EFM – Better than Broadband, By A Mile

Not so long ago, Internet Leased lines and private data circuits were exclusively used by the UK’s biggest corporate firms, but now any business can get first class data communications without the first class price tag.

Before broadband, we had three options.

There was the good old snail’s pace “dial-up” 56k modem connected to a telephone line, and it costed us a phone call all the time we were connected. A bit more cash could get you a digital ISDN line, bumping up the bandwidth to a heady 128kbps, and you’d be really flying.

The last one was for the big boys. A “Leased Line” was (still is) a dedicated, always-on connection and you decided on the speed. Still available today, “Kilostream” leased lines range between 128 and 512 kb/s. “Megastreams” are even faster, usually 2MB/s but speeds of 100MB/s are not unheard of. The costs are not for the feint-hearted either. A 2MB/s megastream connecting offices in London and Birmingham still costs upwards of £10,000.00 per year.

Kilostreams and Megastreams could (still can) be used for internet connections, and before broadband were the only option if you wanted to go faster than 128kbps. Problem was: eyewatering costs.

Broadband changed things. Rubbish bins quickly filled with old modems as businesses big and small jumped on the broadbandwagon, surfing the internet at amazing speeds and starting an online revolution. Many firms ditched expensive Kilostreams in favour of “Virtual Private Networks”. A “VPN” consisted of a broadband at each office, linked via the internet and protected from the hackers with software to make a secure VPN “Tunnel”. VPNs quickly became one of the most popular and cost-effective ways for a business to join it’s computers together.

Home workers joined the party, using “VPN Client” software to link to the office network from their living rooms.

The problem with Broadband is that almost everyone uses ADSL. The “A” stands for Asynchronous, ie. you download faster than you upload. You receive faster than you send. For instance, a typical 2MB/s ADSL has a download speed of 2MB/s, but only has an upload speed of 128 kb/s, a whole lot slower. So ADSL is fine for surfing the net, and it’s slow sending speed rarely affects your email messaging.

There’s more. ADSL “Contention” means that you share your broadband with your neighbours, sometimes as many as fifty of them (50:1 contention) if you go for cheap and cheerful. 2MB/s into fifty gives a snail’s-pace 40 kb/s, so most IT managers beg for low-contention broadband, but even 5:1 contended isn’t brilliant. Upload speeds also suffer, as you’d expect. VPN Tunnels often don’t work quite as well as they should, and in the early days contention forced firms to put their Kilostreams back in.

SDSL is cheaper than Kilostreams and is an improvement (“S” standing for Synchronous), with speeds usually around 1 or 2MB/s, but contention is still a nuisance.

At Last, EFM

Ethernet First Mile (EFM) does pretty much exactly what it says. You get a direct Ethernet connection from the local exchange to your offices. It isn’t shared, so there’s no contention. Plus, it’s synchronous. Better still, you can get up to 20MB/s of bandwidth. So, you can have a secure VPN between offices that actually works, at speeds the same as or better than Megastreams, at a fraction of the cost.

And the icing on the cake: Your EFM connection can also be used as your internet access, meaning that surfing has never been faster.

EFM is now widely available on most local exchanges, and is now a welcome alternative to ADSL, SDSL and Bonded DSL connections.

Southern Communications are an EFM Leased Lines provider. Call us on 0845 051 1122 or visit http://www.leased-lines.org/ for a free EFM survey.
For details on our range of Business Broadband services, please visit http://www.southern-comms.co.uk/broadband/
Established since 1965, we have been providing complete business telecoms solutions including telephone systems, business calls, phone lines and business mobiles.

Leased Lines Service Launched

Southern Communications has now launched a new leased lines service to provide business customers with high-speed reliable data connections between offices.

Leased lines are direct data links that are fully synchronous and uncontended, therefore performance, reliability and SLAs can be guaranteed.

Leased line bandwidths are available from 2 MB/s up to 1 GB/s.

EFM (Ethernet first mile) connections are also available, together with internet connections and site-to-site VPN circuits.

