VIEWPOINT
Twickenham Stadium April 1st & 2nd, 2009
www.comms-dealer.com
MY DREAM
“We are
Fresh views on
moving in
the right
direction”
owning clients
A MAN WITH HIS MIND ON Wi-Fi
Perhaps the economic chill prompted Jess
Traditional views of customer
Thompson-Hughes (pictured), Managing
Director of React Distribution, to spill the
ownership could prevent
beans on his arctic dream. “In an ideal world
telecoms resellers from
there would be one high powered radio
transmitter mounted at the North Pole, and
surviving the economic
another at the South. From this global canopy
downturn, claims UK Telco.
everyone could access any application, from
any location, with limitless bandwidth, zero
latency, and of course it would be free.”
This RF canopy would enable all forms of U
K Telco is to offer dealers who bill
more than £15,000 a month on
a joint billing basis the keys to an
communication to co-exist simultaneously. Aston Martin, leased by the company for
However, back in the real world, the demands 12 months. “While others may be letting the
of management and control override credit crunch hold them back some dealers
the flexibility and availability of almost could be racing ahead with the wind in their
ubiquitous GSM connectivity, concedes hair,” said Peter Arundale, UK Telco’s CEO.
Thompson-Hughes. “Corporates have a
need to govern who has access to valuable Arundale believes that the key to success for
data and network resources. So allowing dealers is to think beyond the old definitions of
end user owned devices such as mobile customer ownership. His viewpoint is based on
phones to use an operator’s infrastructure the findings of analysts who say that between
(such as the GSM networks) for the purpose 18-20 per cent of end users will go to the wall
of accessing corporate information has in 2009, meaning that dealers could be stuck
a significant number of security and between losing a fifth of their income and the
management challenges. Not to mention accumulated bad debt of those clients, at the
Peter Arundale
that most GSM/3G/4G handsets can’t run same time as being squeezed by operators.
business grade applications,” he said. more efficiently from a centralised position.
“That’s why we’re introducing new service The dealer retains their identity and ownership
What is available today? Remote access agreements based on the ‘cash up-front’ of customers using a white label billing
to corporate services usually consists of a model of the mobile industry to help dealers platform, but they get to focus on the parts
fixed connection from a remote or home weather the storm, and making it easy of the business which they do best. In turn,
office location. But some ‘enlightened’ for dealers to migrate their customers to we distributors expand our user base giving us
organisations have already taken the first step the UK Telco platform,” said Arundale. even more leverage to get the best prices.
and extended this fixed reach by untethering
the last few metres to use Wi-Fi connectivity Going it alone might be a source of pride, but “Of course, we’d never stand in the way
between the client and the fixed link to the at the heart of UK Telco’s business philosophy of our partners growing. If, in six months
outside world. “Fewer have taken the next is a more sober wisdom that says when the time, a dealer wants to migrate to a
step to use the available Wi-Fi and GSM resources of a network of partnerships are CDR account, we’ll actively encourage
signal for FMC. This is a simple concept which pooled, the shared success is greater than the them with all the help they need.”
permits dual mode handsets to operate as sum of its individual parts. “We’ve looked at the
a corporate PBX extension while retaining figures, and we believe that unless a dealer is UK Telco also guarantees to buy out
all the characteristics and features of the turning over more than a £1 million a year in customers should a partner decide at
mobile phone,” Thompson-Hughes added. calls and lines it makes better business sense any point to sell up completely, offering
“It’s then possible to operate a split horizon to hand over administration of the customers a safe exit strategy at any time.
technology with modern ‘smart’ centrally to a company like UK Telco,” said Arundale.
managed Wi-Fi systems. This enables local Arundale claims that the way to survive 2009 is
traffic to remain local while corporate traffic is “We’re in a strong, secure place with large to start questioning every aspect of a dealer’s
passed through the public Internet in a secure cash reserves. We plan to use them to keep business ‘before it’s too late’. “Don’t stick your
encrypted tunnel back to the corporate HQ. dealers trading at a time when they are fingers in your ears and hope these problems
caught between customers going bust and will go away, figure out which parts of your plan
“Although it’s more likely to be our children or networks squeezing their lines of credit like a are based on assumed knowledge that might
grandchildren who realise my ideal world, we tube of old toothpaste. We’ll protect dealers be fundamentally flawed. Do that, and you
are moving in the right direction.”
�
from the problem of bad debt and recover might be on course to making this year your
any lost income ourselves, which we can do best on record,” he stated. �
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28 COMMS DEALER FEBRUARY 2009
www.comms-dealer.com
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