Comms4Business News

Ericsson ConsumerLab Research shows over half of UK consumers, based on respondents' answers in the study, would like greater freedom and flexibility to access digital content from any device, from anywhere, combined with wireless connectivity between all digital content devices.

Demand for advanced TV and connected home features is driving UK consumers to create their own home entertainment systems, which allow them to view and share digital content on a range of screens and devices in the home, according to the research.

The research highlights the fact that games consoles are being used as a hub for home entertainment, as they are the devices which interconnect with the widest range of other devices and services in the home. However, of an average of 16 digital content devices in the home, most devices remain strictly PC or TV-centric, and offer only limited or no connectivity to other devices.

The data shows a clear demand for easier access to digital content around the home, and the opportunity for operator-based services to tap into mass market demand by delivering simple, reliable ways to access digital content anytime, anyplace. However, the research showed that operators need to deliver ‘super-simplicity' to drive mass market take up of advanced IPTV-based functionality.

The survey also asked respondents to rank a series of ‘What consumers want from advanced TV services and the Connected Home' concepts, based on the TV and digital content-related features they offer. The top ranked concept, both in the UK and in the international group, was ‘The New Home', which enables the consumer to use any device to access TV, video, music or images, from anywhere. The key features of this concept include: Wireless connectivity - 80% of consumers in the international group and 64% of UK consumers would like wireless connectivity between all digital media devices, to facilitate the quick and easy sharing of digital content; Direct media delivery - consumers would rather send digital content directly to the device where it is optimally consumed, for example sending a photo directly to the TV, without having to connect via a computer; Remote access to digital content - the ability to either send content home from a device, or to access home-based content remotely, would be a key connected home service. Stephen Hall, VP strategy, marketing and communications, said: "Consumers are looking for new ways to view and share their digital media. A significant number of tech-savvy users are already creating connected homes, bringing together the best features of digital TV and the Internet to use content in ways which best suit them. Clearly, many more people would like access to the same features, but they are held back by the complexity of the technology. What will drive increased take up of these higher value TV and related services is simplicity. There is clearly a huge opportunity for operators who can deliver an easy to use, highly connected home environment. Ericsson is helping to deliver this by working with operators and with digital media industry as a whole."

For Genesis, as well as significantly growing the size of its business, the deal opens up increased opportunities to sell its wider hosted IT, data and software services.

Piers Linney, a director at Genesis, said: “This transaction doubles the size of the mobile voice and data customer base managed by Genesis, making us the largest independent mobile virtual service provider in the UK.

“It also allows us to offer THUS Mobile customers a broader portfolio of products and services in response to a rapidly changing market. We believe that business customers no longer want voice and data services in isolation. Instead, these need to be offered alongside hosted IT services as a converged solution, helping businesses increase efficiencies and revenues.”

The acquisition comes three weeks after Genesis acquired Increase CRM, to become the UK’s leading provider of hosted Microsoft Dynamics CRM services.

Emma Goddard joins the Marketing Team as Marketing Executive and Megan Anderson is appointed to the role of Sales Support Executive.

Emma, 29, has worked in income generation and solution provision roles within the technology and finance sectors for over 5 years and, before joining Uniworld a year ago, was previously based at IBM.

Colin Mann, Marketing Manager, commented “Emma’s appointment is a key step in developing our marketing strategy for 2009. Emma will play an important role in helping us to generate more business via the channel and I’m delighted she’s joined the team”.

Megan, 24, joined Uniworld in 2005 as an Account Manager and has since gained extensive experience of the industry in customer service and Product Marketing Management roles.

Matthew Lambert, Sales & Marketing Director of Uniworld, said “These two new roles are indicative of Uniworld’s strength in the market place and we are pleased to have made these appointments from our internal staff. We are a cash positive and strong business and we therefore provide a very stable partner for the channel to work within these challenging times”.

The EU's telecoms sector, which is worth about 3% of EU GDP, continued to grow in 2008 with revenues estimated at above €300 billion, up 1.3% compared to 2007 and outperforming the rest of the economy (up by 1% only). Europe leads the world in mobile phone services with the number of subscriptions in 2008 at 119% of the EU population (up seven percentage points from 2007), well ahead of the US (87%) and Japan (84%). These are some of the findings in the annual progress report by the European Commission on the single telecoms market. One of the main conclusions is that the consumers are benefiting from the sector's competitiveness in that they pay less while getting better value for money. This is particularly true for Britain, where the average monthly mobile bill fell as low as £18.31 (€19.76) in 2008, down from £23.53 (€ 25.39) in 2007. Broadband is another area of continued progress for the UK. The fixed broadband penetration reached 28.4% of the population in January 2009, up 2.7 percentage points compared to January 2008 and above the EU average (22.9%). The British market for fixed and mobile phone services is among the most competitive in the EU. The largest mobile operator has 25% of all subscribers, the lowest share for a leading mobile operator in the union. In the fixed voice market, the share for the incumbent operator is again among the lowest in terms of revenue and traffic volume. The report is based on facts and figures provided from national telecoms regulators and market players which are verified by experts from the European Commission.

With this agreement, Edgeware is integrating its solid state VoD platform with the Ericsson end to end IPTV solution and OpenStream Digital Services Platform to enable operators worldwide to easily deploy advanced on demand TV services.

Edgeware’s network-distributed server architecture allows operators to utilise their existing network, even when bandwidth and quality of service are limited, by caching popular content close to the viewers.

Mikael Samuelsson, VP of channel sales at Edgeware, stated: “We are proud to be part of the Ericsson IPTV solution. Partnering with an industry leader like Ericsson gives us a strong global reach and together we are able to provide advanced IPTV solutions to a large number of operators around the world.”

However, operators will need to content themselves with the fact that user growth will be far faster than revenue growth, meaning more users and more data traffic, but declining average revenues per user (ARPUs).

Users of mobile broadband services (3G and 3G+ technologies) will grow from 181 million in 2008 to over two billion in 2014, growth of 1024%, according to Ovum’s latest research.

In 2014 Ovum forecasts that there will be 258 million users worldwide accessing mobile broadband services through laptops, which are connected via USB modems, datacards or have embedded mobile modules.

Steven Hartley, senior analyst at Ovum and co-author of the research, stated: “This is a staggering 1022% growth from 2008, which is when mobile broadband supposedly took off.”

Michele Mackenzie, principal analyst at Ovum and co-author, added: “Operators can also expect a similar growth rate for handset users of mobile broadband services, but starting from a much larger existing base. We forecast that handset users will grow from a base of 158 million in 2008 to almost 1.8 billion in 2014.”