Free iPhones for Business

Basingstoke telecoms firm Southern Communications is now offering the iPhone4 for free, to cater for businesses who want to use Apple’s revolutionary mobile phone.

“Everybody want’s an iPhone”, says James Gillespie, Head of Business Mobiles at Southern Comms. “Business managers don’t want anything else, it’s the first thing they ask us for, and some are even ready to pay expensive cancellation fees to get out of contracts, just to get iPhones. And they usually expect them to be free.”

The team at Southern Comms have risen to the challenge, and is now offering iPhones for business free of charge with rental starting from as low as £40.00 per month for a 5-user start-up package.
Better still, you can fit iPhones into your fleet of other mobiles without it costing the earth. Southern Comms prides itself on mobile solutions for business, so adding iPhones to a fleet with varying requirements will never be difficult.

On the subject of alternatives, Southern Comms have tested and analysed a huge range of devices for those prepared to look beyond iPhone. Business managers have found the likes of HTC, Nokia and Motorola to be just as good, particularly when many are now working with tighter budgets.
For full information call Southern Communications on 0845 223 2244
or visit http://www.southern-comms.co.uk/businessmobile

Freephone, Free Phones or Not-so-free Phones?

Since the year 2000 telecoms technology has been moving apace, and with so much “free” stuff around, we take a look at ways to make sure you know what’s free and what’s not.

Back in the late 1990s, telecoms was a good business to be in. Problem was, you needed cash to be in it. About £30k would buy a “Reseller licence” for selling cheap phone calls off the back of the new telecoms networks springing up across the UK. Add the cost of billing systems, administration and lots and lots of staff, and starting a reseller business from scratch was not for the faint-hearted. Even well-established telecoms businesses struggled to muster the cash from their balance sheets.

Quite a few telecoms “agents” and “consultants” came out of the woodwork at this time. These guys didn’t have the funds for the big licences; they just took nice fat commissions from businesses grateful for saving them so much money, whilst accepting a healthy cut of the profit from the networks they recommended. The business saved, the consultant earned and the carrier got another customer. Even the extra equipment needed for re-routing the calls was reliable. Everyone was winning.

The extra equipment normally came in the form of a call router, which effectively “piggy-backed” on the phone lines, adding the necessary codes to the calls for re-routing at the local phone exchange. The newer phone systems could also be configured to add the codes without any extra bits having to be plugged into the phone lines, and thousands of UK businesses used the call savings to buy new telecoms equipment and update their communications.

The smarter telecoms providers offered everything – phone calls, phone systems, support and account management, and the “all-in-one” service put them a step in front of the newer, smaller outfits in what was already a hugely competitive market.

With the new millennium the goalposts shifted thanks to two major changes in technology. Carrier Pre-Selection, known simply as CPS, meant that phone systems or routers weren’t needed to route calls to a cheaper provider. It was all done at the exchange. Overnight, new phone systems lost their advantage as part of the cheap calls deal. The cost of entering the phone calls market had plummeted and one-man-bands with little or no expertise were arriving to cash in.

The second big change was LLU – local loop unbundling. Up until 2003, phone lines and phone calls were separate entities. In the 1990s you could use whoever you liked for phone calls, yet the phone lines would almost certainly be provided by BT. LLU allowed phone call providers to sell and rent lines via BT Wholesale, now Openreach, at slightly lower costs. Customers liked the idea of finally moving to a sole telecoms provider with a single all-in-one phone bill.

That brings us up to date. Thousands of providers offer a huge variety of business telecoms services, some good, some bad. Some offer things for free, some fix costs, and some fix you in some pretty expensive contracts. The latter is becoming a little too common.

Costs continue to fall for phone calls, lines and equipment, meaning that telecoms dealers can often give away some services labelled as “free” in order to gain elsewhere. But we all know that there’s no such thing as a free lunch, right? Well, nearly.

Believe it or not, it is possible to benefit from a handful of genuinely free services available in the telecoms market. 0845 “local rate” numbers are a good example. Many providers offer them to you absolutely free with no set-up, rental or associated call costs. The costs are covered by the people who call you. If you’re paying for 0845 numbers at the moment, you shouldn’t be and the same goes for fax-to-email numbers and audio conferencing “chat room” services – all are free services funded by the inbound callers.

