current 0870 number you will need to review the role of your number.

What’s the best option for you?

It’s a choice between retaining your 0870 number at a cost or changing to a new revenue producing number such as 0844 04 0871.

0844

Changing you 0870 number to an 0844 number will still enable you to generate revenue.

The cost of the call is shared between you and your client and is at a fixed rate of 5ppm. This means that the caller or your number has the benefit of paying less to call than the 0870, which increases the chance of them calling again.

0871

Swapping your number to an 0871 and continue to earn the revenue that you currently earn from your 0870. Important things to consider with 0871 numbers are that from February 2008, these will be regulated by ICTIS, the premium rate services regulator, resulting in stringent requirements on 0871 providers.

Keeping your 0870 number.

If you choose to continue using your 0870 number it is important that you are aware that you will lose any associated revenues and you will be required to pay a call delivery charge. This means that the rebate you may currently receive will turn into a charge from February 2008. If this is not commercially viable for you then you should now be considering a number change prior to February 2008.

How to Transfer

The process fortunately is very simple to change your existing 0870 number or order an additional number please just follow this link or email for FREE advice.

O2 Broadband Launch

After a long delay O2 have finally launched their Broadband access packages. If you sign up before the 21^st January 2008, you have a 100 day money back guarantee.

The service will be powered by Be Unlimited using their ADSL2+ technology.

Packages range from £17.50 (£7.50 for existing mobile contracts) for 8Mb to £25 (£15 for O2 mobile contracted clients) for 20Mbs. There is an “unlimited” Fair Usage policy in force but this is somewhat vague and needs further reading. What is clear though that once you are outside the 100 day money back period you are in a12 month contract with a £50 early cancellation fee.

BT and ADSL2+

BT plan to have ADSL2+ available to 5% of the UK customer base by April 2008 covering as much as 50% by 2009.

Three trials will commence, starting Oct 1^st in the Midlands, to get the best out of the 21 Century Network and to introduce next generation broadband services, offering high speed broadband at up to 24Mbps, to the UK.

The good news is that you may not have to wait until your telephone service is switched over to the 21^st Century Network, due to complete in 2010, you may still be able to get ADSL2+ products before then.

.Skype and Santa Claus

How big is your Christmas stocking? Mobile operator 3 is hoping that it is big enough to hold their new SKYPE handset.

Is this move a radical step to mobilise internet calls for a mass market?

3 already offers access to free Skype calling through its x-series phones, launched in 2006 it failed to jumpstart mass market mobile Internet. It uses the voice channel to connect to the phone mast before the network converts the call to true VoIP.

The new handset will close the gap between Internet Communications and Mobile Calling.

Brussels wants level broadband

Growing increasingly concerned over the widening gap between the best Broadband countries and the Worst, for example a report shows Denmark with 37.2% of households with Broadband access whereas Bulgaria only has 5.7%, the European Commission are drawing up plans to level out the performance across the European Union.

More Businesses take line rental away from BT

More and more businesses are taking the advantage of taking the management of their lines away from BT to a plethora of alternative providers.

If you have a business with a BT line think about it, BT still service and repair the line while the alternative provider charges you less for your line rental. The same line, the same services for less money, in today’s competitive market and the squeeze on profits every business in the country should be following this course of action.

Just drop us a comment and we will get full details of how you can take advantage of the service best for your business or contact telsave@fsbdial.co.uk, the report is free without obligation.

Make Mine a Double Cheeseburger and Wi-Fi

McDonalds are to become the UK’s largest access point for Wi-Fi when it completes the roll out of FREE Wi-Fi across its 1,200 outlets later this year. It has been announced that you are not obliged to buy anything to take advantage of the service although it is more than likely you will. Will the sound of clicking keyboards and VoIP access phones drown the normal sound of McDonald’s munching clients? It is not a hard choice to make between Starbucks and McDonald’s as Starbucks offer the expensive T-mobile access while sipping their coffee.

Not only laptop-using consumers will think this is a great deal - think of the growing range of wifi-enabled mobile devices that include GSM/wifi mobile phones, Skype phones and the new iPod Touch.

If you can connect to the net without a browser-based log in process, you’ll be able to use many of these devices.

