Comms Dealer

The number of VoLTE connections will grow to 3.33 billion by 2021, according to the latest research from Ovum.

VoLTE currently stands at just 324 million connections, but by 2021 the technology will have penetrated 53% of total cellular subscriptions worldwide.

Ovum has found that operators are strengthening their commitment to roll-out VoLTE services in the efforts to reduce costs and are being encouraged by a growing number of compatible devices and successful VoLTE service launches by competitors.

According to Ovum, the main reason driving growth of VoLTE services will be the need for operators to reduce costs, moving services from voice to mobile broadband.

In the near term, the rapidly-increasing availability of standardised VoLTE devices will drive growth, while successful VoLTE service launches, such as by EE in summer this year, are already demonstrating clear operator benefits that that are encouraging other mobile operators to commit and launch their own services.

"The main reason operators are strengthening their commitment to roll-out VoLTE today is for cost reduction," says Craig Skinner, Principal Analyst at Ovum.

"The better spectral efficiency of moving voice to VoLTE allows spectrum to be re-purposed for mobile broadband. Longer-term, there is the potential to shut down legacy 2G/3G networks and simplify the network."

Adrian Barnard has stepped down as CEO of The Change Organisation after successfully completing his brief in just three financial quarters.

He joined The Change in May 2016 with a brief to increase sales margins and re-shape the sales structure of the company.

The move allows Barnard to focus on new projects, including a comms industry venture launching in the coming months and a new business in legal sector.

Chairman and founder of The Change, Graham Burns, said: "We appreciate greatly what Adrian has done for the Change during his tenure as CEO.

"We shall miss his energy, commercial experience and invaluable insights on the ICT industry."

Barnard added: "I've learnt a lot about a new area in the technology sector and I'm heartened that I've been able to make positive changes and deliver value."

Telecoms World has pledged its support for Kent-based Demelza Hospice Care for Children in 2017 with an initial donation of £500. Donations are expected to multiply during the year with a series of fund raising activities and events.

"Funding enables Demelza to provide expert and compassionate care to seriously ill babies, children and young people and their families when they need it the most, enabling families to stay and play together, creating precious moments and happy memories," said MD Neil Barrall.

Nimans' Network Services chief Mark Curtis-Wood has spilled the beans on a trio of industry talking points residing at the forefront of his mind that, he says, will dominate the channel agenda this year.

Fixed Mobile Convergence, he says, has 'finally come of age' while the IoT and mobile data are not far behind.

On FMC he said: "One of the biggest conversations during 2017 is around FMC which is about to hit a key tipping point.

"It's now being driven by operators that see an opportunity to get the upper hand by leveraging an asset (fixed or mobile network) that other competitors don't have.

"Part of our strategy this year is to give resellers choice by leveraging FMC through technology rather than assets - so that they are not just going direct to a single carrier, but using an aggregator for much wider choice to help them adopt and evolve their own businesses at their own pace.

"For example, they can take a PBX solution from Nimans - along with hosted services and FMC from multiple different network vendors."

Cloud firm Intermedia has pledged greater channel support via a new sales organisation structure headed up by newly appointed business leaders.

Eric Martorano, the incoming SVP of Worldwide Sales (who moved from Microsoft), said: "Now is the time to bring on additional experience and talent to expand our go-to-market capabilities."
 
Intermedia CEO Michael Gold commented: "Under Eric's leadership we've begun to scale our channel business at an accelerated rate."
 
Intermedia has upped its investment in most sales functions, explained Martorano. "Partners want more enablement and support, so we've added that, He stated.

"They wanted more engagement from their account managers, so we have made it possible for our sales team to engage more deeply by decreasing the number of partners managed by each representative."

In the UK, Intermedia has hired a new Vice President of Worldwide Field Channel Sales & Distribution, Eric Roach, who brings 20 years channel experience, most recently working in Microsoft's worldwide SMB sales team. 