The story is similar for other non-geographic numbers. 0800 “Freephone” is now mostly free to set up and free to rent, with a low cost associated with your inbound calls. The same goes for 0844, except you’ll be earning a rebate from inbound calls instead of paying for them. 0844 is thought of as the modern replacement for 0870 numbers with cheaper costs to the caller.

And that’s about it. Phone line installation, line rental, landline calls and calls to the mobile networks have a cost, all charged to the dealer and passed on to you with a bit of margin added. Phone systems, business mobiles, broadband and associated equipment all have costs too, so if you see any of this offered for free your provider is inflating costs elsewhere. Read the small print.

What about VoIP and internet calls? Yes and no. Internet calls need voice-quality broadband if you want to hold a business-quality call, so most people find themselves spending out on new internet connections. Worse, as soon as you call someone not connected to the internet, the call “breaks out” to the public network costing as much as 4 times that of a normal one.

Most of all, watch out for the wild claims, false figures and offers of free phone systems when you sign up for call and line rental savings. A sure sign of a bad deal is an aggressive closing technique and/or a “right-now” offer. Take your time, talk to people and look around – remember: telecoms is a buyer’s market. Too many bosses still believe the hype, don’t spend the time checking the figures for themselves, and end up counting the cost soon afterwards.

Too many professionals forget that a business exists to make a profit, and to make a profit there is always a cost.

Southern Communications were established in 1965 and provide complete business telecoms solutions including free 0845 numbers, phone systems, business mobiles, VoIP and broadband with complete telecoms management and consultancy services.

Business Mobiles: Hungry for an Apple? Shake The Tree First.

Our team has been painstakingly comparing the top business mobile phones, and the news isn’t good for the folks who think life isn’t worth living if you don’t have some fruit in your pocket.

Yes, we know. You want an iPhone. Everybody wants an iPhone. You’ve probably already spent your kids’ Christmas fund getting yours, or are in the process of choosing a suitable limb to donate in order to get one.

Now let’s get something straight. We all love the iphone. It’s the techno-style icon of the decade. iPhone looks cool, it does cool things, and you could spend a cool half-grand getting one. At long last, the upwardly mobile people who remember the ‘80s finally have a worthwhile replacement for their Filofaxes.

Putting our “Mustavan iPhone” predjuces aside for a just a little while, we locked ourselves away in a small, well-lit room to consider some of the other possibilities for business mobiles before jumping on the bandwagon (or applecart). There’s lots and lots to choose from. We looked at eleven business mobiles in total, ranging from the no-nonsense Nokia 2730, right up to the latest blackberry and smartphone offerings and, er, the iPhone.

Starting at the “no nonsense” end, the Nokia 6303 turned out to be a very respectable mobile phone, with compact dimensions, a good 16-million colour display, 2000 contact records, and with email and internet browsing thrown in we figured you couldn’t go wrong. To label it “entry level” would be grossly unfair. It has a number of other goodies thrown in, but the camera sparked our interest most of all. It’s 3.15 megapixel resolution is the same as the iPhone 3G and with a low price it’s superb value.

It wasn’t long before resistance weakened. We played briefly with the Blackberry phones, solid, trustworthy as ever, be we really wanted to get our hands on the smartphones. It was time to categorically prove iPhone as the best and then ask the management to issue them to us and all the staff. Things didn’t quite go to plan. Aren’t Smartphones all about touchscreens? Well, one of them hit us with a secret weapon: an additional pull-out QWERTY keyboard. The Motorola Milestone has a very capable 3.7-inch touchscreen AND a very smart and useable pull-out QWERTY keypad with proper buttons. This brings instant relief to our city-worker friends who are fed up with fumbling with screen-based keyboards whilst being bounced up and down on the tubes and buses.

