INTERVIEW Simon Woodhead - Simwood
“On the trends we are seeing, broadly speaking call volumes were down in line with the wider
economy in the UK, but call durations were up; I like to think as people rediscovered their humanity! “
Ahead of the game
Simon Woodhead, CEO - Simwood
In this interview Comms Business caught up with Simon Woodhead, CEO of Simwood and an active voice in the
market, for an update on the business and what he is seeing at regulatory level right now
Comms Business Magazine
(CBM): Can you give us an
update on Simwood?
Simon Woodhead (SW): We
were quick o the mark in
moving to remote working
pre-lockdown to keep our team
safe, and we open-sourced a
number of solutions to try and
help others. Every company
has some remote working
nowadays, but putting every
employee in every role remote,
in a secure and productive way
is a bit dierent.
ankfully we were ahead of
the game and able to have some
drills beforehand so everyone
in every role was self-sucient.
I was really proud of how
the team coped, working on
ironing boards and sock-draws
or whatever they had. We
didn’t furlough anyone, despite
the period that our porting
team had a lot less to do due
to Openreach halting porting
while they got their own remote
working in order.
On the trends we are
seeing, broadly speaking call
volumes were down in line
with the wider economy in the
UK, but call durations were
up; I like to think as people
rediscovered their humanity!
We hit the bottom in May and
then bounced back, with July
setting new records for volumes
and revenue. It is almost as if
someone pressed pause for three
months and now we’re going
again.
CBM: What are you seeing at a
regulatory level right now?
SW: We’ve been very active
in recent months having
discussions with Ofcom and
BT to resolve pretty signicant
disputes. e extent to which
they come into the public
domain, along with the facts
we’ve discovered, frankly will
depend on how much noise we
need to restore a feeling of fair
play.
More generally, I wrote a
blog post the other day around
what we felt the market needed
in the anticipated Market
Review. is is what sets the
key parameters for our industry
for potentially the next 5 years.
Less than 24 hours later Ofcom
published what I could call BT’s
Business Plan!
ere were some surprises
in there but they’re 5 years out
and in the interim we have
to endure the very one-sided
market and what I’ve called ‘remonopolisation’
that was kickstarted
in 2014 - new entrants
being better o as BT Resellers
than being able to compete even
if they build to scale. Sadly, the
whole thing seems to be written
around BT’s plans to migrate
to IP and those of us who were
IP-centric from birth, and only
switched TDM on because BT
didn’t oer IP at the carrier
level, have to incur further
TDM costs and disruption,
precisely so BT can avoid costs.
Presently, it looks like it’ll
be 12 years (2014-2026) that
Simwood will have lost money
on every call to a number
ported from BT, and lost money
on every call to a Simwood
number ported to BT. at is
presuming there’s no creative
new ways found to shaft
competitors in the interim and
that some action is taken in the
next Review cycle, be it to undo
the de-regulation of BT’s transit
or ensure that porting works,
operationally and economically.
is is an early stage in the
process though and to be fair
I’ve found Ofcom friendly and
sensible in private meetings
recently. And who knows,
maybe some of the more
provocative suggestions are just
that and intended to stimulate
engagement from industry.
CBM: What is new from
Simwood?
SW: First-o, we’ve launched
a Hybrid proposition. is is
for those people who might
outgrow partner solutions
and feel the need to access
Carrier Services economics
directly. Hybrid enables them
to use our Partner platform but
against their Carrier Services
account. ey get the hosted
platform but wholesale rates on
numbering, calls etc.
We have also launched a
Residential proposition. is
is our hosted platform adapted
for residential use. It is pitched
primarily at Alt Nets who may
need to add a few hundred
thousand end-points, but in
light of Ofcom’s missive last
week, it is a great option for
WLR resellers too. Basically,
any Partner can provision
trunks, PBX or residential endpoints
through the platform
- whichever is appropriate for
the end user. e Residential
feature is competitively priced
but gets really exciting with
massive volume.
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