Category: Business

Business

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broadband Business internet ofcom

Ofcom Publishes Research on Broadband Speed

Ofcom has just announced the results of its research into consumer broadband speed in the UK. The report says that 93% of UK consumers are satisfied with their general broadband experience although levels of disatisfaction do vary depending on where they live.

Rural users are, unsurprisingly less satisfied than urban users. Also the satisfaction ratings drop to 67%  for those people watching online TV. This is a warning shot across the bows for UK ISPs as using ADSL for watching TV online is going to see a huge growth.

Ofcom used broadband monitoring company samknows to conduct the research which also found that the average UK consumer ADSL speed was 3.6Mbps which is only 45% of the typically adverstised speed of 8Mbps. This is lower than the theoretical average max possible speed across the UK of 4.3Mbps taking different distances from the exchange into account.

The testing seems to have been quite comprehensive with 1500 homes involved running 7,000 different tests, meaning that over 10 millions tests were conducted overall on a range of supplier services. Interestingly the peak usage was found to be between 5pm and 6pm on a Sunday afternoon. I guess everyone is watching Songs of Praise online – assuming they still broadcast it 🙂 .

What would be interesting is if Ofcom were to commission the same testing for business broadband connections. Unfortunately this is unlikely to happen because the original research was conducted as a result of a perceived level of consumer disatisfaction that is not there where businesses are concerned. Although businesses use the same fundamental ADSL technology they typically run with ISP networks such as Timico that are less congested.

Categories
broadband Business

Shareband Bonded ADSL Broadband in Lincolnshire

broadband

It’s quite pleasing to see that since I last posted on Shareband bonded ADSL the proposition seems be gaining traction. Lincolnshire County Council broadband initiative “OnLincolnshire ” has placed a contract with Timico and is promoting the technology into the business community in the mostly rural county.

LCCs concern is that businesses in Lincolnshire have a level playing field with those in more urban areas of the country and to this end are not only trialing the technology but also will likely be using the results  to build case studies to attract business users. Great.

I have to say that my experience of working with LCC is that they are a very forward thinking organisation. As a long time resident of Lincoln it is nice to be able to work locally. Time was I had to get on a plane to meet customers.

The beauty for businesses in Lincolnshire is that along with the work that the Council is doing on connectivity comes EC funded grants to help pay for it. Living in a rural backwater suddenly becomes economically attractive as well as offering a high quality of life.

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Business internet

Is The UK An Innovation Backwater?

I’m sure this is a subject that has raised its head on many occasion over the past decade or two. It struck me this morning that all the futuristic development work that I am looking at is based on technologies and services that have originated outside the UK.

In particular Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, MySpace, Digg it Yahoo, Google etc etc etc are all North American inventions. The one British equivalent that springs to mind is Friends Reunited which looks as if it has missed the boat big time on the social networking opportunity yet it was probably the first in the space. Certainly I never used it seriously because there was a subscription cost.

Not only is the innovation in the USA but all the conferences that you might want to go to to network and discuss innovation are in the USA. I used to work for a company that had offices in San Jose and when visiting could always sense the spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation that pervaded the whole community. 

Now it is true that due to the nature of the internet and thanks indeed to the ability to communicate and innovate that web2.0 has brought (bit of a generalisation I know) the world is a lot smaller. However there still lacks the forum outside of the USA for getting together with like minded people to discuss and progress.  Jeff Pulver’s “Breakfasts” are a good start and I will be attending the one in London on January 28th.

I periodically hold a “Friday Lunchtime Session” in the office at Timico HQ where innovation is discussed. If there are any like minded people in the UK who want to get together on a periodic basis to discuss innovation, technology, Social Networking, Web2.0 et al please get in touch.

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Business engineering

interview

This is an interview with feargal done for radio by my son tom (then aged 17) last summer. the first file sees feargal talking about the problem of illegal downloading.  the second one has his response to tom’s question re the nusic industry’s approach to cutting off broadband connections.

