BT PARTNERS WITH COMMS365 TO PROVIDE 4G CONTINGENCY SOLUTION TO OUTLYING BT EXCHANGES TO RESOLVE CONNECTION ISSUES REMOTELY
BT, one of the UK’s leading communications companies, has recently partnered with Comms365, an innovative network services company specialising in bespoke data connectivity, network services and IoT, to provide contingency 4G connectivity to BT Exchanges in outlying areas, such as Shetland and the Orkney Islands, so the company can resolve any connection issues remotely.
Previously, if the connection went down at a BT Exchange, the company would have to send specialist engineers out to the islands to fix the fault, which could take up to a week depending on travel logistics and potentially inclement weather. Not only did this result in unnecessary downtime, but also required engineers to be away from the Network Centre for a significant amount of time, resulting in needless expense for the business. To address the problem, BT was looking for a way to deploy 4G access services to interface to its equipment as a disaster recovery solution, in the event that the broadband connection was lost at the site.
The company turned to Comms365 to deploy its 4G solution at the outlying BT Exchanges so that in the case of a connection issue, engineers at the Network Centre in Manchester could connect remotely to the equipment in order to diagnose the fault and quickly make any necessary changes. One of the primary challenges was that the different locations vary in terms of 4G coverage levels, but with the Comms365 fixed IP Multinet service roaming across all UK networks, the solution easily overcame any issues of coverage or network outages.
So far, BT has deployed the Comms365 solution in two remote Exchanges in Scotland, with plans to roll out into two further locations in summer 2018. The company’s long term plan is to roll out the solution to several other Exchanges across the country, such as Cambridge, Cardiff and London, but the outer regions, including Stornoway and Skye, are being considered first due to their locations and the challenge involved in resolving connection issues.
Phyl Jewkes, 20C Core Transmission Manager at BT comments: “It’s imperative that all of our customers receive as reliable a connection as possible, so in the event that a connection goes down we do everything we can to ensure that the connection is restored quickly, no matter how distant the location. With the solution from Comms365 in place, we can rapidly identify and fix any issues remotely without having to send an engineer to the site. Not only does this save us valuable time, but is also a cost-saving solution too. It’s been a really successful partnership and we’re looking forward to working with the team to roll it out to further sites in the future.”
About BT:
Our purpose is as simple as it is ambitious: To use the power of communications to make a better world. We’re the largest provider of consumer fixed-line voice and broadband services in the UK. We’re the UK’s largest mobile network operator. We’re the second largest pay-TV sports broadcaster in the UK. We provide ICT services to 5,500 multinational companies in 180 countries. We’re helping 12 million homes and businesses go ultrafast by 2020. We are committed to improving every aspect of the customer experience.
About Comms365:
Comms365 is an innovative Network Services company specialising in bespoke data connectivity, network services and IoT. It has gained a reputation for delivering an exceptional level of service and value-added solutions to the B2B market, from across its product portfolio; 4G, Bonded Internet, SD-WAN, IoT, ISP Services and Rental .
Comms365’s technology and solutions is underpinned by its own high capacity resilient core network, which interconnects to the main mobile operators including EE, Three, O2,Vodafone and 17 fixed line carriers including Colt, Virgin, Level 3, Cogent Exponential-e, GCI and Fluidata. This highly advanced network delivers combined wireless and wired solutions that are agile and scalable to customer requirements.
Comms365 solutions offers the Channel a range of turnkey fixed and wireless solutions delivered from its own resilient Cisco NCS core network. Comms365 has a range of services designed to protect businesses from outages to their primary links, boost Internet connectivity with bonded technology, self-manage network capability with Software Defined Network technology (SDN), enhance security with IP-VPN and provide resilience with 4G based FTTC / Ethernet Failover with the same IP as the primary link.
Its IoT division concentrates on the design and delivery of next generation M2M, large data 4G and Low Powered Wide Area Networks (LPWAN). In 2017, Comms365 launched its IoT as a Service kits, offering instant, scalable IoT capabilities to enterprises of all sizes.
Comms365 offers traditional ISP services such as ADSL, FTTC, EoFTTC and Ethernet.
Rental services are available for Continuum, enabling customers to quickly install temporary ultra-fast internet for instant office solutions; even next day.
For more information, please visit www.comms365.com