There were soon two clear leaders. The Motorola Milestone and HTC Desire have good internal memory storage plus a microSD card slot, allowing owners to add memory storage as and when need dictates. With iPhone you get two fixed storage options and no expansion memory slot, which has always seemed a bit restrictive. Our two upstarts also have 5 megapixel cameras as does the iPhone 4, the connectivity options compare favourably with iPhone, talk time and standby time about the same, and those nifty applications are supported too. And now for the big one: the Motorola and HTC phones have microsoft-based software applications including instant messenger and are easily integrated with Microsoft Exchange. Perfect for business. Then we hear that HTC are about to release their own physical keyboard answer with even more useful goodies, and so are Nokia. Our Mac-friendly Apple began to fall from the tree.

Our wayward fruit hit the ground soon after with a thud when we looked at costs. The HTC and Motorola smartphones were priced about the same, which was about half that of an iPhone. Price is definitely where the iPhone towers above all others. So we put the iPhone carefully back, handed the HTC and the Motorola to two of our field-based sales guys and told them to go and play.

Feedback was good for both phones, with HTC seeming to win by a nose. Although the Motorola had the strongest specification and looked best on paper, HTC had superb ergonomics and slightly better build quality, but that’s just our opinion. Try them for yourself. What can’t be denied is that both the HTC Desire and Motorola Milestone fit modern business superbly and your choice will be down to personal preference. New model enhancements on the horizon make them even more attractive and the smart business mobile option.

Unless of course, you stoop down to pick up that Apple.

Southern Communications were established in 1965 and provide complete business telecoms solutions including business mobile equipment and mobile contracts for all sizes of businesses. We offer free consultancy with unbiased advice on all aspects of business communications.

The Cost Of Calls: Freephone and Friends

Non-geographic telephone numbers, or NGNs, have been with us for years. The two that we know best are 0800 (freephone) and 0845 (local-rate) numbers, but what are they? Why would we want them? How do they work? How do you get them and how much do they cost?

“Call Us NOW on FREEphone 0800…”. Did somebody just say “FREE”? Even now in our hard-nosed, been-around-the-block capitalist Western world, the word still gets our blood pumping. Without doubt, FREE is the top word for marketeers, a ruthless predator they will release whenever the financial bosses say it’s ok to open it’s cage. “Cheap” is in second place by a number of lengths, which is why 0845 still gets our attention with it’s low rate, about the same as a local call.

Back in the days when doing anything clever with phones meant spending a king’s ransom, 0800 and 0845 numbers were the realm of large corporate businesses. Firms used NGNs to show size, quality, stability and national presence. If a company was prepared to pick up the cost of your call to them, they must be delivering a good service, right? And don’t forget the “free” bit with it’s narcotic attraction.

They work very simply. When your customer calls an NGN, the phone exchange simply “points” the call at your normal landline number. Effectively, you run your existing numbers in parallel with your NGNs. Clients who are used to ringing your old advertised number can continue to do so, and you may choose to advertise your NGNs in the press, or on your website, etc.

As well as the obvious advertising benefits, there are a number of other advantages. NGNs usually come with itemised phone bills, so you can see how successful your advertising campaigns are. Many companies use multiple NGNs associated with a range of services and products. Modern phone system technology even allows staff to answer calls according to which NGN has been dialled. NGNs can also be combined with services such as fax retrieval. A fax-to-email number simply sends you an email with an image of the document attached, instead of using paper and a fax machine.
Another big advantage is that non-geographic numbers are never fixed to a single location. If your business relocates, or if you need to divert the calls to a different number in an emergency, your NGN can be reprovisioned quickly before your callers even notice.

NGNs are easy to get hold of, and even easier to set up. All it takes is a quick call to your telecoms vendor, pick the numbers you want from a list and they should do the rest for you.

Costs are much more affordable now and will vary, but you should expect free set-up for just about any non-geographic number. Rental should be free too, and the cost of incoming calls should be around the same as a national call for 0800 numbers, and even lower for the likes of 0845, 0844, 0870 etc. Rates vary so check with your vendor. Some NGNs such as 0844 can even generate revenue for you, handy if you take a lot of calls and want to reduce your phone bills further.