The most aggressive growth comes from emerging markets, where the unavailability of fixed broadband offers a major opportunity to mobile broadband players. For example, 40% of total mobile broadband laptop users will come from Asia Pacific in 2014. The advent of 3G in markets such as China and India, the sheer number of mobile users and poor fixed line penetration in these markets means that broadband access to a very large number of people will be purely mobile. For many though, Internet access will be through the handset. In China, there will be 52.5 million laptop users versus 325 million handset users, a ratio of 6:1.

However, even in mature markets such as Western Europe, the slowest growing region between 2008 and 2014, user growth in laptop access over the next five years is set to reach 747%, and 918% in handset access. Hartley continued: “Such recession-busting growth will be music to the ears of operators. The ubiquity of the Internet and the desire to be connected on the move are key drivers for this, as will the increasing adoption of prepaid tariffs, which support the complementary nature of mobile broadband in such regions with high fixed broadband penetration.”

On a global level, revenues grow at just 44% of the rate of users. A signpost as to the reason can be seen in the fact that, as with most mobile services the vast growth in mobile broadband user numbers in emerging markets does not provide corresponding revenue growth. Therefore, the contribution of each region remains broadly the same across the forecast period. In 2008 Middle East, Africa and South & Central America contribute 3% to total global revenues and this only rises to 9% by 2014.

Mackenzie said: “Several operators have touted the idea of plugging the ARPU decline with value added services, yet we are yet to see anything sufficiently compelling in either the laptop or handset space. Evidence from other broadband markets suggests that banking on such revenue to make business cases fly can be extremely dangerous.

While Hartley commented: “The only alternative is to employ ever more ruthless network efficiency to reduce OPEX sufficiently in order to defend margins.” The dilemma is that by 2014 network quality will have become an increasingly important service differentiator.

Therefore in Ovum’s view, balancing both sides of the equation will need to become an essential skill for mobile operators if they want to enjoy a share of the mobile broadband spoils.

While international telephone traffic continues to increase at a modest pace, Skype’s international traffic has soared. TeleGeography estimates that Skype’s cross-border traffic grew approximately 41 percent in 2008, to 33 billion minutes—equivalent to 8 percent of combined international telephone + Skype traffic. "Skype’s traffic growth has been remarkable," said TeleGeography analyst Stephan Beckert. "Only five years after its launch, Skype has emerged as the largest provider of cross-border voice communications in the world."

Not all of Skype’s traffic is a net loss for international carriers. Skype’s paid "Skype Out" service, which lets users make calls to standard telephones, generated 8.4 billion minutes of calls in 2008. Skype relies on wholesale carriers, such as iBasis and Level 3, to connect this traffic to the telephone network.

The Automatic Handsfree Answering feature is designed to make it easier for the elderly, infirm or disabled to take calls. However subsequent market research indicates that many other people whether at work or play would find it 'extremely useful'.

This new accessibility feature is available only to callers whose numbers are stored in the phone's memory keys.

To prevent unauthorised use all outgoing calls can be restricted to those numbers stored in memory keys. A hotline number can be called simply by lifting handset or pressing the handsfree key.

The Burnside P230 Desktop Mobile Phone combines the use it anywhere flexibility of a mobile phone and the ease of use of an ordinary big button desktop telephone.

The insertion of a mobile phone SIM is all that is required for instant connection to GSM cellular wireless networks without the delay or expense of landline installation or reconnection. A Pay As You Go SIM also avoids the pay even if you don't use it rental of a landline phone.

SMS text messages can be composed, sent and received using the P230 or from applications like Microsoft's Outlook e-mail client running on a PC connected via its USB port.

The P230 is a new addition to a range of Burnside desktop mobile phones already in use by amongst others Sainsbury's, Tesco and the Metropolitan Police.

The P230 is available from mobile network operators, distributors and telecom dealers. It is designed and made in the United Kingdom.

The research shows that mobile media usage patterns differ greatly depending on a consumers location, with the strongest usage of mobile media being in the home.

The research showed that 67% of participants who used their mobile for email did so in their home and 56% for mobile internet browsing. Downloading mobile content was also revealed as significantly more likely to be performed at home, with speed, convenience and alleviating boredom cited as the key reasons for usage.

Meanwhile, high use of mobile media on public transport centred around entertainment services, such as TV, music and games, whereas services used most when out and about, such as local information and internet search, tend to facilitate movement.

Other key findings on mobile media usage included: The average age for mobile media users is 36, and 81% use mobile media more than once a week with 46% using it daily; Men generally use mobile media more, although women are much more likely to use picture messaging; The mobile internet pages viewed most often are search engines, email, news, music and film although a high proportion (55%) of people browse the mobile internet with no specific agenda, providing an opportunity for marketers to attract their attention.

Research participants were asked to rate traditional and digital broadcast and print media on a number of attributes. Mobile media was overwhelmingly viewed as the most personal and innovative media, providing it with a unique place in the marketing mix.

The research revealed that people are very much open to mobile marketing and contained some important insights for brands looking to engage with consumers using the media, including: Short SMS codes remain a popular marketing mechanic, having been used by two thirds of participants; 70% of participants are attracted more by interactive marketing formats, such as sponsorship, coupons or picture messaging mechanics

When clicking on adverts on the mobile internet, the stages that are most popular are: adverts which click straight through to the brand’s website (favoured by 47%); voucher code or coupon (43%); click through to another area of the site (36%); entered in a competition (34%).

The research, titled Exposure 2, consists of independent qualitative and quantitative research, following a survey of more than 2,000 mobile media users from across all UK mobile networks. The survey focuses on consumer consumption of mobile media, and attitudes towards it when used as a marketing channel, particularly in comparison to other traditional and digital media.

The Burnside P230 Desktop Mobile Phone combines the use it anywhere flexibility of a mobile phone and the ease of use of an ordinary big button desktop telephone. The insertion of a mobile phone SIM is all that is required for instant connection to GSM cellular wireless networks without the delay or expense of landline installation or reconnection.

The automatic handsfree answering feature is designed to make it easier for the elderly, infirm or disabled to take calls. However, subsequent market research indicates that many other people whether at work or play would find it useful also.

SMS text messages can be composed, sent and received using the P230 or from applications like Microsoft's Outlook email client running on a PC connected via its USB port.

The P230 is available from mobile network operators, distributors and telecom dealers.

Led by Managing Director Stephen Clarke, Truancy Call Ltd provides an automatic parent notification system which allows school staff to implement first-day contact with parents of absent children by email, SMS text and voice calling. Stephen was inspired to produce the service in December 2000 after reading a news article about two primary school children that went missing after not arriving at school that morning. Since its inception, the service has grown and is now used in over 1000 schools in the UK, Australia and Republic of Ireland.