Just nip into a McDonald’s and munch a Big Mac while you make some free phone calls or get some more songs from the iTunes Wifi Music Store.

Google –v- Microsoft

Google have announced their new offering of the phone of the future but it is not a competitor to the new Apple iphone. It will have an operating system that will rival Microsoft’s Windows Mobile and instead of charging a licensing fee for the system, it is believed that Google will rely on advertising to make money, making it better value for users.

DSL still reigns supreme

Around 64% of the world’s 313 million broadband connections are using DSL while nearly 22% connected through cable.

Western Europe retains the lead for the number of subscribers with some 72 million using DSL as their means of connecting to the Internet.

15 countries now have over 3 million DSL users and 29 have over 1 million.

T-Mobile Outage Black Monday

 Black Monday for Blackberry users and those connected to T-mobile as their data provider suffered an unexplained 4 hour outage on Monday, leaving users the task of actually speaking to people for four hours instead of emailing them.

Just like Orange and Vodafone previously T-mobile assures users the problem is now fixed and should not occur again.

When will it be O2 turn to suffer the same fate?

£1,000 challenge from BT

That is what BT have put up for grabs for some developer to come up with a mobile phone application that uses a Wi-Fi connection for something. If you can put together a Symbian application that uses a Wi-Fi connection at some point during its execution then this could be just for you.

Well you have to do something when touring the BT Openzone Wi-Fi Hotspots.

Why are we waiting….Oh! Why are we waiting?

More and more complaints are coming in from subscribers who call BT Call Centres concerning the amount of time they are kept waiting while pressing buttons or listening to a nauseating electronic voice every few seconds telling one they are busy. When you do get through you invariable are told that you are through to the wrong department and will be transferred to yet another queue!

I have experienced this just this week when calling BT and spending 45 minutes just hanging on, I would have hung up but wanted to see just how long I would be kept waiting and yes when I did hear a human voice at the other end I was told I needed to speak to another department and would be put in a queue.

Just a few weeks ago, I was waiting for a new line to be installed after moving house, and the word is I was waiting and waiting. I rang from my mobile phone to be finally told it was there new outsourced sales team that handled new connections, again a queue, fortunately the deal I have on my mobile meant that on a Monday I have freedom of use otherwise either it would have cost a fortune for the call or I would have hung up and possibly still been without a land line. Of course, BT was still trying to get me to pay advanced line rental for my old property even though they had acknowledged that the service was to be discontinued from the day of my move.

Although at the time one feels it is only happening to you but apparently, I am not the only person who has had this experience with BT. BT blames a new “customer management system” for the chaos. “While this new system beds down a small number of customers have had problems getting through,” says a spokesman. The telecoms regulator Ofcom insists it’s not its business to monitor complaint levels or to offer opinions; Otelo, the telecoms ombudsman, says it only considers complaints individually and so, it seems, no one is interested in dealing with BT’s service support.

Manchester is Wi-Fi Capital

Following a pilot scheme in Milton Keynes and Warwick, Pipex Wireless under its new name of Freedom4 has announced plans but not prices to launch its Wimax service in Manchester later this year. It is also planned to roll the service out to 50 cities country-wide.

The IEEE wireless standard has a range of up to 30 miles, and can deliver broadband at around 75 megabits per second. This is theoretically, 20 times faster than a commercially available wireless broadband.

This extension provides for non-line of sight access in low frequency bands like 2 - 11 GHz. These bands are sometimes unlicensed. This also boosts the maximum distance from 31 to 50 miles and supports PMP (point to multipoint) and mesh technologies.

Wimax is seen as the successor to Wi-Fi which is measured in feet rather than miles, offering data rates in excess of 10Mbit/sec in either direction as opposed to fixed-line links that usually offers an uplink at a fraction of the speed of the downlink.

As it is a joint venture with Intel, we will see lap tops being produced with both Wi-Fi and Wimax access.

Coincidentally BT announces…..

That it is to create a UK-wide urban Wi-Fi network by asking its broadband customers to share their wireless broadband connections with all and sundry.

