2018: The year in review

2018: The year in review

19 December 2018

[caption id="attachment_85" align="alignleft" width="128"]Elsa Chen, CEO Elsa Chen, CEO[/caption] As 2018 draws to a close, we reflect on what has been an exciting year for Entanet and take a look back at the highlights that we’ve put into the spotlight. Some of the key topics we’ve covered throughout the year include our compelling full fibre message which we’ve taken on the road through our ‘Shaping Britain’s Full Fibre Future’ roadshows and the launch of our exciting THRIVE! partner programme. We’ve also had our finger on the legal pulse as we scrutinised the impact on the channel of the Investigatory Powers Act (IPA) and of course...GDPR! We would like to say a massive thank you for keeping up with our opinion blog throughout 2018. We hope you enjoy your Christmas break and look forward to your continued comments and feedback in 2019! Taking our full fibre message across the UK From Edinburgh to Southend we’ve hit the road to promote our powerful full fibre message throughout 2018 through our ‘Shaping Britain’s Full Fibre Future’ roadshows. Almost 100 channel partners have engaged with us at our events so far to learn about the scale of opportunity that CityFibre’s full fibre connectivity offers and how initiatives like the Government’s Gigabit Voucher Scheme can help them win business fast. We have even more events lined up in 2019 so visit http://get.enta.net/roadshows to find out more and register your interest. In September we also took our call to arms for the channel to ‘Fibre Up!’ to Channel Live at the NEC in Birmingham. Channel Live proved the perfect opportunity not only to showcase our full fibre products but, importantly, help partners understand the critical role they play in securing the UK’s digital success and how Entanet can help them unlock the opportunities that come as a result. Predictions: As the Digital Britain agenda continues to pick up the pace, we expect to see even greater demand for information on the differentiation that Entanet, as part of CityFibre, will bring to channel partners’ propositions to customers across the UK. Related articles: Click the links below to continue reading the rest of the article. Changes to the legal landscape This year has seen a wave of legislative changes which impact on our sector, from the courtroom wranglings over the controversial Investigatory Powers Act (IPA) to the introduction of GDPR. Cityfibre also launched a major challenge to the false advertising of copper as fibre through its clever Coppersaurus campaign (see www.coppersaurus.com). At this point there have already been 330,000 site visits,1 million video views and over 5,500 signatories supporting the campaign. We’re currently waiting for judgement from the court case that took place mid December, which is likely to be during mid January 2019. Keep your eyes open for updates! Predictions: With the Government and Ofcom in agreement that full fibre is the future, we expect even more support for the roll out of full fibre infrastructure across the UK in order to meet the ambitious target of connecting 15 million premises to full fibre services by 2025. There is also likely to be much more to play out in the courts regarding the Investigatory Powers Act, including a judicial review of the legislation following a legal case brought forward by the human rights organisation Liberty. Related articles: Hosted Voice - a ready replacement for traditional voice comms The announcement that BT will be switching off all PSTN and ISDN networks by 2025 represents a huge opportunity for partners offering innovative IP voice solutions such as Entanet’s Hosted Voice product which was launched early in 2018. Although 2025 seems a way off, with around 2.1 million ISDN30 channels and 0.87 million ISDN2 business channels currently in use in the UK, now really is the perfect time for the channel to be prepared to advise and help their customers. Predictions: As the switch off date gets closer, more businesses will be looking for voice solutions which have the flexibility and functionality to meet their needs. We expect the PSTN and ISDN replacement message to gather pace in 2019 and urge partners to talk to customers about the simple next steps they need to take. Related articles: Creating a culture of continuous improvement We know that the skill and expertise of our staff is vital to Entanet’s success and as we scale up our operations to meet the growing demands of a Digital Britain in 2018, we’ve offered some insight into how our apprenticeship scheme, CSR activity and investment in staff development are all helping us to build on our well established reputation for delivering a quality, personalised customer service. Predictions: Having just moved into bigger and better offices in Telford we’re in a great position to continue our growth and invest further in our people to deliver the high-quality service our partners expect. Related articles: THRIVE! with our partner programme With the launch of our new ‘THRIVE!’ partner programme in July this year, we are able to offer support to partners across our business. This includes access to the synergi portal enabling them to place and view orders at any time and from anywhere; continued provision of 24/7 UK based technical support; and a named account manager and provisioning contact for all Ethernet installations. We’ve also added a wealth of marketing resources to the synergi Knowledge Base that partners can utilise to market the benefits of full fibre to customers. If you’ve not yet looked at what’s available, take a moment now to visit the marketing categories in synergi > Community > Knowledge Base. Predictions: We’re keen to take forward thinking and success hungry partners with us on our exciting full fibre journey and we’ll continue to develop our THRIVE! partner programme to provide our partners with the service, reliability, expertise and creativity they need to make a real difference to their customers. Make sure you see what’s available and also talk to your account manager. Related articles: Seizing the full fibre opportunity With the demands of a modern digital economy increasingly driven by the need for fast, safe and resilient connectivity, we’ve offered insight into how we can support partners with highly profitable PWAN solutions for their customers, enabling them to link multiple sites to transfer data and voice traffic on their own private corporate network, which includes firewalls and hosting and which is underpinned by ultrafast full fibre technology. Predictions: As the race to fibre up the UK gathers pace, it's clear that 2019 presents an incredible opportunity for forward thinking partners to adapt their business model so they capitalise on where full fibre infrastructure exists rather than waiting for full fibre to come to where they currently sell. Those that seize first mover advantage will seize the lion’s share of this lucrative and ready market! Related articles: The Digital Revolution - What’s to come? Undoubtedly 2018 has been a year of digital transformation revolution! As markets become progressively ambitious, it’s never been more important to have the right connectivity. A business’ connectivity must meet its immediate needs as well as offering the flexibility to accommodate future change. It’s about balancing the need for connection speed and guarantee of service with available budget and timescales needed to get up and running. CityFibre recently announced a £2.5bn investment plan to expand its full fibre network and unlock the UK’s next generation broadband, meaning that five million premises are set to benefit from full fibre broadband meeting a third of the Government’s 2025 target. Predictions: Full fibre networks will continue to be rolled out into more and more cities across the UK, bringing brand new, next generation connectivity to homes and businesses. CityFibre’s £2.5bn investment plan announcement and Entanet’s role working with the channel to deliver it each represent unmatched opportunity for our partners to identify and secure long term connectivity business in towns and cities across the UK. We’re expecting to see a step change in partners’ marketing and sales activities in 2019 and encourage you to be a part of it. Related articles: We thank you for continuing to support the Opinion blog, we will continue to bring you further updates on all of the above topics and anything new that arises throughout 2019. We hope you have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Related articles:

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