Truancy Call Ltd provides a plethora of additional telecommunications solutions using the same technology to tackle bullying and term-time absences, as well as providing e-mentoring for educational establishments and appoinment reminders for hospital patients.

Stephen Clarke, Managing Director of Truancy Call Ltd, enthused: “We are delighted to be recognised as one of the country’s most successful growing businesses, especially in this time of recession. This achievement is testament to the innovative technology we have created to tackle issues such as truancy, now used by over 1,000 schools across the UK. Our plans for 2009/10 include international expansion for which the flexibility and versatility of our services will prove vital.”

Tony Cook of exhibitor Union Street told Comms Business "I just wanted to let you know that the show was a great success for us. We picked up several good leads and I think it is quite likely that we will pick up 4 or 5 deals from them. Thanks for your efforts and for the support you have given to Union Street. You can absolutely count us in for the next show".

Cherie Everett, Marketing Manager at Griffin Internet said; "Convergence Summit North is a well organised event utilising integrated marketing techniques from print, to DM, SMS, video and web campaigns to attract northern resellers. The event is managed with military precision to make exhibiting easy, yet manages to create a relaxed atmosphere for networking and business meetings. It is a great platform for launching products and we were able to get valuable feedback from existing and new channel partners on our MPLS IPVPN networking solutions, new multi-carrier provisioning platform and rewarding rebate scheme".

Jane Leahy of Manchester based distributor Trust Distribution was equally impressed stating "In this current economic downturn, we were concerned visitor numbers would be down, however how wrong! On Tuesday we couldn't keep up with the sheer number of people who visited our stand! It was such a brilliant day! What credit crunch?? WELL DONE to Comms Business again for yet another fabulous show……the western themed evening went down a storm, everyone had such a good time!.....Here’s to more of the same in 2010"!

Miles Bossom of event organiser Miles Publishing said of the event; "I am extremely pleased with the way the Summit North delivered this year despite tough economic conditions. Whilst our competitors show has been "cancelled" and claims have been made that the traditional exhibition format does not suit the purpose of The Channel I believe we have proved this very wrong”.

Continuing “My team has worked tirelessly to ensure that our exhibitors have a stress free exhibiting experience and are supported every step of the way. Our integrated marketing approach has delivered a high quality audience in volume and our events have offered unrivalled value for money since 2002”.

The next major Channel exhibition/conference to take place is The Convergence Summit South – Sandown Park, Esher on 13/14 October 2009. You can register now at www.convergencesummit.co.uk

The “ALL INCLUSIVE” online recruitment package will “increase recruitment efficiency” and “reduce recruitment costs dramatically” for any Company or organization that is either recruiting or will be looking to recruit UK wide. It’s “next generation recruitment” and like all things in life…..things change and the face of recruiting is changing due to the success of the internet says Hammond. NORAS – Feb09 (National Online Recruitment Audience Survey) indicate that more and more online job seekers are using the Internet as their only job seeking tool: 1-7 in 2008 1-11 in 2007 1-16 in 2006

Internet Job boards are now advertising regularly on the TV and radio, you see Daily/Regional & local Newspapers and specialist technical media all offering internet job boards, so you can see the positive trend and confirms what Hammond believes to be the future for recruitment – The INTERNET. 86.4% of placements made in last 5 years at TTR were as a direct result of the Internet and most of them were in Telecoms, IT and Technology sectors which are even harder to recruit for than Generalist recruitment said Hammond

Since 2001, this well established and successful recruitment consultancy have experienced the Internet Recruitment revolution since it’s inception says Hammond so TTR are best placed in providing a full recruiting service (they write the ads, select the appropriate leading internet job boards, handle ALL responses and pass on screened cv’s in line with clients’ expectations) enabling any Company in any sector to utilise the full force of Internet Recruitment at an affordable “Flat Fee” price, whether it is for a single “one-off” vacancy or multiple vacancies including annual campaigns. TTR offer their full recruitment, online recruitment and internet experience as an extension of their customers’ recruitment process so the customer can easily tap-in to TTR and fully benefit from what is now a very powerful recruitment vehicle, to recruit at any level including specialist roles.

65% of senior managers surveyed agreed that it is acceptable for employees to use work-supplied laptops for their own purposes outside of work. Managers feel that, as recession bites and traditional forms of reward such as pay-rises and bonuses are harder to deliver, small ‘perks’ become more important in retaining key staff. Mike Banwell, Head of Business Services, Vodafone UK explains: “Whilst it is right that businesses need to keep a close eye on company assets such as netbooks, laptops and other mobile devices to prevent inappropriate, illegal or irresponsible use, we don’t want to get to a situation where attitudes change to such an extent that policies and procedures become so restrictive that employees actively circumvent them, or that the devices become so unfriendly that the benefits employees and businesses are obtaining from mobile working are severely reduced.” Vodafone addresses issues identified in this latest research with Vodafone Secure Remote Access (VSRA) – a comprehensive, managed service that brings a specific mobile perspective to securing information, devices and connectivity and enforcing IT policy for today’s flexible workforce. VSRA limits users to pre-authorised, approved networks (including 3G, Wi-Fi and fixed line broadband), ensures that users can only access appropriate content, and provides a range of security options including preventing company data being downloaded to USB drives or CD. It enables the flexibility that meets the personal requirements of the user as well as security and management requirements of the organisation.

“The acquisition of Pure Digital is key to Cisco’s strategy to expand our momentum in the media-enabled home and to capture the consumer market transition to visual networking,” said Ned Hooper, senior vice president of Cisco’s Corporate Development and Consumer Groups. “Pure Digital has revolutionized the way people capture and share video with Flip Video. This acquisition will take Cisco's consumer business to the next level as the company develops new video capabilities and drives the next generation of entertainment and communication experiences.”

Pure Digital’s Flip Video has sold more than 2 million units and quickly demonstrated market appeal in the United States by making video simple, accessible and fun. All Flip Video products come equipped with FlipShare, a best-in-class software that allows users to easily organize and edit videos and then share them instantly on YouTube, MySpace and other popular sharing Web sites.

“Flip Video puts the power to instantly capture, edit and share video into the hands of everyday consumers,” said Jonathan Kaplan, chairman and CEO of Pure Digital. “By combining forces with Cisco, we join a company that shares our passion for video and whose global scale and tremendous technology expertise we expect will enable us to quickly expand and enrich the Flip Video experience.”

Upon the close of the acquisition, the Pure Digital team will become part of Cisco's Consumer Business Group, which includes Linksys® by Cisco® home networking, audio and media-storage products. Kaplan will become general manager of the combined organization, reporting to Hooper. The Pure Digital acquisition exemplifies Cisco’s “build, buy and partner” innovation strategy to move quickly into new markets and capture key market transitions. Under the terms of the agreement, Cisco will pay approximately $590 million in stock in exchange for all shares of Pure Digital. In addition, Cisco will provide up to $15 million in retention-based equity incentives for continuing employees. The acquisition is subject to various standard closing conditions and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of Cisco's fiscal year 2009.

