Comms Dealer

BT is to invest a further £50 million into its commercial fibre broadband programme over the next three years, meaning that more than 30 cities will benefit as BT makes high speed broadband available to more than 400,000 additional premises.

BT is spending more than £3 billion on deploying fibre broadband and its open access fibre network currently passes more than 18 million homes and businesses. That footprint is set to grow rapidly as various rural fibre programmes are delivered.

UK fibre broadband availability currently stands at 73 per cent when all networks are taken into account. The current Broadband Delivery UK programme, which receives financial support from both central and local government, is set to extend that coverage to around 90 per cent by late 2015 or early 2016. The programme has made strong early progress with hundreds of thousands of premises passed with fibre to date.

Mike Galvin, MD Network Investment at Openreach, said: "Our fibre programme is going well with our engineers connecting homes and businesses across the UK. Some city areas have proved challenging in the past but we are returning to those and will pass hundreds of thousands of additional premises with fibre.

"We are reaching vast swathes of rural Britain with our public sector partners but we will upgrade these city areas under our own steam. Businesses in cities already have access to ultra-fast speeds but fibre will give them greater choice.

"The UK is already ahead of its main European rivals when it comes to fibre, and is set to race ahead thanks to the BDUK plans that are already in progress across the country."

Small businesses, charities and social enterprises will be encouraged to take up superfast broadband at their work premises under a new scheme being rolled out by the government.

Croydon's ICUK is a registered supplier for Superconnected Cities, the scheme backed by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, which will offer vouchers worth up to £3,000 to eligible businesses across 22 cities, to install a leased line at their business premises.

Leased lines can overcome many of the problems that businesses have with slow and ineffective broadband and help them to use VoIP and videoconferencing more reliably, as well as see an overall improvement in upload and download speeds.

Director Paul Barnett said: "We're pleased to have been named as a registered supplier for this scheme, and believe it will benefit plenty of businesses across the country with better broadband.

"We've spent a lot of time putting together a great deal of information about the vouchers on our website, including how to find out if you're eligible and how to apply. Our aim is to be the most informative and accessible place online to find out about these vouchers."

Each voucher is worth between £250 and £3000 and can be used by small or medium sized businesses as well as charities and social enterprises across the cities to pay for the installation costs of a leased line. The voucher doesn't cover the VAT or the monthly costs of the line itself.

The scheme runs until March 2015, during which time ICUK hopes many small businesses will take advantage of the voucher and make the most of superfast broadband at their workplace.

The Phone Co-op has announced record profits for the year to August 2013, with profit before distributions of £555k, up 31% compared with the previous year.

Despite a challenging trading environment in which prices and volumes are falling, the consumer co-operative reported a rise in its sales of telecommunications, boosted by significant growth in its mobile business, a trend its board expects will continue.

This year's record profit enables The Phone Co-op to recommend an increase in the dividend payable to its 10,000 members from 2% of sales in 2012 to 2.5% this year.

Vivian Woodell, founder and Chief Executive of The Phone Co-op, said: "It's been a challenging year for both the co-operative movement and the telecommunications industry, so we're delighted to be able to report such good results.

"As a customer-owned co-operative, we're pleased we've increased our membership which means more people are benefiting. Members have also increased their investments in The Phone Co-op to over £4m, and we have built our reserves, to over £1 million. We see this as evidence that consumer co-operatives, with their strong member-backing, can grow organically in a highly competitive marketplace."

In addition to growing its existing services, The Phone Co-op entered a new strategic partnership with the charity Community Network in July 2013, under which The Phone Co-op took over Community Network's teleconferencing services.

In addition, The Phone Co-op continued its diversification into renewable energy generation, with three further large-scale solar PV projects completed in February 2013.

The Phone Co-op's AGM, where members will vote on this year's proposed dividend will be held in in Manchester, on Saturday 8th February.

Logitech International's financial results for Q3 saw better-than-expected total sales of $628m, up 2% compared to the third quarter of the prior year. Q3 GAAP operating income was $53m compared to a loss a year ago. Cash flow from operations for Q3 was $94m.

Retail sales for Q3 were up 4% year over year. Combined, Logitechs retail growth categories delivered 62% growth compared to the prior year, as tablet accessories sales grew 95%, audio wearables and wireless sales grew 79% and PC gaming sales grew 25%.

"We're pleased by our solid Q3 performance, with both sales and profit growth," says Bracken P. Darrell, Logitech president and chief executive officer. "We are encouraged by the robust sales in our growth categories, as well as the success of our ongoing initiatives to improve profitability, which includes the earlier-than-expected return to profitability of LifeSize. We still have more work ahead, but our turnaround is on track as we continue to build a faster and more profitable Logitech."

Based on its Q3 performance, Logitech has raised its full-year outlook for Fiscal Year 2014. The company now expects sales of just under $2.1bn, compared to the previously expected $2.0bn, and non-GAAP operating income in the range of $120m to $125m, compared to the previously expected $100m.

