INDUSTRY NEWS
Orange awards two top selling partners
GENERAL Communications and Sprint have become Prin- cipal Partners in the Orange Partner Programme following an impressive haul of connec- tions and upgrades during the past 12 months.
General Communications achieved 3,000 new connec- tions and 5,000 upgrades on Orange, while Sprint has gained 6,000 connections and 15,000 upgrades in the past year. As Principle Partners, both will benefit from enhanced mar- keting support including dual branding, enhanced investment and dedicated resource. Orange relaunched its Partner Programme in March 2010 with a renewed focus on the indirect business channel to SMEs.
ment of Darren Goldsmith as Head of Business Sales across the brands.
Darren Goldsmith
“We hope to accept many more indirect resellers into the Orange Partner Programme.”
Indirect resellers remain key to its growth strategy following the merger between Orange and T-Mobile to form Everything Everywhere, with the appoint-
Everything Everywhere has seen a 500% increase in SME connections over the last year across Orange and T-Mobile. T-Mobile is the primary brand for SME customers with fewer than 50 connections, while Orange focuses on those with 51-250 connections. Goldsmith stated: “It was always our aim not only to grow our SME market share through the indirect channel, but also to be able to reward those loyal and successful partners who helped us to do that. We hope now to accept many more indi- rect resellers into the Orange Partner Programme.”
Apprentice departs hit TV show
UNION Street’s Sales Manager Vincent Disneur’s run on the hit BBC show The Apprentice lasted five weeks, but came to an end in an unexpected double firing last month.
Vincent Disneur
Disneur was said to be one of the few personalities to stand out in the series but as a member of Team Logic he was always on the losing side.
Tony Cook, MD of Union Street, said: “It’s been riveting to watch Vincent scramble his way through the tasks.
“Knowing him to be a skilled business sales professional I don’t think he had a real chance to shine. But the show was cer- tainly more fun with him. “Lord Sugar’s loss is Union
Street’s gain.”
A DEAL match pledge between NEC and Russell Telecom has so far raised £1,550 for cancer care charity Daft as a Brush. NEC Sales Director Andrew Cooper is matching the £25 that Russell Telecom donates to the charity every time the company sells a SV8100 phone system. “Cancer is a disease that affects so many, and this charity has done some inspiring work,” said Cooper. The charity provides staffed custom-made vehicles which transport cancer outpatients between hospital and home. The charity’s goal is to transport 50,000 cancer patients per year. Kelvyn Gracie, MD, Russell Telecom, added: “We are delighted to have received contributions from NEC so that we can make even more of a difference. Our ambition is to pay for an ambulance within the year.”
Plantronics overhauls accreditation program
PLANTRONICS has evolved its Connect Partner Programme to bring in two new levels of partner accreditation that recognise specific areas of partner expertise – UC Voice Specialist and Public Sector accreditation.
Paul Dunne, Head of Channel Sales, UK & Ireland commented: “Over the past few years headsets have become ubiquitous for business. “Now, with the development of UC this looks set to continue as customers demand top quality
NGA upgrades spark global boom
ONGOING next generation access (NGA) network upgrades have sparked dramatic growth in the global FTTx (fibre to the X) and CMTS (cable modem termination system) markets during the first quarter of 2011. According to a new report from Ovum, the market for PON (passive optical network), FTTH (fibre to the home), and FTTB (fibre to the building) OLT (optical line terminal) ports grew by 35% in the first quarter of 2011 based on Q4 2010, to reach 988,889 ports.
When compared to the same period in 2010 the growth jumps to a big 182%, with shipments into Asia-Pacific comprising 93% of the total. China was the powerhouse for much of this growth, propelling Huawei, ZTE, and FiberHome into the first three places for PON OLT port shipments.
Kamalini Ganguly, Ovum analyst, said: “Shipments also jumped in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region, and in South and Central America to their highest levels ever.”
Kamalini Ganguly
Conversely, the DSL (digital subscriber line) market was an exception and edged down 5%
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when compared to the last quar- ter of 2010.
The fall was expected due to the seasonal trend at the begin- ning of a new year and was con- sistent with the 4% sequential drop in the first quarter of 2010 and 2009.
Ganguly added: “Despite the sequential drop in the first quarter of 2011, year-on-year shipments were higher in all regions. The first quarter of 2011 was another record quarter for VDSL2 shipments, which crested to 4.8 million ports.”
Paul Dunne
UC headsets that seamlessly integrate with their UC rollouts and encourage adoption within the organisation.”
SHORT CALLS
Norango, the 24-hour telephone answering service, has signed up Comms One. Norango assessed Comms One’s account management, know-how, flexibility and competitiveness, which were all deciding factors.
MD of Node4 Andrew Gilbert has won the European Data Centre Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2011. He said: “We are already planning our fifth data centre.”
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