The great thing about NGNs is that now, like everything in telecoms, you can get them for next to nothing and the marketing power is still as strong as it ever was. With deregulation and extreme competition in the UK telecoms industry, now is the time to take advantage of NGNs, and the telecoms vendors are falling over themselves to give them to you.

Southern Communications provide 0800 freephone and 0845 numbers with free set-up and rental. 0845 number inbound call costs are also free. For more information on our business calls and lines services visit us at www.southern-comms.co.uk or email sales@southern-comms.co.uk

The Cost - Cheaper Business Calls

The Cost:


Cheaper Business Calls

Call providers are falling over themselves to get your phone call business. The promise is that you’ll save money, but will you really?

It’s been nearly 3 decades since the telecoms wars began in the UK, sparked by market privatization and a little-known Mercury Telecommunications taking on the newly-formed BT Goliath. Things have moved on since then and BT still stands head and shoulders above the rest in terms of size but with so much going on, it’s worth looking around before signing up for the easy option.

Back in the 1980s poor old Mercury didn’t really stand a chance. To use Mercury’s cheaper phone call service you needed special equipment and a lot of patience – the kit wasn’t that reliable and the phone calls took ages to connect. Mercury “Smartboxes” caused more problems than solutions and many telecoms vendors cashed in by selling them on long leases, quickly gaining a poor reputation still residual in the market today.

During the 1990s digital technology combined with better equipment to make call savings easier and reliable, carriers and resellers sprung up by the dozen as Oftel allowed the telecoms market to blossom, and old wounds from years gone by were beginning to heal. Once more businesses were taking the plunge with alternative providers for phone calls; they were saving money, and it was working too.

Come the new millennium and UK businesses could get cheaper phone calls, buy and rent phone lines and get just about any telecoms product or service from one place without having to put up with a multitude of phone bills. Also, the need for additional equipment disappeared as all the technology happened in the telephone exchanges. Hundreds of telecoms companies sprung up, locking horns with existing suppliers who were adding these new services to their equipment-based businesses.

Now you can pretty much get whatever you want, from wherever you want it, easily and cheaply. But what do you actually want? And there lies the problem. The UK telecoms market is so diverse and so technologically advanced, most decision makers find it too confusing and time-consuming to look into. Too many telecoms sales people take advantage of this, spouting loads of gobbledygook before swooping on their bedazzled victims with the hard close.

With so many call providers crammed into a super-competitive market, “creative” marketing is on the rise, often with empty promises and nasty contracts that leave a sour taste in the mouth. Remember the 1980s? Many still do.

So here’s a few simple tips to avoid becoming fodder for the telecoms vultures:

The contract must have a defined duration and a clear notice period. Many businesses are now getting caught out thinking that their contract is at an end, only to find out they have to give a further 12 months’ notice.

Watch out for minimum call charges. Vendors promising super-low call rates compensate by charging you a fee to connect the call, and/or a minimum call charge regardless of duration.

Make sure you get a 3-digit billing service. A call rate of 1p per minute is great, however a 30 second call will still cost you 1p (£0.01) with a 2-digit phone bill. The actual cost for this should be £0.005 – which you would get with 3-digit billing.

Bearing in mind the above, make sure you have per second billing, thankfully most call providers do this but check anyway.

Insist on Tier-1 carriers only. Tier-1 calls go via reliable high-quality, well-supported networks. Many smaller “bucket shop” vendors use cheaper networks which squeeze calls down congested routes, making calls sound like you’re talking in a bucket.

Although not essential, it’s useful if your vendor also supplies other services such as phone systems and mobiles. “One-stop-shop” telecoms companies tend to be larger and less vulnerable in what is at present a difficult market to survive in. For example if you’re thinking of spending out on a new phone system, try out a prospective supplier by having a short-term phone call contract with them.

Southern Communications were established in 1965 and offer a complete top-to-bottom business telecoms service for cheaper business calls & lines, phone systems, business mobiles, VoIP solutions and business broadband. We use Tier-1 carriers for phone calls with flexible contract options, no minimum call charges and per-second 3-digit billing for all calls.

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