Feargal 2

Feargal 3

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Business engineering

Train your way out of a recession

I forget whether the UK is officially in an economic recession yet. There is so much talk in the news that it is difficult to see the wood from the trees. What is true is that recession or not the market in which we operate is fast moving and whilst we are currently getting bombarded with hard luck stories this must be looked upon as a real opportunity.

This is why next week one third of Timico’s engineering resource will be going on training courses. A dozen of them will be at it for five full days on a Cisco bootcamp held at Timico’s HQ in Newark. Others will be attending SMB specialisation courses. 

This is a serious investment which we are making early in the year to get the biggest bang for our bucks in 2009. Moreover it is a statement of intent.

It tells our staff that we believe in them enough to invest in their future. It tells our technology partners that we are a business worth investing their time into and finally, it sends out a signal to our customers and potential customers that our workforce is prepared in the best way possible to serve their needs.

I can’t forecast what is going to happen in 2009 but I can say that we are planning to succeed.

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Business engineering

Technology department is in the soup

When we say “in a bit of a stew” we typically mean we have a problem. Well I’m sat here having lunch with the Timico Solutions Team and I have to say we are “in a bit of a soup”.

The mood of the day is, of course, lean and mean and the team is now paying for its pre-Christmas excesses which typically involved biscuits, chocolate, KFCs and Big Macs. We still have umpteen empty Quality Street and Roses  tins lying around the office.

Just for completeness, Julie is on tomato cupasoup, Dean is on chicken and vegetable cupasoup, Gareth is on an indeterminate chicken, Wayne has gone posh and is on Covent Garden Wild Mushroom (on offer for £1 we understand and containing a small trace (0.6%) of wild funghi), Will hasn’t made his mind up depending on what they have on in the canteen and I am very pleased to say that I have had an excellent spinach and lentil with chillies, made by the fair hand of Mrs Anne Davies.  

I’m sure that you all get the vibe here. Engineering at Timico is going to be running superfit in 2009.

PS no product endorsment is intended. Other fattening  junk  food is available and soup is not guaranteed to offset the effects 🙂 .

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Business internet

Changes afoot to the landscape of the digital highway

The economic downturn seems likely to spring some surprises in the internet world . In an interview with the Guardian Newspaper over the weekend Prime Minister Gordon Brown discussed his plans to fund the employment of 100,000 people in the UK. He was quoted as comparing the need to invest in a high speed digital infrastructure for the UK with the way that Franklin D Roosvelt spent his way out of the US recession in the 1930s by investing in capital projects.

This comes at the same time as a Sunday Times article that suggests that Lord Carter, the UK Communications Minister is about to do away with BT’s Universal Service Obligation. This is the law whereby BT has to guarantee to provide a fixed line communications service to everyone that wants it in the UK.

It would appear that the large mobile operators are likely to have to share the cost of this with BT. In difficult to service rural areas the fixed line network could be replaced with mobile technology. 

What will be interesing is to see who is likely to benefit from Gordon Brown’s investment plan. I would imagine that there will be a number of network operators lining up with their hands outstretched for Government money. We shouldn’t assume that it will just be BT, although they are clearly well placed to take advantage.

With mobile operators having to support USO it looks to me as if we will be going back to the old days where a network operator (BT in those days) was both a fixed and mobile player This time round perhaps we will see a true competitor to BT emerging from the pack.

Categories
Business internet ofcom

Growth In Internet Usage Since 1995

On a journey around cyberspace came across a very interesting website. It tracks the growth of the internet since 1995. Almost a quarter of the world’s population is now using the internet.

Interestingly what I think these statistics tell us is that the internet age is still only beginning. There are another 4.5 billions users yet to join the community.

Even if you use Ofcom’s UK penetrations statistics of 58% penetration for ADSL and assume that the UK being a fairly mature market, is approaching saturation point, it still leaves us with 2 billion more people yet to connect. That’s a massive market opportunity for online services somewhere.

