Comms Dealer

The telecoms industry is on the verge of entering a new 'golden age' led by video services, claims Huawei in a new report first released at the European Mobile Video Forum (12th September, Amsterdam).

The company urged European operators to capitalise on mobile video by leveraging their advantages in terms of technology, economies and content.

Ken Wang, President of Global Marketing and Solutions Sales for Huawei's Carrier Business Group, said: "It is clear that European operators should update their strategies and business models to unleash the potential of the mobile video market.

"Intelligent devices with cameras are now more common, more social platform videos are being created and spread in an easier way, and virtual reality and augmented reality technologies are developing on a large scale.

"For carriers such as LG Uplus in Korea video services now contribute over 20% of the total revenue."

Qiu Heng, President of Huawei Wireless Network Marketing Operation, noted that video is the driving force for an 'explosive increase' in network traffic.

He added: "The three operation modes of mobile video include traffic operation, platform operation and ecosystem operation, and European operators are ready for mobile video growth."

Huawei's mobile video report highlighted that Western Europe scores well across key technology dimensions including high smartphone penetration, LTE coverage and Wi-Fi penetration, all critical enablers for mobile video growth.

Western Europe also leads in the economic dimension by offering affordable mobile data packages, noted the report.

"But when it comes to facilitating the fast growth of mobile video consumption and innovative monetisation models, European mobile operators lag behind those in North America and advanced Asia Pacific countries," added Nitesh Patel, Director of Wireless Media Strategies, Strategy Analytics.

"This may in part be due to different market characteristics such as an aging population less inclined to fully embrace mobile video when compared with a younger generation in Asia Pacific.

"Operators in Europe are also hampered by consumers' concerns over data consumption and average cost.

"Western European mobile operators should strive to reclaim leadership in innovation and differentiation and provide consumer centric and video centric approaches to address the growth opportunity of the mobile video market."

At the forum Heng put a spotlight on operators such as LG Uplus, T-Mobile in the USA and Verizon which have demonstrated a strong ambition to monetise video content.

"These operators have introduced innovative pricing models including zero-rating video traffic, enabling sponsored data, offering video-centric tariffs and by launching their own branded mobile video apps and services to tap new sources of revenue," he said.

"Some leading European mobile operators are already exploring the use of video services and they are seeing increasing revenue as a result. We would like to see more European mobile operators consider similar approaches to maximise growing demand for mobile video."

Comms-care has been contracted for a further five years by KCOM to deliver Cisco support and professional services to its UK customer base via a a collaborative services model in partnership with Cisco.

The contract extension follows an initial three year deal.

The agreement provides field-based support, spares management and professional services across multiple Cisco technologies spanning 6,000 end user sites totalling around 100,000 Cisco products.

Sean Royce, Executive Vice President for Technology, Service and Operations at KCOM, said: "Cisco technology remains an important element of the range of contact and collaboration solutions we offer and the decision to extend the contract a very simple one."

Comms-care was acquired by Fortune 100 company Ingram Micro in May this year.

Virtual1's newly appointed Product and Marketing Manager Neil Wilson will initially prioritise the development of the company's IaaS products and 1Portal. He will also as head-up Virtual1's marketing team.

Wilson brings 10-plus years product marketing and management experience and joins from Alternative Networks following a 14 year stint at the firm, most recently responsible for the product marketing of its Device to Data Centre proposition, including UC, mobility, connectivity and cloud. He was responsible for the launch and development of Alternative's customer management portal called Synapse.

He said: "It's great to have joined Virtual1. I really believe in the direction the company is moving in, both in London and nationally."

Nimans and NEC have alerted dealers about the continuing threat of phone hacking drawing particular attention to a new in-built app launched by the vendor for its SV9100 and SL1100 systems.

"A health check feature scans a customer's system and network for any weaknesses with a traffic light safety score," stated Yvonne Tierney-Neave, Nimans' Solutions Business Manager for NEC.

"By identifying these security risks the installation is then tailormade for the specific user set-up making it as effective as possible."

This anti-hacking technology is supported by an awareness campaign led by Nimans and NEC.

Tierney-Neave added: "Global phone fraud costs an estimated £25bn per year with the UK one of the most targeted countries, so it's not a problem that should be ignored. It's become an organised crime with links to drug dealers and even terrorists."

She cited figures that suggest 84% of UK businesses are not safe from hacking.

"Regardless of whether it's an analogue, digital or IP-based system, fraudsters can gain access to a phone system in seconds," she added.

"By the time a company discovers fraudulent calls have been made it's often too late. An average cost to a UK victim is around £10,000 and this may be undetected until the phone bill arrives."

Isle of Man business Manx Telecom has reported a dip in H1 revenues, posting £39.2m compared to £39.8m in the first six months of 2015.

Profit before tax rose slightly to £8.3m (H1 2015: £8.2m).