It has also confirmed the introduction of new rules to stop misleading sales practices in the mobile market.

Slamming - where a consumer is switched to another provider without their knowledge and/or consent - is the most complained about issue to Ofcom in the fixed line market, averaging at almost 1,000 complaints each month over the last year. In the mobile market, Ofcom receives a large number of general mis-selling complaints where consumers have been given false or misleading information when purchasing services.

The proposals for the fixed line sector and new rules for the mobile sector are designed both to protect consumers and to enable Ofcom to take quicker and more effective action against communications providers that break the rules.

Proposed new rules for the fixed line market

Call recordings

Under the proposed new rules, communications providers would have to keep better records, including voice recordings of all telephone conversations relating to sales. Better quality records will assist Ofcom in taking enforcement action against providers that are engaging in mis-selling and making it more effective.

Explicit regulations

Ofcom proposes to simplify the regulations by explicitly banning mis-selling under the General Conditions – a set of rules that all communications providers have to adhere to. Communications providers breaking the rules could ultimately be fined up to 10 per cent of relevant turnover.

Clearer consumer advice

The proposed new rules would require communications providers to give better information to consumers by reminding them that there may be consequences from switching, such as possible termination charges for leaving a contract early.

Ofcom expects the proposals, if implemented, to substantially reduce the levels of complaints that it receives about fixed-line mis-selling. If it does not then Ofcom may consider other options.

The consultation on fixed line mis-selling can be found here: www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/protecting_consumers/ and closes on 27 May 2009.

24% their pin numbers and passwords

11% keep social security and inland revenue details

10% store credit card information

Alarmingly 40% naively fail to protect their devices with a password Further investigation reveals the information stored is not restricted to personal details as most users also use their personal devices for business use : 99% of people use their phones for some sort of business use – even though 26% have been instructed by their employer not to do so

35% receive and send business emails

77% keep business names and addresses

30% use them as a business diary

17% download corporate information, such as documents and spreadsheets

23% store customers information When you consider that 4 out of 10 people are not password protecting their devices, it makes many millions of users seriously exposed to the trappings of mobile phone criminals and opportunists who can use this information to clone someone’s personal, or even corporate, life. According to Paul Huntingdon – Public Sector Director at Credant Technologies and adviser to many Government departments and large corporations, “Once you have access to someone’s emails, passwords, birthdays, business diary, documents, children’s names and pets you can easily masquerade as that person, sending out emails under their name, read all their corporate data and get to see every personal detail of their life. People are ignorant to how easy a professional thief could take over their life and effectively destroy it. It is therefore imperative that all mobile phone users, even with the most basic handset, password protect and encrypt them.” Steve Gold, Telecoms journalist and IT expert adds “People can be destroyed when their phone gets into the wrong hands - for example blackmail, abuse and threats, just by leaving it accessible without password protection. Imagine how easy it would be to assume or destroy the life of a colleague just by stealing their phone – if it was the company chairman’s.

The donation follows a year of hard work and fundraising by UPS Systems staff and their families. Since nominating the charity as their good cause for 2009, they have run half-marathons, made no-smoking pledges, taken part in raffles and jeans-to-work days, and given generously at collection points around their offices.

“We are delighted to receive the cheque from UPS Systems and would like to thank them for supporting our charity over the last year,” said Susan Mayes, Treasurer of the Hungerford Friends of Cancer Research UK. “The work that the charity undertakes is so important and we are grateful for all donations as they bring us one step closer to helping us achieve our goal of beating cancer.”

Damian Brooks, Charity Coordinator, UPS Systems, commented, “As an organisation we actively look for ways to support our local community. We are pleased to be able to support our local branch of such an important charity.”

Karen Sperrey, Operations Director, UPS Systems, said, “It is always a shock when you realise how many people that you meet every day have been affected either directly or indirectly by cancer, so it is wonderful that we can help by contributing to Cancer Research UK. Our staff have worked really hard and should be very proud of the final amount they have managed to raise.”

Organised by Open-Tec and Obsidian Wireless who have developed a data capturing and Repository solution for mobile voice and SMS recording and storage, attendees also heard the views of the FSA’s Sumaiya Khoda, and Peter Howes, a member of the BSI panel responsible for their evidential weight and legal admissibility codes/standard.

Commenting on the seminar, attendee John Bromley, Manager of Voice & Market Data Services at Commerzbank, said: "We found the quality and content of the day to be excellent. The presentation by the FSA was informative, and noted with interest that one of the principle reasons they have delayed mandating the recording of mobile communication was because, at the time, solutions were not widely used or sufficiently proven. The seminar opened up new areas of thought around the importance of not just of storing information for the regulators, but as a key requirement of a broader risk management strategy and the absolute need to ensure that any captured data has evidential weight. The live demonstrations showing the capture of voice, SMS and Instant Messaging were also impressive."

The new FSA requirements state that a firm must take reasonable steps to retain all relevant records made by it for a period of at least six months and in a medium that permits the FSA to access the records readily. Where corrections or amendments are required to such records then the situation prior to these changes should also be easily ascertained from the records – i.e an audit trail needs to be maintained of the changes made. This new requirement will help firms to deter market abuse if staff know that their conversations are going to be recorded. Mobile conversations have been made exempt from this regulation at present, this will be reviewed mid to late 2009. However industry expects that this will be included as the current typical solution, which is to ban use of mobile phones, is impractical.

Organised by Open-Tec and Obsidian Wireless, that have developed a data capturing and Repository solution for mobile voice and SMS recording and storage, attendees also heard the views of the FSA’s Sumaiya Khoda, and Peter Howes, a member of the BSI panel responsible for their evidential weight and legal admissibility codes -standard.

Commenting on the seminar, attendee John Bromley, manager of voice and market data services at Commerzbank, said: "We found the quality and content of the day to be excellent. The presentation by the FSA was informative, and noted with interest that one of the principle reasons they have delayed mandating the recording of mobile communication was because, at the time, solutions were not widely used or sufficiently proven.

“The seminar opened up new areas of thought around the importance of not just of storing information for the regulators, but as a key requirement of a broader risk management strategy and the absolute need to ensure that any captured data has evidential weight,” continued Bromley. “The live demonstrations showing the capture of voice, SMS and IM were also impressive."

