NGN CONNECTIVITY
Hot demand for Ethernet
EFM has proved to be a successful addition to TalkTalk Business’ data connectivity portfolio, with over 200 orders confirmed since its launch on March 31st and a current run rate of over 150 per month, according to Lance Spencer, Director of Connectivity.
E
FM is ideal for end user customers who require higher bandwidth than is
achievable on traditional ADSL products and at a more competitive price point than other fibre-based Ethernet services. To meet this market demand TalkTalk Business offers customers a full range of synchronous Ethernet services delivered over bandwidths from 2Mb- 20Mb symmetrical, with a guarantee money back commitment on achieving minimum predicted speeds.
Prior to launching EFM TalkTalk Business conducted a successful six month trial involving 13 key channel partners, and according to Spencer the process highlighted this ‘tremendous market potential’ for the product. “Over the last 12 months we’ve also increased the number of EFM and Ethernet-enabled exchanges,” commented Spencer. “We’re at the point now where around 90 per cent of our Next Generation Network has Ethernet and EFM capability. We also plan to introduce a further 700 exchanges within the next two years, all of which will be Ethernet and EFM
enabled, bringing the total to over 2,500 exchanges.”
The scale of this opportunity for the channel is shown by the speed of growth in both Ethernet and EFM sales, increasing from zero to the current £7.5 million of annualised revenue in just 12 months. “These technologies are allowing the channel to exploit new market areas such as VoIP much more effectively, as well as being able to offer technology renewal of legacy products such as leased lines, SDSL and Framestream,” pointed out Spencer. “Importantly, with greater margins at stake for partners offering higher bandwidths this is helping fill the void from declining legacy services.”
TalkTalk Business is working with partners to identify the most suitable products for their end customer requirements from its portfolio of Next Generation connectivity products and services. According to Spencer, these now span the full spectrum with Business Grade Broadband through 10MB and 20 MB symmetrical EFM up to 1 GB fibre-based services, all available from over 2,000
exchanges across the UK and covering over 90 per cent of businesses.
TalkTalk Business has spent the last 18 months building a set of connectivity services based on next generation technology, and the
opportunity and challenge is to build more value on top of these connectivity products to enable the channel to generate further revenue streams via a range of network based applications. “Connectivity is only the first layer, the plumbing that will enable you to access value added margins from growing markets such as voice convergence, hosted applications and the cloud,” added Spencer.
Key challenge
One of the key challenges for partners, he believes, is highlighted by research conducted by TalkTalk Business. It revealed that 51 per cent of SMEs still don’t understand the difference between business and domestic grade broadband. Furthermore, with a significant 70 per cent of SMEs across the UK still relying on domestic connections delivered through legacy networks, the
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Lance Spencer
fundamental challenge to partners is to first understand the revenue potential of next generation services (via EFM and Ethernet over our NGN) and educate the end user on the numerous application benefits.
“New channel partners are emerging in the market who specialise in using both EFM and Ethernet technologies to compete aggressively in both the emerging VoIP market and the traditional IP VPN markets,” added Spencer. “These new companies are growing rapidly as a result and are a good example to the established channel on the revenue potential available through next generation technologies.”
TalkTalk Business’ EFM proposition uses either two or four pairs of copper wires combined to create a single synchronous Ethernet connection that is super- fast with inherent high reliability. “Should there be a fault on any of the pairs EFM does not drop the service like traditional single
pair delivery,” commented Spencer. “The resilient architecture for last mile delivery allows the service to remain live at a reduced speed until the problem is fixed, ensuring the impact on the end applications are minimised. If an outage does occur, businesses are covered by a service level agreement which guarantees that resolution will be achieved within a six hour window.”
Spencer says that channel partners and end users are ‘hugely responsive’ to the benefits and the wealth of next generation applications that EFM has the capability to deliver. “It’s therefore going to continue to be central to our business plan and dovetail with the ongoing expansion of our NGN,” he noted. “EFM completes the portfolio of connectivity products ensuring that all partner requirements can be met by TalkTalk Business, both now and into the future. As such these products are absolutely core to the growth of our business going forward.”
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