Data centre revenues were down 15.7% due to a decline in low margin kit sales and customer consolidation; but global solutions revenues showed strong growth of 12.4%.

Fixed line, broadband and data revenues rose 1.3% driven by take-up of high speed broadband.

A 4.7% rise in mobile revenues was offset by lower roaming charges.

Gary Lamb, CEO, said: "We have had a solid six months of trading which saw the group continue to make progress with its strategic objectives and perform in line with the board's expectations.

"Demand for superfast broadband and the increased speeds offered by 4G mobile services continue to grow and help drive growth in our cash generative core.

"We recently introduced 4G roaming to our customers as well as trialling superfast 4G+ during the summer period.

"We will continue to explore new ways to grow the business by leveraging our mobile technology platform and we are confident in the long term outlook for the business."

Hats off to UKCloud (formerly Skyscape Cloud Services) which topped this year's Sunday Times Tech Track 100 league table, a ranking of Britain's 100 private tech companies with the fastest growing sales over the past three years.

The Farnborough-based cloud services provider scooped first place following an annual three-year sales rise of 262.66%; followed by IT services provider Roc Technologies in second place having scored a 221.18% hike in sales.

Virtus Data Centres was ranked 16th with 133.57%; while Cloudreach took 23rd position having registered 111.98%.

Other notable tech firms in the listing include Redtail Telematics (29th, 106.32%); IT consultancy Focus Group Europe (33rd, 98.35%); IT services provider Ideal Networks (47th, 77.66%); 48th spot went to Managed 24/7 (76.79%); Cloud Technology Solutions appeared at number 52 with 72.38%; CSP essensys was ranked 77th with 50.76%; Channel Telecom scooped 78th place having generated a 50.50% sales increase over the measured period; 80th position went to IT Lab on 49.49%; Cloud Distribution came 83rd with 48.74%; 85th - Edenhouse on 47.78%; Hutchinson Networks took 88th place with 46.98%; and IT services provider Littlefish came 97th with 44.63% sales growth.

telent's networking capabilities and portfolio of solutions and services have been significantly bolstered following the acquisition of Richardson Eyres.

The acquired company brings a 30 year technology heritage and specialises in data centre infrastructure solutions and services for large organisations in the UK and Europe including banks, pharmaceutical companies, law firms, construction companies, software, retail and online businesses.

The deal also adds multi-vendor capabilities and bolts on a base of engineers.

Mark Plato, CEO of telent, stated: "With increasing numbers of customers moving to the cloud and requiring more virtual and flexible technology, this acquisition broadens our offering and extends our reach particularly within the ICT space.

"It also offers Richardson Eyres' clients access to telent's capabilities and expertise."

The deal follows telent's acquisition of Arqiva's Secure Solutions Business in October last year and its earlier purchase of Telindus in 2014.

Violin Memory reported Q2 revenue ($7.5m) 23% lower sequentially and 51% lower compared to the prior year period along with a $0.59 loss per share. Shares fell by nearly 40% after the report.

CEO Kevin DeNuccio on an earnings call said: "This quarter's performance is obviously frustrating and disappointing as we strongly believed it could be the quarter that returns revenue upward after a downward trend for more than a year.

"Both of our international theatres in the EMEA and APAC had difficult product sales in the quarter. The international markets alone could account for a short fall from expectations."

Nimans has tied up a deal with BT to become the incumbent's exclusive UK high street distributor for consumer telephones and baby monitors across the UK.

The agreement marks a 30 year trading relationship between the companies and includes BT's 8500 Premium Nuisance Call Blocker.

Richard Carter, Group Sales and Business Development Director at Nimans, said: "This represents a significant step forward in our relationship with BT. We have moved from being a minor distributor in 1985 to its number one partner in 2010 and now the exclusive distributor in 2016 for this area."

Nimans has added the Storno range of licensed radios to its two-way radio communications portfolio, offering resellers an entry level springboard into what the distributor claims is a market worth millions.

"Radio communications are being hailed as the missing piece in the comms jigsaw, combining advanced technologies with rich untapped revenue streams of over £40m this year alone," claimed Gary Redshaw, Radio Communications Category Manager at Nimans.

"We've sold two-way radios for many years but now offer more powerful licenced equipment that can communicate over much longer distances.

"Today's modern solutions offer full integration with telephone systems and perform many seamless functions not available via other devices.

"There's a perception that two-way radios are yesterday's technology limited to niche markets, but that's not the case. From leisure centres and shopping malls to warehouses, car parks, building sites and schools, demand is on the rise. Two-way radios are the final piece of the comms puzzle."

Nimans supplies licenced and licence free equipment offering Digital Mobile Radio (DMR) and Private Mobile Radio (PMR) devices. The distributor stocks brands such as Hytera, Icom and Motorola.