The new FSA requirements state that a firm must take reasonable steps to retain all relevant records made by it for a period of at least six months and in a medium that permits the FSA to access the records readily. Where corrections or amendments are required to such records then the situation prior to these changes should also be easily ascertained from the records, meaning an audit trail needs to be maintained of the changes made. This new requirement will help firms to deter market abuse if staff know that their conversations are going to be recorded.

Mobile conversations have been made exempt from this regulation at present, yet this will be reviewed mid to late 2009. However industry expects that this will be included as the current typical solution, which is to ban use of mobile phones, is impractical.

Sumaiya Khoda from the FSA said: “Preventing, detecting and deterring market abuse is one of our key priorities. However, market abuse is one of the most difficult offences to investigate and prosecute. Good quality recordings of voice conversations and of electronic communications (taping) help firms and us detect and deter inappropriate behaviour.”

Paul Liesching, CEO at Obsidian Group, commented: “The relationship between risk, regulation, compliance and technology is key for everyone operating in the financial sector at present. It’s now fact that mobile communication is the universal cornerstone of commercial communication but at the same time, due to the increasingly powerful nature of the technology, mobile communications represents a very significant point of risk. Success will be based on the convergence of compliance and technology and the solutions demonstrated at the event are proof that help is out there.”

Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Stephen Timms, said: "The Government is fully behind the very important work of Comic Relief. That's why I'm delighted to confirm that no VAT will be charged on donations, so every penny donated will go straight to Comic Relief." Sue Hammett, Community Investment Manager at Orange UK, said: "Orange has just launched a new community strategy and what better way to kick start it, by waiving our charity rate associated with text donations to Comic Relief. We know our customers are great supporters of Comic Relief, so we wanted to make sure we supported them and this great charity." While Robin O’Kelly, head of corporate affairs at T-Mobile UK, continued: “We’re delighted to be supporting Comic Relief. Red Nose Day is a great event, and we hope that everyone gets texting to make this year a real success.” Ronan Dunne, chief executive at Telefónica O2 UK, said: “We’re very happy to give our full support to Comic Relief and hope as many people as possible will donate via text to help it become another successful Red Nose Day.” Graeme Oxby, managing director at Virgin Mobile, stated: “We’re delighted to do our part for this fantastic fundraising event. In addition to all our customers being able to relax knowing that their entire contribution will be going to Comic Relief, many our staff are looking forward to volunteering their services in our call centre on Friday night.” While Andrew Dockar, senior manager for B2B enablers at Vodafone UK, said: "We know how important Comic Relief is to our own employees who will have many fundraising activities going on throughout the day in retail stores, customer services and in head office. We're therefore very proud to be supporting this initiative that helps projects in both the UK and Africa."

The mobile site provides information and inside scoops, while also supporting fundraising efforts with click to call, making it easy to make a donation and get information on other ways to contribute and raise money. A dedicated Red Nose Day Twitter will publish up to the minute action from around the UK directly to mobile phones. This is made possible through the unique combination of WAPL - Wapple's XML-based mark-up language - and Canvas, a mobile publishing platform.

The site also has reports on how money donated is changing lives around the world with spotlights on important projects for 2009.

Wapple's unique device profiling and delivery technology makes sure that the Red Nose Day site is optimised and displayed perfectly on any mobile device - from the latest smartphones to first generation phones.

Mark Kirley, project manager (mobile) at Comic Relief, commented: "The beauty of Wapple is that it makes it possible for people in many of the countries Comic Relief funds to see what's going on. But most importantly, having a Red Nose Day mobile website for the first time will help promote the event and encourage more donations. Wapple has done a great job in a short space of time by very quickly delivering a creative, easy to use site that provides all the information people need when they are out and about - whatever phone they have."

Anne Thomas, CEO at Wapple, added: "We are delighted to be working with Comic Relief to take Red Nose Day mobile and hope that it helps to exceed the total of funds raised last year."

Established by Plantronics to help contact centres enhance their existing offer and raise their profile in the current climate, Mycontactcentre.com will provide visitors with access to a combination of thought provoking articles, interactive polls, a contact centre efficiency calculator, technical whitepapers, opinion pieces and the latest call centre news. In addition, it will feature interviews with leading contact centre authorities such as Philip Cohen, president of the Swedish call centre association and Ann-Marie Stagg, head of direct sales at Co-operative Financial Services.

Philip Vanhoute, managing director of EMEA, Plantronics said, “Contact centres are vital customer interaction points for any organisation and no business can afford to undervalue conversations with customers. However, in these uncertain times contact centres must now more than ever raise their public image and showcase how essential and effective they are in customer retention. Mycontacentre.com will help our clients do this and to realise a more profitable relationship with customers with the best up-to-the minute advice and support on the issues affecting their industry.”

For more information about the website register now at www.mycontactcentre.com where you will be able to access the full range of information within the site, and learn to transform your call centre into a world class service organisation.

The March 2009 Best Buy revealed five stars for Zen Internet's customer service and support. Unlike some other awards, it is not possible to put a company forward for this accolade.

The survey was based on results gained from members of an online Which? panel and Computing Which?. The customer satisfaction score (as a percentage) is based on overall satisfaction and their likelihood to recommend the ISP to a friend.

"Zen Internet's mission is to provide the best ISP service in the UK and this award demonstrates our commitment to delivering excellent service, quality and reliability to our customers." said Richard Tang, Managing Director, Zen Internet.

Zen was also awarded Which? Best Broadband Provider 2008 at the annual Which? Awards Ceremony held in June at the British Museum, London.

Since 2007, PXtech have hosted their IT infrastructure of internal operations and customer facing software services in Node4’s Data Centre facility in Derby.

Adrian Howlett, technical director of PXtech commented: “We wished to locate all of our server and storage equipment in a central and convenient location within a state-of-the-art data centre, and Node4’s Pride Park facility fitted our specifications perfectly.”

Both companies have grown alongside one another over the last two years, with PXtech using several of Node4’s solutions, including their SIP trunking service, SIPlink, which has provided them with large cost savings on their previous call solution. Node4 will also be providing a high-speed Ethernet connection from PXtech’s new office in Derby’s Pride Park to their equipment in the Node4 Data Centre and out to the Internet.

Last week, PXtech placed its latest order, a fully hosted Cisco IP Telephony solution with Cisco Premier partners, Node4, as Adrian explains: “Our existing telephony solution no longer met the needs of our business. We required a highly reliable solution with excellent ‘call voice’ quality that would also support our impressive growth plans over the next three to five years.

“We feel that Node4 have the technical expertise to successfully deliver and support this solution now and well into the future, so that we can continue to provide significant value and quality service to our customers.”

This acquisition again proves Opal’s total commitment to channel partners by offering them a wide variety of commercial models, products and services. TAG’s existing customers will also benefit from a much expanded product and services set.