"As we increase our investments in the UK market and focus our efforts more on the UK channel community, Eric plays an important role in my leadership team."

Comms and IT industry footballers from all over the UK will get the chance to show their skills at the Comms Dealer national five-a-side football tournament which returns this spring.

Once again sponsored by Nine Wholesale, the legendary tournament will take place on April 27th at the Goals Soccer venue in Leicester and all the proceeds will go to children's charity Sparks, which now has a close tie up with the famous Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.

"Nine are kindly funding the venue, the referees, trophies and post tournament refreshments so all we need now is teams to raise a bumper sum for Sparks!" said Comms Dealer Editorial Director Nigel Sergent.

"We used to run the event in September, but it's such a busy time of the year after the summer holidays we have decided to move it to the spring to encourage more teams to enter. It's a great event and has been much enjoyed by industry teams in the past so we're aiming to get our best ever turn out."

Team places are priced at £295 per team and £500 for two. To register go to: http://www.sparks.org.uk/event/comms-dealer-5aside-football/

Pictured above: The Nine Group team 

Microsoft has awarded TeleWare Gold Cloud Platform competency in recognition of big strides made towards pure cloud comms.

The upgrade from Silver status follows TeleWare's achievement in recording and analysing a call made completely through the Microsoft Azure platform, a world first.

Another world first was achieved when TeleWare completely migrated fixed line recording to the cloud.

TeleWare CEO Steve Haworth said: "We have worked closely with Microsoft for many years and have gained a range of Gold and Silver competencies.

"This is essential as it forms part of our strategic plan to demonstrate our leadership position in cloud communications."

Storage infrastructure and security company MTI is under new ownership following its acquisition by ex-owner of Trustmarque Endless. The EMC partner boasts £70m turnover and was sold by US-based private equity firm Garnet and Helfrich Capital for an undisclosed sum.

MTI is headquartered in Godalming and operates mainly in the UK, Germany and France. Its services include on-site and cloud-based storage, security solutions and IaaS. 

MTI CEO Keith Clark said: "Endless' ownership of MTI Europe will allow the business to grow organically and through further acquisitions over the coming months."

Ed Ransome, Investment Director at Endless who led the transaction, commented: "Endless has a strong appetite to invest in profitable businesses which operate across Europe. 

"MTI has generated strong profits for many years and we will support Mike and his team in taking the business to a new era of growth through both organic means and from pursuing add-ons."

"While Brexit has brought uncertainty to investors and owners of UK companies, we continue to pursue overlooked assets which possess underlying, latent value. 

"We believe there will be significant opportunities for us to invest further in such businesses in 2017."

The deal is Endless' eighth investment from its £525m Fund IV and follows the exits of Trustmarque, Liberata, Chaucer Foods and West Cornwall Pasty Company.

Gamma leaders and partners are set to take centre stage at the comms provider's theatre themed 2017 roadshow which rolls out under the banner 'Much Ado About Gamma'.

Previous themed roadshows have been hosted in stately homes, museums, universities and castles. This year's events will be staged at the Theatre Royal in Glasgow (28th February), The Lowry in Manchester (1st March), The Hippodrome in Birmingham (7th March) and London's The Barbican (8th March).

Gamma MD Daryl Pile said: "Feedback from our partners plays a vital role in helping us remain ahead of the curve and shape our roadmap specifically for the channel." Our annual roadshow gives us a unique opportunity to spend time and catch up with our channel partners."

http://content.gamma.co.uk/gamma-roadshow-2017

Distributor DMSL has signed 50-plus Vonage resellers in four months in a recruitment drive that's set to accelerate this year.

DMSL linked up with the cloud VoIP provider in September and set about building a network of resellers to push sales of B2B hosted voice services primarily in the small business sector. The company hopes to enlist up to 100 additional resellers in 2017.
 
"We need more resellers to fully exploit the potential," said DMSL MD John Carter. "Interest in VoIP is soaring, so now is the right time to get on board and grasp the opportunity."