NETWORK SERVICES
Life is Online
Given that today online advertising
87% of people in the UK access the internet, and those that do are connected almost a day a week online.
Changes in the way people communicate with each other are almost all driven by growth in internet use
accounts for the majority of UK
advertising spend and its continued
double-digit growth is driven by the
surge in mobile and video advertising the
availability of fast, robust and omni-present
aordable connectivity is critical to this
whole economic infrastructure.
Universal Service Obligation
Such is the level of demand for connectivity
today that in March 2018 the UK
Government introduced legislation for a
broadband universal service obligation
(USO), which will give eligible homes and
businesses the right to request a decent
broadband connection. Ofcom will be
responsible for implementing the USO
and in December last year named BT and
KCOM as the two proposed suppliers.
Earlier, in June, Ofcom had asked telecoms
companies to put themselves forward as
potential universal service providers, and eight
companies did so. eir selection decision was
based on the following criteria:
• Can they nance the delivery of the
service?
• Would they cover more than 5,000 eligible
premises in each chosen local authority?
• Would their proposed technology meet the
technical specication?
BT, KCOM and Hyperoptic satised
all three of these criteria with the latter
subsequently withdrawing its interest in
being a provider. e other companies
– Airband, Bentley Walker, Broadway
Partners, Quickline and Viasat – did not
satisfy all three criteria.
Companies are faced with the challenge
of not only understanding their own
present and future connectivity and
access requirements but also the types of
technology available for connections.
Leased Lines
It’s no secret that data can be transmitted at
much greater speed through bre optic cable
than through copper. With a leased line, the
bre optic cable is just for your business; a
private, un-contended connection completely
free of other bandwidth-hogging trac.
FTTC – Superfast Access
Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) is provided
by delivering the bre network right to the
Openreach green cabinet in the street. e
nal link, from the cabinet to the premises,
is made by a copper telephone line, but this
is far better than the copper line coming all
the way from the local exchange.
FTTP – Ultrafast Access
Fibre to the premises (FTTP) is a pure bre
connection - all the way from the exchange
into a home or business. It oers speeds
of up to 1Gbps. e Openreach FTTP
network is the UK’s largest.
Ethernet in the First Mile (EFM)
EFM is an aordable way to achieve greater,
guaranteed symmetric bandwidth; by having
identical upload and download speeds (up to
10 or 20 Mbps), EFM can support VoIP and
hosted solutions.
MPLS
e two most popular wide area network
(WAN) connectivity options are MPLS and
Carrier Ethernet. MPLS services typically
refer to Layer 3 MPLS VPN services, while
Carrier Ethernet services include virtual
private LAN service (VPLS), Gigabit and
metro Ethernet.
SD-WAN
Software Dened WAN is beginning to
encroach upon the MPLS markets and
proponents believe that it will replace it
entirely in the near future. is is yet to
materialise, but SD-WAN has a lot going for
it in terms of potentially being a lot cheaper
than MPLS while at the same time giving
enterprises control and exibility.
Fraud
Criminals just love toll fraud, which is
sometimes called VoIP fraud, where a hacker
is able to access a phone system and make
fraudulent long-distance calls from the users
account. Long distance per-minute charges
add up fast. Tens of thousands of pounds
in call bills can be racked up easily over a
weekend – the hacker’s favourite time to
break in and they rarely get caught.
FAST FACTS: INTERNET
• Nine in ten people had access to the
internet in the home in 2018.
• Themajority (62%) of time spent on
the internet was on mobile devices, and
mobile advertising made up 45% of online
advertising in 2017.
• BBC website visitor numbers overtook
those of Amazon in the UK in 2018. TheBBC
had the third-highest number of users after
Google and Facebook.
54 | Channel Profiles 2019 wwwwww..ccoommmmssbbuussiinneessss..ccoo..uukk