Nathan Stenson, director of Opal’s wholesale and indirect channels, said: “Opal is happy to announce the acquisition of TAG. This is another example of Opal acquiring a partner where we have a long term relationship. We will be working closely with the TAG team to ensure a seamless handover. The company’s direct and dealer customer base will continue to be supported in parallel with an aggressive customer acquisition plan.”

TAG is the main operating subsidiary of CANISP Plc, and is one of the UK’s key resellers of fixed line telephony services for Voice and Data. It has a number of existing agreements with tier one carriers including Opal, and delivers high quality services tailored to meet specific customer requirements, including intelligent inbound calling solutions.

The survey response indicated that the biggest concern for channels’ customers is cost cutting, with over two thirds saying that enabling business efficiencies will be a huge sales opportunity in 2009.

Nearly half (42%) of Mitel channels are seeing the greatest demand for remote and teleworker applications as a result of businesses attempting to cut costs and work through the current economic environment.

“Our customers are increasingly asking for solutions that will enable remote working,” said Joel Bramwell, Sales Director at Worksmart Technology. “During the recent bad weather, only two of our employees were able to get into the office due to snow, but thanks to Mitel’s solutions, it was business as usual.”

“Teleworking applications have always been in demand,” said Clive Laycock, service delivery manager at Alternative Networks, “However we have recently seen an upsurge in sales as companies want to cut costs and drive efficiencies by offering home working. Companies also want to offer staff a flexible working approach as a way to retain and attract the best staff.”

Finncap does not like telecoms which have hit growth hurdles, struggled with management upheavals, or been too slow in showing shareholders returns on their investments.

The broker recommends a "sell" for both Redstone and Colt, with the first facing a "barren patch" in revenue and the second hit by the cost of maintaining its network. Colt shares are down 0.3 percent.

Companies which are able to combine dependable cash flow with a focus on shareholder returns -- Alternative Networks, Maintel, and Spiritel are the standouts -- garner "buy" ratings from the broker.

Getting there is the challenge. However, in response, leading compliance expert IT Governance has launched a new series of Green IT pocket guides that set out practical, easy to take steps, in the reach of every organisation that can be a real help in implementing such a strategy.

The Green IT pocket guide series consists of three complementary titles:

The Green Agenda: A Business Guide A guide to Green IT specifically written for a business audience, which introduces key climate change concepts and the standpoints of various groupings. It provides an overview of a Green IT strategy and a bottom line-orientated action plan.

The Green Office: A Business Guide Developed to help cost-conscious, environmentally-minded organisations identify simple, practical ways of reducing both their cost base and their carbon footprint.

Compliance for Green IT: Pocket Guide Covers regulations directly relevant to IT, such as carbon trading. These regulations are used in either voluntary or mandatory programmes to reduce CO emissions and offset the impact of environmental damage caused elsewhere. IT is a significant consumer of power, and these trading schemes are becoming increasingly important and relevant for organisations. This guide provides an introduction to, and overview of, these programmes.

Green IT is not only about responding to the consumer environmental concerns, says Alan Calder, a leading author on information security and IT governance who wrote all three guides. It is also about promoting operating efficiencies so, even for organisations that do not have much interest in the Green Agenda, the potential cost savings from pursuing a green action plan are particularly in recessionary times worth having. And staying out of trouble by complying with Green IT regulations has to make sense.

These guides offer businesses of any size the means to formulate their own green action plans, to save the planet or simply to save money.

“The new website http://www.citynumbers.co.uk has taken over 3 months to develop and includes innovative products such as virtual local phone numbers in over 4000 cities across the world” comments Craig Busst the Managing Director. “The site has been extremely complex to build due to the diversity of our portfolio. But it’s this diversity that is allowing us to continue to grow and develop even in this economic climate”.

“The current growth of City Numbers is mostly down to the successful dealer and reseller channel that we have developed over the last 8 months. We are making efforts to deliver online benefits to our channel by creating affiliate schemes and white label access into our site”.

The HTC TYTN II devices are also linked to the Council’s centralised property database helping officers identify, access and record additional information pertaining to an address or location. A direct link to GGP NGz, software specifically designed to manage the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG), provides real time access to this essential resource reducing administration and resulting in a tangible increase in operational efficiencies.

Mobile working in Blackpool was originally introduced to support the delivery of services that contribute to the Council’s StreetScene Service Plan. Applications include Assisted Household Waste Collections, Waste Permits, Commercial Waste Services and support for Neighbourhood Environmental Action Teams. In all cases the map display, created using GGP GIS, helps identify and record the location of incidents or services requests while the real time access to the NLPG facilitates identification and enables detailed information to be appended to a specific address.

Following on from the success achieved from the original applications Blackpool has initiated another project using the mobile devices and GGP supported back office links. As part of the Monitoring and Intervention in the Private Sector project officers are allocated private sector housing cases for inspection. Addresses derived from the NLPG are loaded onto the handheld devices, which are also used to record inspection results and photographs. A map overlay in GGP GIS enables spatial analysis of the recorded information.

The mobile systems provide up to date data for Blackpool's corporate CRM and public information website, giving citizens a variety of information at one point. Blackpool's website also provides live NLPG-linked address look-ups that greatly enhance searches, allowing staff and citizens to get to the information they need quickly.

With iPhone integration, users can extend the benefits of SwyxWare’s office based IP communications onto the Apple iPhone platform using the ‘Contact Centre Mobile’ web application. This service uses GPRS and/or UMTS to connect to the central Swyx software-based unified communications system.

The key benefits of integrating the iPhone with SwyxWare are that mobile users share the same type of functionality as their office-based counterparts, including on-screen presence information such as who is available, engaged or other status. As soon as a data link is established all status information is automatically synchronised.

The advantage of using SwyxMobile functionality is that users can use a one number concept, so that calls to the office extension would also ring in parallel on the iPhone. Mobile users can also enjoy any time access to the global enterprise directory.

Alexandra Ernst, executive VP for corporate development at Swyx, stated: “With SwyxMobile we are now in the position to make unified communications attractive to existing iPhone business users. This represents the next stepping stone in our strategy to provide medium-sized enterprises with the widest possible choice of handsets they can use.”

The iPhone integration is available from 1 April 2009. The web application will be available to registered resellers as a free download via the Swyx Partner Net.

The study categorised the top five “pain points” surrounding the management of different communications systems that together are seriously eroding employee productive time as well as quality of customer interaction. The top factors, experienced by 70 per cent of firms questioned, were:

- delays in receiving information from colleagues

- receiving unwanted communications

- inefficient communications co-ordination between staff

- barriers to collaboration

- time lost answering customer complaints using different channels.