I have graphed some of the statistics for easy reading:

growth in internet usage since 1995.
growth in internet usage since 1995.

 internet-usage

PS – sorry about the quality of the graphics. I never was any good at art at school.
Categories
Business fun stuff

Happy New Year

This, as you will I’m sure understand, is an automated post. Written in the dying working hours of 2008 it has been scheduled for an unnaturally early time on New Years day as a precaution against the extremely unlikely event that anyone will want to read this blog today. Most of us will still be in bed.

To those who have made the effort, a Happy New Year to you and may you prosper in 2009.

Categories
Business fun stuff

What’s Going To Happen In 2009?

I would be writing this from my Caribbean beach home if I were really any good at predictions. Having said that there are a few macro level changes I think will happen in our industry that are worth putting down as reference points. Some of these might be considered obvious but are none the less valid – they will be high profile in 2009.

  1. Facebook will come of age as a business tool as well as a social networking website. Linked-In will struggle to keep up with Facebook.  Twitter will gain in strength.
  2. The use of web based conferencing and collaboration will grow significantly in the face of the economic downturn and the need to cut costs. 
  3. The ISP industry will see some big consolidations. In the UK the Big 6 will become the Big 4. 
  4. Mobile VoIP will become mainstream for business.
  5. The ISP industry and the Music industry will finally get together to combat illegal P2P downloading.
  6. Liverpool will win the Premiership. 

6 predictions are enough. It reduces the chances of getting it wrong 🙂 .

Categories
Business fun stuff

What's Going To Happen In 2009?

I would be writing this from my Caribbean beach home if I were really any good at predictions. Having said that there are a few macro level changes I think will happen in our industry that are worth putting down as reference points. Some of these might be considered obvious but are none the less valid – they will be high profile in 2009.

  1. Facebook will come of age as a business tool as well as a social networking website. Linked-In will struggle to keep up with Facebook.  Twitter will gain in strength.
  2. The use of web based conferencing and collaboration will grow significantly in the face of the economic downturn and the need to cut costs. 
  3. The ISP industry will see some big consolidations. In the UK the Big 6 will become the Big 4. 
  4. Mobile VoIP will become mainstream for business.
  5. The ISP industry and the Music industry will finally get together to combat illegal P2P downloading.
  6. Liverpool will win the Premiership. 

6 predictions are enough. It reduces the chances of getting it wrong 🙂 .

Categories
Business fun stuff

Review of 2008

2008 has been a very busy year – as they all seem to be. The action started early on when Timico acquired Twang.net. This is the third ISP we have bought and the process is getting slicker every time. Soon afterwards, the integration of the Twang and Timico network infrastructures began. Twang ADSL users all saw an immediate improvement in network performance and web surfing experience on the larger Timico network.

In the summer we established a separate Network Operations Centre in Ipswich to take care of the growing Timico core network. Previously this function had been split across a number of locations as the company grew and acquired businesses. A well as settling the team in a single location we set about hiring developers to provide the growing number of customers (both internal and external) with a world class ISP capability. 

September saw Timico appear 4th in the Sunday Times Techtrack 100. This was up from 10th last year and an improvement that thrilled everyone involved.

We then had the installation of our 21CN Hostlink – a resilient dual Gigabit Ethernet fibre connection over which we then ran the ADSL2+ trials. 

Finally in December Timico won the ITSPA Award for the best Unified Solution. This was for the best ITSP that was also an ISP. Many VoIP service providers do not manage the underlying netowrk that is used to carry their voice traffic. Timico does and has now been recognised for the excellent job it does.

Along the way the company has grown to over 130 employees and has broken a number of it’s own records in terms of sales, profitability and numbers of subscribers.

