Marconi, a global provider of advanced communications solutions, announced that an agreement with HighSpeed Office Ltd (HSO), will offer advanced telecommunications services to thousands of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) across the UK, with future potential across Europe.
HSO, which was founded by ARC Associates, is a broadband service provider that installs the latest telecommunications infrastructure in landlords’ buildings, offering a comprehensive range of communications services to tenants, including voice, high speed internet, secure email, video, web hosting and data services.
HSO wanted to work with a vendor who could provide a total solution to our needs, said Chris Butchers, Chief Executive of HSO. Marconi demonstrated that they could not only provide leading-edge broadband technology, but all the planning, implementation and network management services necessary to deploy successfully across a large number of commercial properties
A key factor in our decision was the support available from the Marconi Network Operation Centre (NOC), based in Liverpool, he added.
This initiative by HSO represents the first fully comprehensive approach to the provision of broadband services for SME tenants, in conjunction with a consortium of leading UK landlords. The consortium includes British Land, Canary Wharf, Legal & General, Morley Fund Management and the Prudential, which between them controls 60 million square feet in over 900 buildings in the UK.
Commenting on the agreement, Jeff Brooks, Chief Marketing Officer at Marconi said This demonstrates that our ‘Plan, Build and Operate’ strategy for products and services can meet the demanding needs of service providers and enterprise SME end-users, who ultimately benefit from our broadband solutions.
The SME segment is an essential element of the UK economy, and the availability of broadband communications is seen as a key enabler to their continued growth and success. High speed telecommunications have been widely adopted by larger organisations, but SME adoption has been hampered by lack of availability of cost-effective infrastructure.
According to Durlacher, 41% of UK SMEs (companies with less than 200 employees) still use modems for their Internet connections. Only 13% have leased line connectivity (Durlacher Quarterly Internet Report, August 2000). According to OFTEL, only 1% of UK SMEs have DSL connections (September 2000).
Marconi and HSO have initiated the planning process for the range of services, which will launch in June, followed by a rapid rollout across the UK.
