INTERVIEW
of mind that it’s just there
when you need it.
“Commercially we know
that Covid has presented
serious nancial challenges for
businesses, which is why we’ve
run several initiatives in 2020
such as a 12 month delay on
installation cost payments for
CityFibre Ethernet circuits,
90-day deferred billing on
CityFibre Gigabit connections
and a speci c proposition
developed in conjunction with
NHSx to support care homes.”
CBM: Is the ISDN switch off
more achievable now?
AW: “In recent months, we
have seen businesses feeling
increasingly hindered by
the limitations of an ISDN
connection – whether that is
through an inability to run
video calls, in exible routing
when sta need to work from
home and in exible pricing
during furlough. What the
Covid-19 crisis has also taught
is that VoIP is good enough
for every application you think
of – whether that’s Teams and
Zoom – so there’s zero reason
for ISDN to remain.
“ is simply gives greater
impetus to the Government’s
target of widespread full bre
coverage by 2025 and why we
are rmly committed to our
roll out of full bre to up to
eight million premises over the
next ve years.”
CBM: Where do partners fi t
into all of this?
AW: “ e opportunity is the
same, but the need for full
bre is even more urgent and
critical than it was before
the pandemic. at presents
a huge opportunity for our
partners to accelerate their
growth while playing a vital
role in our nation’s recovery.
e customers our wholesale
partners serve need full bre
services more than ever. SMEs
need strong support to recover
and ourish as the country
comes out of lockdown.
“Now is the time for
our channel partners to
join the mission to drive
positive change in the UK’s
connectivity landscape
and capitalise on the huge
scale of opportunity that
our nationwide full bre
roll out brings. is is why
CityFibre is about more than
just connecting businesses,
it’s about supporting whole
communities through a shared
vision with our regional
partners who act as local
heroes and true champions for
positive change.”
CBM: What are your
expectations for the next
12-24 months?
AW: “Over the next two years
the speed and momentum
of our full bre roll out will
continue to gather pace. To
facilitate this acceleration in
our build programme, we plan
to expand our growing pool of
network construction partners
by helping to hire up to 10,000
people over the next three
years. ey will play a key role
in delivering the £4bn rollout
of full bre infrastructure to
up to eight million premises
across 100 towns and cities.
“Our vision is to bring
our market-leading full bre
network to the channel’s
customers in even more cities
over the next 24 months and
expand our product range with
new introductions to empower
businesses of every size with
a ordable gigabit-capable
connectivity.”
New opportunities
Robin Ody, Senior Analyst at Canalys, recently spoke to
Comms Business about how the channel can thrive in these
challenging times
CBM: How have channel partners adapted their connectivity
offerings this year?
RO: “One of the hardest things for partners was to work out
the logistics of how they maintain their day-to-day business.
The other thing was within the technologies they sell –
identifying where the opportunities were. That was really
driven very much by customer demand at fi rst, particularly
around hardware and software sales. Services generally
saw an overall decline just because they weren’t required or
indeed able to be implemented.
“Today, the opportunities we see are around using Wifi , LAN
and Bluetooth for things like contact tracing and proximity
tracing in ‘hot zones’ that will emerge in education and
healthcare environments. These can be used to actually see
how people move throughout an environment and therefore
provide better social distancing measures.”
CBM: What advice would you give to resellers for the coming
months?
“Generally speaking, the channel has been doing a pretty
good job. The current market means that some partners are
facing shortages of cashfl ow and demand from customers.
Vendors have reacted quickly to offer new fi nancing deals to
spread risk and costs over multiple years. For the partners
themselves, it’s about keeping up with what is available to you
and trying to manage the diffi cult situation we’re in.
“That includes making sure you’re aware of all the dates
and cut off points for things like furlough and back to work
schemes. This is a signifi cant amount of admin, but it can help
you stay afl oat to a certain extent.
“We have seen an increase in technical training
certifi cations from partners looking to maintain and grow
their skills base. For a lot of companies, budgets will fall but
we expect that
cybersecurity
budgets will be
maintained. If
partners are
looking at areas
to increase
technical skills,
that’s defi nitely
an area where
customers
continue to have
a need because
advanced
persistent threats
continue to grow,
particularly now.”
www.commsbusiness.co.uk Road to Full Fibre 2020 | 11
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