On a personal basis I started this blog in May and am now pleased to say that it is getting in the region of 40,000 hits a month and growing by the month. I welcome any constructive feedback readers might have. I was also elected to the council of the Internet Service Providers’ Association (ISPA) which is proving to be a very interesting place to be.

This is in addition to my role on the council of the Internet Telephony Service Providers’ Association ITSPA. Being on both councils I think gives me a pretty unique insight into what is happening in the UK’s internet world and I hope that some of it comes through in the blog posts.

The activity within ITSPA has grown this year and the organisation now holds regular networking events, dinners and workshops which are proving to be very popular.

During this year the Web2.0 revolution has gained pace with Facebook coming to the fore and plenty of new sites such as Twitter making the news. If you want to hook up with me on Facebook I am trefor davies. On twitter I am tref – the benefits of being an early entrant.

This year people have moved on from talking about VoIP to talking about Unified Communications which is good for Timico because that really is where our VoIP service has been pitched since the beginning. The rising cost of fuel and the green agenda is also helping to drive the market for us.

I am very excited about 2009, despite the economic downturn . It is an opportunity though I’m sure not without its challenges. The landscape is going to change yet again and it is good to be part of the game.

Categories
Business engineering

IT Housekeeping Over The Christmas Break

If you happen to be working over the Christmas Holiday period, as am I, it is a fairly quiet time. Not many phones ringing. It might be stating the blatantly obvious but there are a few housekeeping type jobs you can get on with.

  1. Tidy up your directory structures – all the rubbish that has been accumulating on your desktop – bin it or file it. You might even want to change your PC’s wallpaper 🙂 .
  2. Following on from that, if you haven’t got one get your backup strategy sorted out and do some backing up.
  3. Get your firmware upgrades done – any Microsoft security patches, if they aren’t done automatically & rolling firmware upgrades on your Cisco routers.
  4. Finish off all the biscuits and chocolates left around the office from before Christmas.
  5. Renew your gym membership.

The last point is optional and the one before that inevitable, I know. Also I wouldn’t bother with any New Year Resolutions. They have never worked for me.

Categories
Business fun stuff

Have A Good Christmas

I’m shutting down now until Monday 29th. Happy Christmas to all my friends and readers.  Here’s hoping that Santa recognises that I’ve been a good boy all year!

Categories
Business security

Netgenium

I came across Netgenium whilst discussing a security project with one of our engineers. They manufacture Power Over Ethernet (POE) components that are used in building security systems.

These days practically everything can be controlled over secure IP connections. In this case we are now talking locks, speakers, lights and cameras. The first objective is security and control. Card readers can limit entry to certain areas to specific individuals. These card readers also tell a system who has entered which part of a building. This might sound big brotherish but it is a real requirement for many businesses.

The second, and surprisingly useful, by-product is cost saving. For example a company’s security system can be programmed to enable the POE to a desk when that user has swiped his or her card upon entry to a building. POE for a phone can be switched on thus saving unneccessary waste of power. Similarly when the last person leaves, the swipe of the card will turn off the lights and switch on the alarm.

Because SIP is supported the system now creates the prospect of hooking into a PBX announcement system that targets specific zones/locales in a building where an individual was last known to be.

Categories
Business voip

Office Moves

I moved office on Monday. Actually the boys were in over the weekend doing all the work, but I physically sat in it first thing on Monday morning when I got in. So what, do I hear you say?

This is my eighth office since we started in April 2004. It isn’t that I can’t sit still for long, or keep a good office. We have been growing and I keep getting displaced by an expanding customer services department. Although I “don’t do paper” I do seem to have accumulated a 4 drawer filing cabinet full of it. That however, (or at least the paper in it) is the only physical object I have had to move each time.

Whenever I move office all I have to do is log out of my VoIP phone when I leave, and log on to the new one the next time I am in. My laptop plugs into the network cable emanating from the back of the phone and hey presto, I am up and running again.

