Broadband Connectivity

London’s Tube to get free Wi-Fi in time for Olympics

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Free Wi-Fi will be made available to London’s commuters in time for the Olympics. That is, when the Tube drivers aren’t on strike leaving half the network crippled for days at a time.

Everyone loves a freebie, especially if it comes in invisible wireless waves of Wi-Fi enjoyment. Thankfully for the typical grumpy Londoner, users of the Underground subway system will receive free Wi-Fi during July and August.

The catch? There isn’t one as it happens, with anyone able to use the free Wi-Fi during the Olympics and beyond, thanks to Virgin Media. If there were one, however, it would be that once the slightly later Paralympic Games are over, non-Virgin customers will be shuttered out.

London’s Tube to get free Wi-Fi in time for Olympics

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business telephone selection – services and hardware – get your office the service back up it requires

Be sure to select a communications provider that can provide your business with what it needs – not what they want to supply you.

A supplier should have a number of vendor and supply options.

 

Often we have been in competitive situations against a ‘One-man-band’ or ‘man-and-a-van’ whilst a customer may save £50-£100 with such an out fit, there are many downsides, we recommend you look for all these in any new comms provider.

1) Support – a depth of back office support, in telephony, adsl, and mobile technologies

2) A selection of vendor equipment (for features, look and feel, integration to other systems in the business)

3) A selection of Tier 1 network providers, with proper wholesale relationship to provide a higher level of service than if you were direct

If you are a small business looking to save money it may be a false economy to buy cheap today, but have to reinvest a year down the line if the cheap option purchased can’t handle voip or voicemail etc..

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Phone System for Logistics Company, using VOIP phones, SIP trunks and Softphones

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We thought we would outline a customer case study to show the power of a modern day Telephone system, in this case we outline how a Samsung telephone system enabled a modest logistics company punch above its weight and compete on a global stage, with true global scale.

The HQ of A Logistics is based in Essex and contains a small staff of 4 back office, operations and MD, the Samsung phone sytem is located here with a dedicated ADSL2+ connection for the voice to run SIP trunks over.

The encumbent analogue line number was ported over to the SIP trunks at the time of install. 4 VOIP extension phones were sent to Delhi, India – this is where the customer service calls are taken, so calls are made to the essex number and ring on the Delhi phones, if all the operators in Delhi are busy, the call can be grabbed by the Essex HQ.

The client also have a small office in Rotterdam and two further shipping agents (ie one man offices) in Vancouver and Toronto. Each of these three satalite offcies have an IP phone in place. This means any office can call another simply as an extension call, this means calls are not only free, but every user has access to teh features of the HQ Phone system, such as voicemail, comapny director, and of course can tell if a user in another country is busy or free.

As the MD is on the move and travelling alot mobile bills had become an acute problem. To solve this software was added to both the MD’s Lpatop and his mobile phone. A Samsung softphone was added to the MDs laptop, this gave him the full fucntionallity of a desk phone with programable keys for other users and fuctions such as conferencing – he can use the Laptop softphone in Airport lounges and Hotels as if he is in HQ, or indeed any of the 4 satalite offices. As an additial layer of communication a SIP phone licence was also added to his smartphone (firstly a windows mobile, later an android) this enabled him to take adhoc calls on the move on his mobile on the sip phone app (where wifi or 3g are available).

As a footnote if you are not roaming, domestic mobiles can be connected to the system as extensions with full PBX functionallity such as transfer, hold or conference.

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