SMB respondents labelled “waiting for information” the No.1 “pain point” with, on average, the leading five communications “pain points” combining to drain organisations of 17.5 hours’ productive time every week.

Survey researchers calculated that on average, the annual financial cost of time lost to these five issues was €20,572 (£17,383). They also found that a 100-strong company is wasting the equivalent of €4140 (£3,498) for every employee and €414,000 (£349,830) every year by not resolving these communication issues.

Unified communications (UC) are emerging technology platforms in SMB communications. UC platforms aim to integrate different communications technologies (fixed/mobile telephony, email, and IM, etc.) into one single unified platform based on open standards (IP) and to make employee availability easier and more efficient via presence management. The promise of increased staff availability will improve both customer service and internal communications. Many larger enterprises have already adopted these technologies to improve business processes, reduce costs, and increase customer satisfaction.

The Siemens study suggests that SMBs are seeking answers to communications difficulties: although 60 per cent of respondents did not currently use UC, some 41 per cent of firms nevertheless stated that having a system to reduce the time spent dealing with communications issues was seen as a very or extremely high priority for their businesses.

But the survey found evidence of progress towards greater mobility through systems such as UC in Western economies: over half of companies (53 per cent) in US and European economies claimed to use unified communications or parts of such solutions. There was also greater incidence of mobile working in these two regions than in Brazil, Russia and India, particularly among SMBs.

Martin Northend, global head of SME marketing, Siemens Enterprise Communications, said: “European companies share a global problem – they’ve made heavy investments in communications networks and devices without being able to harness them for greater productivity. Companies need to bring disparate communications onto integrated platforms that support rather than complicate staff operations, as so often happens now.

“As the downturn is forcing CEOs to find ways now to save variable costs or make staff more productive, there is an emerging opportunity for telecoms resellers to help customers eradicate these different “pain points” and show end users a smarter way to ‘do more with less’ through innovations such as HiPath OpenOffice and other unified communications products.”

Leon Mangan, Sales Director, Indirect Sales, Siemens Enterprise Communications, commented: “The fact that mid-size and very small firms both identified the same five leading “pain points” highlights European business’ inability to manage and gain optimum value from expensive telecommunications investments.

“Because so many firms are clearly experiencing “communications pain”, the channel can play a pivotal role in improving end users’ performance with network convergence strategies, optimising company LANs or WANs to slash costs and adopting unified communications platforms to put all personnel on a common footing. These approaches will avoid the complexity and waste of many of today’s poorly integrated SMB communications platforms.”

With higher guaranteed bandwidth, the new services with Enhanced Upstream enable businesses to allow faster and more robust uploading and run multiple online services simultaneously such as voice over IP, video conferencing and online business applications.

Enhanced Upstream is based on the faster ‘up to 24Mb’ ADSL 2+ technology and offers product performance up to 2.5Mb downstream and 16Mb upstream. The customer must be on an ADSL2+ enabled exchange and speeds achieved are subject to distance from the exchange, line quality and the customer’s own equipment. The new Enhanced Upstream services from Pipex provide an upstream speed increase of up to 2.5Mb* which is up to six times faster than standard ADSL based business broadband products.

Pipex Pro with Enhanced Upstream offers up to 16Mb downstream and 2.5Mb upstream for only £19.50 a month ex VAT*. There is even a solution for those who require a more powerful business broadband solution; Pipex Premium Plus with Enhanced Upstream offers the same upstream and downstream performance (guaranteed symmetrical bandwidth) of 1Mb for just £49 a month.

The new Pipex broadband packages include a host of attractive features such as prioritised traffic to avoid slow down in performance during peak hours, and guaranteed bandwidth, allowing a defined amount of constant 200Kb*, 500Kb* or 1Mb* of bandwidth throughout the day. These features mean that business traffic does not experience the delays normally experienced by ADSL based broadband users making it ideal for video conferencing, Voice over IP and similar online applications. Lance Spencer, Product and Marketing Director for Pipex, says: “Download speed alone is not necessarily a critical performance factor for businesses. Small businesses providing professional services such as new media, design, architecture or technology will be liberated by enhanced and assured upstream. In addition businesses wanting the consistency and reliability from their broadband to run multiple and real-time applications such as Voice over IP, conferencing and remote applications will benefit from these new powerful services at a fraction of the cost of traditional BT SDSL services”.

* All speeds are dependent on distance from the BT exchange

In a statement issued today Ofcom sets out its approach to future regulation for the next generation of super-fast broadband networks to deliver consumer benefits from both investment and competition.

The statement builds on the competition overseen by Ofcom in the current copper phone networks. Under the current regulatory regime, the number of customers taking broadband services from providers other than BT has grown by more than five million in fewer than four years.

Next generation broadband can deliver speeds of up to 10 times the level of today's broadband services.

In the home, it will allow different members of a household to access a variety of high-bandwidth services simultaneously. This could include watching high-definition TV, playing interactive online games and streaming or downloading music, TV programmes and films over the internet.

For businesses, it will enable simultaneous services such as two-way video calls, improved data retrieval and provide more opportunities for home working. Super-fast broadband can be delivered in a number of ways, with fibre, cable, copper wires, mobile, fixed wireless and satellite each having a role to play.

A number of companies have already announced plans to invest in and roll out super-fast broadband in the UK over these networks. These include Virgin Media, which already offers super-fast broadband and plans to extend this offer across its entire network, and BT, which plans to upgrade its copper access network with fibre-optic cable.

The main focus of Ofcom's statement is on the upgrade of the copper access network - which connects most homes and businesses in the UK - to fibre.

There are two ways that companies will be able to provide super-fast broadband over a fibre access network:

* Communication providers could access BT's new fibre access network on a wholesale basis by buying products from Openreach, BT's operationally separate business unit responsible for its access network. This is known in the industry as active access.

* Communication providers could combine their own electronics with physical infrastructure rented from BT to deliver services. This is known as passive access.

Ofcom's statement sets out the overall approach on future regulation of super-fast broadband services. The five main elements to promote private sector investment and competition are:

Promoting investment

1. Pricing freedom. Communication providers such as BT will have the freedom to price wholesale super-fast broadband products themselves without any regulatory intervention. This will allow investors to make an appropriate return on their investment, based on the risk they are taking but pricing at a level that the market will bear, given the ready availability of alternative broadband services.

2. Risk reflective rate of return. In the event of further competition emerging upstream - by companies offering super-fast broadband through passive access - investors will have the opportunity to earn a rate of return that genuinely reflects their costs and the associated level of risk.

3. Efficient networks. Ensuring that inefficiencies are not built into the deployment of super-fast broadband that could result in a barrier to investment. For example, ensuring that two sets of engineers are not required to service the same request and avoiding excessive complexity of business systems needed to support the network.