When you think about it eight moves probably would traditionally have represented a lot of time spent in doing so – adds, moves and changes were always a high cost item in running an office communications network. Not any longer.

Categories
Business internet security

Ed Balls Starts UKCCIS Rolling

The first UKCCIS Executive Board meeting took place in December chaired by Ed Balls, DCSF Secretary of State and Alan Campbell, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for crime reduction at the Home Office. The fact that this Board is being chaired by such high profile politicians is an indication of the seriousness with which the Government is taking the safety of children when using the internet.

Set up to implement the recommendations of the Byron Report, the committee has initially prioritised a number of areas of concern and is in the process of setting up working groups to move the activity on.

The first four working groups will focus on the following areas: 

Industry Standards (title subject to change)
Aim: To develop clearer common standards (in the form of codes of practice or other guidelines) that are adopted, monitored and consistent with EU partners and are widely recognised as good practice. This should cover the areas identified in the Byron report but, over time, should also look at new issues that arise as technology and user habits move on.

Better Education
Aim: To ensure that children, families and the childrens workforce have access to consistent and comprehensive support and information that improves their knowledge, skills and understanding of internet safety.

Public Information and Awareness
Aim: To develop a comprehensive and joined-up public awareness campaign on internet safety for children and families based on consistent messages that form the basis of the one stop shop for all aspects of internet safety.

Video Games
Aim: To ensure that children and young people have a safer gaming experience and parents are aware of the issues and support mechanisms around gaming.

With the continually changing nature of the internet this is always going to be a work in process but at least a start is being made.

Categories
Business engineering

Royal Treatement For Netops Team

The Timico Network Operations Team is up at HQ today in preparation for the big Christmas Party. We apply the same principles for them as we do for the Royal Family. They aren’t all allowed to come up in the same car (apart from the fact that it would have been a tight squeeze).

We did it in shifts which meant that the NOC was manned at all times. I do believe that these guys deserve special treatment in any case. We are talking serious commitment to the job. They are online every waking hour of the day and one of them, I’m told, religiously develops code on his laptop in bed on a Sunday morning. It does take a special type of nutcase to want to do this but the job satisfaction is very high and I certainly appreciate the efforts they put in. If they didn’t know that before they do now.

My thanks also go out to Chris Nicholls who is manfully on call tonight and will miss the show.

Categories
Business fun stuff

Scale Is Important

This is a business where scale matters. One machine costs £100,000 and can process 16 million bites a day. It takes 45 weeks to grow the bite in the ground and they are pulling for 50 weeks of the year. They grow 8 million per acre!

What on earth am I talking about? Chantenay carrots actually which is what I mean by a bite in this case. Thats a heck of a lot of carrots. I’ve just been to a soiree where mine host runs a carrot processing plant in Nottinghamshire. I got talking to him about his vegetables and was totally fascinated with the statistics important to his business.

He runs three carrot polishing machines. They can also be used for potatoes and parsnips, though with different brush sizes obviously!! Next time you buy a baby carrot in the supermarket remember that it has probably been cleaned for your delectation by my friend Martin.

There was also a farmer in the room and I would have been happy discussing carrot pulling until the cows came home had I not had to take the kids home to bed.

What a wonderfully diverse world in which we live. It’s not that different to communications. Bits, bytes, brush size (?). The language is the same. Check out your carrots here.

Categories
Business internet

Network Cables Cut

We have been notified by o ne of our network partners that there has been a major break in an undersea cable that carries internet and telephony traffic to Asia and the Middle East. I understand the break is off Egypt.

The nature of the internet is that the traffic that would have used this link will be rerouted elsewhere but it may result in some web pages being slow to download.

If I get any more news in I’ll update the post.

Categories
Business voip

ITSPA Video Produced By Illume

Check this video short out.

Categories
Business engineering

Redundancies at Cable & Wireless / Thus

Sources inside Cable & Wireless/Thus say the company is wielding the axe before Christmas. It is a sad truth that many large companies do this at Christmas to clear the decks for their new financial year in April.

