BYTES... GAMMA MAKES A KEY ACQUISITION
www.commsbusiness.co.uk
COMMS NEWS
August 2020 | Comms Business Magazine | 5
MONITORING
Signalhorn has selected Highlight’s
real-time monitoring and reporting portal
to provide enterprise-wide visibility
of the managed services it delivers to
clients. Highlight will provide visibility
across the many disparate vendors and
technologies that Signalhorn employs.
FOURNET
Union Street Technologies has been
selected by FourNet to provide its
aBILLity billing software and associated
services. Established in 2005, FourNet
is a cloud and managed service provider
with an annual turnover of over £30m.
SECURITY
Comstor has adapted several Cisco
campaigns uniquely for the channel,
as well as launching a new initiative of
its own, to help resellers address Small
Businesses and Security.
IN GERMANY
GAMMA HAS ACQUIRED 80% of
the issued share capital of HFO
Holding AG, with an option to
acquire the remaining 20% over
the next three years.
HFO is a SIP Trunk provider in
Germany with a reputation for
quality products and customer
service. They will build on this
expertise in both the VOIP and
broad business communications
market and has recently started
to sell Cloud PBX offerings
through its extensive network of
channel partners across the
German market.
As part of its stated European
expansion strategy, Gamma had
previously identified Germany as
a key target geography. With an
overall market of c.36 million PBX
seats (almost twice the UK
market size) but a cloud
penetration of only c6% (one of
the lowest rates in Western
Europe), the German market for
cloud telephony is forecast to
grow rapidly.
Andrew Taylor (pictured),
Gamma’s Chief Executive Officer,
commented: “The acquisition of
HFO provides Gamma with a
fantastic opportunity to enter
the German market – one of the
largest but under-penetrated
Cloud PBX markets in Western
Europe. We warmly welcome all
of HFO’s staff and customers
into the Gamma family and we
look forward to working with
them.”
Huawei to be removed from UK 5G network
DIGITAL SECRETARY OLIVER Dowden (pictured) has announced to the
House of Commons that UK mobile providers are banned from
buying new Huawei 5G equipment after this year and all kit already
deployed must be removed from the network by 2027. The
announcement came days after BT CEO, Philip Jensen, said it would
be impossible to remove the vendor from the network within 10
years.
The restrictions imposed wont impact the 2G, 3G or 4G networks.
The announcement today is expected to delay the country’s 5G
rollout by one to three years.
ISPA Chair, Andrew Glover, commented on the news. He said “The
Government’s 5G announcement today provides some welcome
clarity to our members who are rolling out networks and providing
broadband to consumers and businesses across the UK. We look
forward to further consultation with Government to determine the
policy for fixed networks with a clear focus on ensuring that our
members can roll out new gigabit-capable networks at pace. As the
Secretary of State emphasised today, supply chain interventions
have a direct impact on the speed at which networks can be rolled
out, so any new restrictions need to be counter-balanced with an
appropriate level of support for the sector.
“The Government has rightly made upgrading our digital
communications infrastructure a priority, we now need to see a
clear, ambitious plan from policymakers to help the companies that
are leading this charge.”
Kevin Billings, Director and Communications Industry Principal,
Pegasystems commented “There is also the impact on customer
experience to consider. The expectation has already been built
around 5G improving the customer experience with better and
faster mobile data and access to new services. However, with the
rulings around Huawei, BT and Vodafone have already warned
about major network outages for customers if they have to replace
multiple sites in their network at the same time (i.e. replace mast
and infrastructure equipment). Therefore, telcos must take
advantage of intelligent automation technologies to improve their
deployment and maintenance processes and ultimately the quality
of their networks.
“Lastly, with less competition in infrastructure supply,
equipment costs are likely to rise – that has two potential impacts.
One being the further increase in capital cost for telcos, and
secondly, almost certainly increasing prices for consumers.”
/www.commsbusiness.co.uk