Securing competition

4. Wholesale access for all. Ofcom will support new active fibre-based wholesale products offered by BT. This will require Openreach to offer fibre-based broadband services to other providers - including BT Retail - on equal terms and without favour.

5. Encouraging future competition. Allowing companies to invest alongside BT when networks are built, or ensuring that new infrastructure will support further future competitive investment should demand arise.

This will only be the first phase of the development of super-fast broadband. Ofcom will work with all stakeholders to understand how far private sector investment will take the UK and whether there is a need for further action to bring the benefits of super-fast broadband to a wider group of UK consumers, citizens and businesses.

NEXT STEPS

To promote efficient investment and secure competition in super-fast broadband, Ofcom is consulting on a variation to BT's legally-binding Undertakings agreed with Ofcom in 2005.

The consultation runs until 14 April 2009. If Ofcom accepts BT's proposal after assessing the consultation responses, it will aim to publish a new consolidated set of Undertakings.

In addition, Ofcom will:

* work closely with the European Commission on its recommendations on next generation access;

* work with industry on developing a standard active wholesale product;

* consider how further work on underground duct infrastructure could further the understanding of this as an option for building super-fast broadband; and

* contribute to the Government's Digital Britain work on super-fast broadband.

MAKING THE BEST USE OF EXISTING NETWORKS One way of building fibre-optic networks is by using the existing network of underground pipes that carry telecoms infrastructure.

To determine whether there is space in the pipes for fibre-optic cables, Ofcom commissioned a survey of BT's underground telecoms ducts. The survey, also published today, reveals that there is a significant amount of unoccupied space, with between 40% and 50% having room for new cables in the cable ducts surveyed. However, the amount of space is highly variable and there remain some potentially significant hurdles to using existing ducts to deliver competition to the majority of locations.

Ed Richards, Ofcom Chief Executive, said: "Super-fast broadband represents one of the most important developments in modern communications for many decades. It will deliver significant benefits to consumers and businesses with the prospect of new digital services delivered over the internet at high speed.

"Our message today is clear: there are no regulatory barriers in the way of investment in super-fast broadband; we want to promote investment but also ensure that there is fair and effective competition for the future."

Connexon developed Enhanced 999 for the UK market in response to demand from their existing North American customers. When investigating the practicalities of this it soon became clear that there was no Enhanced 999 solution available in the UK.

Enhanced 999 solves the problem of providing the emergency services with precise location information when an employee of a large organisation makes a 999 call from a PBX extension on the enterprise network.

The problem at present is that the emergency services are aware only of the civic address of the PSTN line that the 999 call uses to "break-out" to the public network.

This information may not be sufficiently precise if the caller is, for example, in a room on the 20th floor of a large office block, or in a another building on a campus site.

The caller may even be at a location many miles away if the organisation has a multi-site private network.

This problem of precise location identification is becoming even worse with the increasing deployment of IP-PBXs where extensions are not tied to a fixed location and there are devices and features such as softphones, hot-desking and shared extension numbers.

The Connexon Enhanced 999 solution solves these problems and has been certified in North America by IP-PBX vendors such as Cisco, Avaya, Nortel, 3Com and ShoreTel for direct connection to their IP-PBXs.

Enhanced 999 has been developed after discussions with BT and uses BT's network infrastructure to route calls to BT's Emergency Operators.

It can be argued that organisations must consider implementing an Enhanced 999 solution because of their Health and Safety obligations.

The issue of providing the emergency services with imprecise or misleading location information is one that should be considered as part of the mandatory risk assessment that all large organisations must undertake.

Furthermore, OFCOM are considering this issue as part of their investigation into the provision of accurate location information for VoIP systems.

The new zone will have 150 racks available for co-location, providing space away from London's congested data centres.

London is facing more restrictions on space than ever before, partly due to planning restrictions imposed by the Olympics. Moreover, whereas power usage in London is often limited, Netcetera has 10 Megawatts of power available and can offer high density rack hosting up to 45kW per rack.

New all-in-one pricing for rack space, power and bandwidth - which competes with any player in the UK - will benefit companies looking to move their servers out of the office and co-locate for the first time, or companies who are thinking about expanding their current co-location space. Netcetera's professionally managed data centre takes care of any security, power, cooling and fire concerns caused by inappropriately storing servers in the office. A 10Gb Ethernet ring running between Manchester, London and the Isle of Man ensures the highest levels of connectivity performance and availability.

The Isle of Man and Netcetera's data centre is perfect for co-location and disaster recovery services. Power is supplied from three of the most modern power stations in the UK, the data centre has natural security provided by the sea and the resilient high capacity fibre optic cables connected to both Manchester and London mean that connectivity is superb.

Recently the Isle of Man's Gaming Commission recognised The Dataport's resilience, reliability and security and awarded Netcetera with approved disaster recovery centre status.

The Isle of Man is only a maximum of an hour by plane from any UK airport and clients using Netcetera's co-location facilities have 24hr access, 365 days a year. Clients can also manage their servers remotely with virtual server management services.

Netcetera's Marketing Manager, Felicitas Gawenat, said, "Today's businesses are heavily reliant on their IT infrastructures and it is essential that they are looked after properly. Companies are being restricted from expansion by both space and power shortages in their current data centres. Here on the Isle of Man we are in a great position to offer co-location at an all-in-one price for any business. Due to this, banking and financial services companies are showing particular interest in Netcetera."

The figures based on an audit conducted on the November 08 issues of Comms Business and its rival show that 55% more people (2475) registered for Comms Business in the past 12 months giving us the most current Channel circulation base! *

More good news is Comms Business distributed 12,195 copies in November, the highest since its first audit back in 2000.*

Publisher Miles Bossom said “I am delighted that with our circulation now over 12,000 copies every month despite market consolidation; we are continuing to provide the highest quality monthly magazine to more people than any other. We are also very pleased to be the only audited Channel title to have a zero percentage rate of duplication on our circulation, making us an even better bet for our advertisers who expect value for money". *

Bossom continued “More important than our total circulation perhaps is the fact that our audit confirms Comms Business is circulated to more dealers and resellers than any other ABC audited Channel title with a total of 6442 (52.8%) confirmed on our circulation. * As most of our advertisers are looking to recruit or update resellers on their latest products or services this is extremely important”.

“We were the first and only Channel title to conduct an ABC audit from our first ever issue and we have continually invested in our circulation for the past decade”.

To update your registration or to join the 12,000+ individuals already receiving Comms Business free of charge every month visit www.commsbusiness.co.uk.

* source ABC website Jan to December 2008

** comparing circulations for the November 2008 issues, source ABC website Jan to Dec 2008

Average net circulation 11,115, Jan to Dec 2008, source ABC website