In actual fact this must have been only a matter of time following C&W’s recent acquisition of Thus. I don’t know how many individuals are affected but I daresay it will be in the press sooner rather than later. There is certainly no mention of it yet in the FT or The Register.

BT also seems to be making substantial cuts in headcount. These days being made redundant is not necessarily a reflection on the abilities of an individual. Large organisations often close down complete divisions.

It is said that during the dot com bubble burst in the early 2000s around a million people left the telecoms industry. I don’t believe we are in for the same wholesale exit this time round but only time will tell.

Categories
Business engineering

Redundancies at Cable & Wireless / Thus

Sources inside Cable & Wireless/Thus say the company is wielding the axe before Christmas. It is a sad truth that many large companies do this at Christmas to clear the decks for their new financial year in April.

In actual fact this must have been only a matter of time following C&W’s recent acquisition of Thus. I don’t know how many individuals are affected but I daresay it will be in the press sooner rather than later. There is certainly no mention of it yet in the FT or The Register.

BT also seems to be making substantial cuts in headcount. These days being made redundant is not necessarily a reflection on the abilities of an individual. Large organisations often close down complete divisions.

It is said that during the dot com bubble burst in the early 2000s around a million people left the telecoms industry. I don’t believe we are in for the same wholesale exit this time round but only time will tell.

Categories
Business events

Party Time

I don’t know about the rest of you but by the time Christmas Day comes along I’m going to be partied out. It all started with the ITSPA Awards at the House of Commons on Thursday last week followed by lunch with customer Foxtons on the Friday.

Monday I had dinner with KeConnect MD Robert Kemp in Ipswich, lunch with NTL on Tuesday at Cafe Bleu in Newark. Last night it was the Timico management bash at the Olive Branch in Clipsham. Tomorrow night it is the Twang.net party at Monty’s in Newbury.

Then Monday it is the Timico staff party at Belton Woods near Grantham. Tuesday night it’s The Wig And Mitre in Lincoln. I’m assuming that Santa has already sorted out what presents to bring the kids because I certainly haven’t had time to do it.

I have to say that I am looking forward to the period of austerity that this time of credit crunch and financial uncertainty merits and will be joining the queue for discounted lettuce at the reduced section in Tesco’s on the 2nd January.

Categories
Business internet

Animoto

Animoto is a company that takes your digital photos and turns them into a slideshow whilst adding music as a backdrop. Their platform employs an algorithm that analyses the content/colours in a photo and applies what it deems to be a suitable soundtrack. 

The product looks pretty cool. I understand that their principal claim to fame is that when Animoto was launched on Facebook the demand was such that their use of virtual machines went from around 30 to 4,000 within 48 hours.

If true, and I have no reason to believe otherwise, this illustrates the power of Web2.0. Most Facebook applications of course disappear into obscurity but this type of success story is what keeps people developing.

It’s also what makes me keep playing golf. One good shot…

 

Categories
Business ofcom UC voip

ITSPA Awards Photos

I mentioned that I would get some photos up once they came back from the developers and here they are. The biggest shock for me is to see how much weight I have put on this year – something to sort out in January!! I also note that I need a haircut.

On the plus side having reflected of the Awards Evening it was a highly successful event from ITSPA’s perspective. Not only was the turnout high but in his speech Ofcom Board Member, Stuart McIntosh, was most complimentary regarding the work that ITSPA has been doing. This is ITSPA growing up.

This is a time of fast moving changes in the industry and it is good to be a part of it.

Tref accepts the ITSPA Award

I accept the ITSPA Unified Award from Dave Axam of BT.

The acceptance speech; erudite, informed, witty yet tempered with the appropriate level of gratitude and humility.

Categories
Business internet

Movie rights

We live in interesting times. UK Film and TV producers today called for the Government to take action to tackle potential online copyright infringement.