Spanish based FON has a worldwide network of around half a million users who offer their wireless broadband connection to passing traffic. BT is offering free connectivity to BT’s UK Wi-Fi Hotspots as well as the FON network worldwide to any subscriber who joins the scheme Hotspots. If it is successful, it would mean that laptops and devices like iPhones could connect on the move making a viable competitor against mobile broadband.

Faster Mobile Uplinks

A demonstration this week of the High Speed Uplink Packet Access link showed that cellular links of up to 2Mbits.sec is a step closer. The 3.5g service has been available for a while now but the top speed has only been available on downlinks.

In Barcelona, a Canadian company has been demonstrating a new card which supports high data rates in both directions. As users rarely get the higher speeds to be more realistic one could expect real world speeds of 400-600 kbits/sec.

Even at this speed users who need to upload large files of data would be well satisfied after all I am old enough to remember that was the speed of ADSL when we first experienced it, and to have it on a cellular connection…. Well that’s progress.

Although the card is designed to go into laptops the technology can also be applied to smart phones.

There was no mention of when the service would be launched in the UK.

ComputerActive Broadband Campaign

 The campaign by computer magazine ComputerActive for more accurate advertising of broadband speeds is gathering pace. Thousands of subscribers and various MP’s have given their names to the on-line petition. Nearly two thirds of broadband subscribers report speeds way below that advertised by their ISP. Ofcom have also given a response saying that whereas speed is not a high profile problem for them they will look at it informally.

You can join the campaign at www.computeractive.co.uk/campaign

 Virgin Media Travels Faster

 Virgin Media are to trial a 10 Mbps broadband in Preston, Wigan and Blackpool this week, the trial will last fro several weeks.

However, BT in the debate  over their next generation broadband network claim they are yet to be convinced that there is sufficient demand to justify the investment. It echoes hints Ofcom chief executive Ed Richards made at the launch of its consultation last week that it might be worth holding off and seeing how other countries fared with ultra-fast broadband rather than charging ahead.

 The UK is currently 9th in the European broadband speed table with an average speed of 2.6 Mbps against Finland and Sweden who boast 21.7 Mbps and 18.2 Mbps respectively.

Are You Paying Too Much To BT for Your Business Calls?

In a very competitive voice market a large number of small businesses are still paying far too much for their land line calls by routing them through BT. Currently BT’s Option 1 package offers calls at 2.6p per min for both National and Local calls capped for first 60 minutes at 5p for land line calls and 25p for calls to mobiles. Mobile calls are charged at 10p there is a 2p connection charge for land line calls and 7p connection for calls to mobiles. To qualify you must spend at least £500 per year (approx £42 per month) on calls, remember that is calls it does not include line rental and/or VAT. Even the smallest business can easily save on these prices and get national and local calls at 1.3p per minute and calls to mobiles at 9p per minute there is still a 5P cap on calls up to 60 mins for land line calls and 25p. cap for calls to mobiles. You can even save 10% on your line rental costs and still have BT service your line in the event of a fault occurring.

For full details drop an email to commsIQ at telsave@fsbdial.co.uk after all it is your profit bottom line that is effected.

Avoid the Broadband Tax Trap

Do you carry out work at home either as a director or an employee which uses your broadband link? So how can you and your company avoid paying tax and NI contributions on your claim for expenses.

If you get a cash allowance toward your Internet costs related to work both employer and employee pays income tax and NI.

If the bill is made out to the company instead of the individual, the employee is taxed on the connection charge plus VAT no NI that is true but the company has to pay employers NI on this benefit-in-kind. Also some providers do not allow a company billed connection at a domestic address.

New Solution:

Charge your company “rent” for its use of your “home Office”, remember to include services in this rental charge. The company get a tax reduction for the rent paid (unless it is excessive!). And if rental income is matched by your expenses, you will have a zero tax bill.

CAUTION: Make sure the space you dedicate as “Home Office” is common ground i.e. the whole family have access this way you will not be liable to CGT on the “Home Office” when you come to sell your home.

 Editor’s note:  Every effort has been made by the editor that all information in previous, this and future updates are for information purposes only and are accurate at the time of writing, but the editor cannot accept responsibility for any loss or liability perceived to have arisen from any such information, legal and professional advice should be sought at all times.