Logitech's numbers highlight its success at lowering its dependence on slumping PC and home electronics peripherals markets. While the company's pointing device (mice), PC keyboard/desktop, video (webcams/videoconferencing), PC audio, and Harmony remote segments respectively saw sales declines of 8%, 2%, 9%, 12%, and 13%, sales to the audio wearables/wireless and tablet & other segments rose 79% and 95%.

PC gaming was also an area of strength, rising 25%.Strong demand for Logitech's Ultrathin iPad keyboard covers continues to boost its tablet accessories sales, and surging shipments of UE Boom wireless speakers are lifting audio sales.

Alternative Networks has acquired ControlCircle, a UK-based provider of complex managed hosting and cloud-based services to enterprises and online businesses.

ControlCircle adds to the Group's data and IT services portfolio, including managed and cloud based services, such as managed hosting, data centre virtualisation and application management.

Edward Spurrier, Chief Executive officer of Alternative Networks commented: "ControlCircle provides an excellent fit to the Alternative Group. We intend to invest in the growth of ControlCircle and are confident that combining its services with those of Alternative will provide the Group with new and enhanced offerings to its customers."

South West Communications Group has launched a webinar series to offer its customers and prospects a more efficient means of keeping up-to-date with changes in business technology.

The company aims to hold a webinar every month tailored to either a marketing vertical or a communications solution.

Its first webinar on telephony technology is due to be held next week and is aimed at GP surgeries and the health sector.

Sarah Flowers, South West Communication Group's sales director, said: "Businesses don't always want to read emails, brochures and case studies or have time for a seminar or face-to-face meeting; but they still have a need to learn more about the technology that exists that may help their day to day working practices, save them money and enhance their customer service.

"These webinars offer a more engaging way for business managers to gain the information they may need in just half an hour, without having to leave their desks. One of our experts will guide them through the topic of the webinar with a PowerPoint presentation as a visual aid and an instant messaging chat box available for any questions."

Frontier Voice and Data has entered the mobile accessory market in a move that brings additional revenue streams for resellers, claimed Michael J Thornton, Director.

The company has launched a new website that showcases 'all things mobile and gadgets', noted Thornton, adding that the accessory market is a natural next step for the firm.

"We have sourced and made available a range of mobile and gadget accessories. Our channel partners now have the ability to supply their customers directly via the portal and have products delivered directly on their account with Frontier."

Square 1 Products has lifted the curtain on its new website where a range of white label professional services can be found along with a rounded product portfolio combining networking and IT hardware with AV products from tier 1 brands and smaller manufacturers.

"We will be adding other new vendors shortly so watch this space," enthused Sales Director Gary Conner.

"As well as using the website to launch our solutions based approach along with our new look logo, resellers will also see the introduction of our Members Area and the Square Miles loyalty programme."

The Square 1 Products Member's Area provides access to product technical documents and brochures and a selection of whitepapers and marketing materials fully downloadable for resellers to add their own logo and distribute as their own.

"The new Square Miles loyalty programme has been created to reward all reseller partners for working with us," added Conner.

"Square Miles are accumulated with everyday business purchases and redeemed against our full range of business products and services, or with your own loyalty card our partners are free to buy branded consumer goods, experiences and holidays or even make charitable donations."

GCI Channel Solutions has joined forces with Taylor Made Computer Solutions in a link-up that sees the reseller provide its customers with GCI's Ethernet and MPLS services.

The Fareham-based managed service provider has been in operation for 20 years and offers IT services to businesses across the UK.

GCI's MD John Whitty commented: "Our product strategy is aligned with Taylor Made's medium and long-term strategic goals to fulfil large or small high margin long-term contracts with little capex expenditure.

"GCIs Channel products are aimed at helping partners like Taylor Made increase ARPU and company valuation. We have spent millions on a robust network which means our partners don't have to and can concentrate their time on bringing on new customers."

Taylor Made's MD Tim Walker added: "Choosing the right technology partners for our business is an important part of maintaining our position and GCI ticked all the boxes."

Network solutions and virtual data services provider Fusion Media Networks and UK-based SIP carrier tIPicall have joined forces in a deal that gives tIPicall resellers direct access to Fusion's core Ethernet network infrastructure, which boasts more than 12,000 points of presence across millions of kilometres of fibre.

Fusion partners gain access to tIPicall's low cost SIP solution which combined with the Fusion network offers end-to-end QoS for voice and multi-media communications.

Steve Harrington, tIPicall's Sales Director, said: "Voice and collaboration solutions continue to evolve and the demand for reliable SIP connectivity has never been higher.

"The reach of Fusion's network means we can now extend our footprint in the UK and penetrate new markets."

The partnership comes six months after Fusion moved into Volta's Great Sutton Street data centre, the high specification, ultra-low latency facility located in central London.

Sean Pearman, Fusion's Channel Sales Manager, added: "Our investment in virtualisation and cloud services delivered from Volta's data centre has given our resellers the opportunity to tap into these profitable, recurring revenues. tIPicall partners can now take advantage of these services."

Pictured: Harrington (left) with Pearman at Fusion's private suite in Volta Great Sutton Street.