 

I fully support rights holders’ right to enforce their intellectual property rights. In fact this has been the subject of discussion in the industry since the publication of the Gowers’ Review in December 2006.

 

The ISP Association, of which I am a council member,  has previously stated its preference for an industry-led system based on the agreement of providers from across the Internet industry and stands ready to facilitate the involvement of a greater number of ISPs in discussions. This remains the ISPA’s view despite what appears to be an attempt to make government provide additional legislation in this area.

 

In other words ISPA is saying don’t go making unnecessary regulations. You might think that this is a good cause to regulate but in fact there are many areas where regulation is being considered and if we are not careful we will end up being regulated into a straight-jacket and the internet will lose the ability to be the incredible environment that it is now.

 

I fully believe that the ISP industry’s efforts in advocating a positive and proactive cooperation between the Internet and rights holder industries is the correct one. In fact the UK Government noted in its July consultation document that enforcement is one tool and that consumer education and the availability of legal remedies are also essential factors in combating online copyright infringement.

 

The Internet provides tremendous opportunities to make more music and video available in legal and efficient ways. Music, film and software industry rights holders should continue to embrace the Internet and the opportunities it offers to disseminate their materials efficiently, legally and profitably.

 

You can read the statement online here.

 

Categories
Business internet security

Internet Explorer Security Flaw

In the news today is a very high profile security flaw in Microsoft browser, Internet Explorer. Hackers have been hijacking websites and inserting code that enables them to steal username and password information of persons browsing using IE.

Microsoft made the situation public at the end of last week by which time they had calculated that 0.2% of internet users would have been exposed to a website that had been the subject of this hacking. 

Apparently other browers are not affected at this time so users of Safari, Firefox, Opera et al should be safe at this time. This isn’t to say that web users should never use IE. Microsoft is working on a fix and most software of this type is likely to be subject to different vulnerabilities at different times.

A browser is a very personal thing. Different people like different browsers. Because it what I have always used IE that is typically what I stick with. However the Microsoft browser is known amongst tecchies as being imperfect and serious geeks won’t touch it with a bargepole. That isn’t to say it is no good. You just have to understand how the minds of most engineers work.

There are in fact times when I have to resort to other browsers to make a certain web functions work. For example when I am writing posts for this blog if I need to upload photos then as often as not I can’t do it using IE and have to resort to an alternative.

 

Categories
Business UC voip

Timico Strikes Gold At ITSPA Awards

I’m thrilled to report that Timico won the Best Unified ITSP at the ITSPA Awards at the House of Commons last night. This was for an ITSP who is also an ISP. It’s an exciting finish to what has been a very exciting year for us and is the icing on the cake after the 4th place in the Sunday Times Techtrack.

The event was jointly hosted by MPs Ian Taylor and Derek Wyatt, Chair of the All Party Communications Group and took place in the salubrious surroundings of the Members Dining Room at the House of Commons.

Other winners were BT for the consumer award, Gradwell.com for the business ITSP, AQL for innovation, and Cisco for best hardware.

The Cisco win is also significant because Timico Group company KeConnect is Cisco’s partner of choice for SIP trunks and this provides a nice filip for the partnership going into the new year.

Finally the VoIP personality award was won by Eli Katz for his tireless service to the industry since founding ITSPA four years ago. This came as a total surprise to him as we had decided at the Council meeting not to have this category 🙂

Once I get hold of some photos I’ll do another post – I know how you are all dying to see them.

Categories
Business events voip

ITSPA Awards

Off to the ITSPA Awards in The Houses of Parliament today. A good day out in store. This is the first such award bash for ITSPA and I understand there were 50 entries which must represent a fair percentage of ITSPs in the UK.

Timico is sponsoring the “Best CPE” category which I believe highlights our partnership approach to this business. Working closely with suppliers means better support and fast access to new technologies.

No doubt I will report back after the event.