At Southern Communications, we will be rolling out EE 5G to our customers as it is rolled out across the UK, with the latest devices.

Is 5G much better than 4G?

It has been 10 years since 4G was released on mobiles across the world, making the Internet and connections far more accessible and speedier for users. Now 5G is being rolled out across the UK and the rest of the world and is expected to completely change the way we interact using mobiles, being up to 100x faster.

5G networks are being delivered by leading networks such as EE and will have a large impact on how businesses use mobile communications.

When will 5G roll out and who is providing coverage?

5G coverage has already started rolling out in the UK, with EE currently the main network providing 5G services. Over the course of 2020, EE are planning on providing 26 major cities with 5G coverage, with some cities already receiving coverage.

These include:

• London, England
• Edinburgh, Scotland
• Birmingham, England
• Belfast, Northern Ireland
• Manchester, England
• Cardiff, Wales
• Bristol, England
• Coventry, England
• Leicester, England

Mobile phone companies are also starting to roll out smartphones that are 5G ready. The latest phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S10 and the iPhone 11 Pro are already available.

Improved speed and connectivity – 100x faster

The main feature of the new 5G network is the speed and connectivity solutions, making it far more efficient for users. It’s predicted that speeds will be up to 100x faster than 4G, making connectivity almost instantaneous.

Low latency is the reason for faster connectivity and speeds on the 5G network. Latency refers to the time that passes between your device sending the information its looking for, until it has been transferred to the receiver.

These speeds will give users the ability to upload and download files instantly and watch an HD film immediately on your phone without waiting for it to download and buffer.

What are the main benefits for businesses?

Having business mobiles with a 5G connection will allow businesses to work even more efficiently and productively, providing better communications for both staff and clients.

Some of the main benefits to businesses include:

Fast uploads and downloads

Ability to upload and download files easily with better connectivity and faster speeds. Staff will be able to quickly and efficiently look at files on their mobile when out of the office. This flexibility means that your teams can work at anytime, giving customers a far better service, even when out of the office.

Clear and fast video calls and conferencing

Video calling will be clearer and faster. If you have clients all over the world that you have regular meetings with, or you just need to speak to your team back in the office, video calling will be far clearer and quicker. You will be able to easily communicate with and show others presentations without blurred communications that cut out. This will save a lot of time, prevent miscommunication and potentially help sales.

Better comms for out of office staff

You’ll notice better connectivity to those who are out of the office. If your business has regular home workers, such as customer service executives, it will make it far easier to keep in touch with them and for them to communicate with clients. Emails will be sent and received instantly, improving efficiencies in the workplace.

Get in touch with our expert team

If you would like to find out more about our business mobile services, visit our website, or get in touch on 01256 391 046.

SIP trunking and VoIP are two extremely popular choices of communication for businesses, however, it can be difficult to understand the differences between the two and which is the right choice for your company.

Our telecoms guide is a useful resource to start with, and below we go into detail about what exactly SIP and VoIP are, how they work and the main differences between them.  With over 40 years in telecoms, we’re in a position to provide you with the best solutions – just get in touch with your enquiry.

What is SIP?

SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) trunking is a method of communication that uses an Internet connection, to deliver voice rather than a traditional phone line. SIP allows users to communicate across the world using voice, data and video over a single connection.

It is a preferred method of communication by larger businesses as it is easily scalable and cost-effective. Delivering over SIP enables businesses to benefit from investment in large data connections as, using SIP, they also enable voice to be delivered over the internet (VoIP).

What is VoIP?

VoIP or Voice over Internet Protocol, is a term that refers to the transfer of voice communications over the Internet, rather than a traditional phone line. VoIP however, differently to SIP, is only able to initiate voice communications, not multimedia too.

VoIP tends to be used by small to medium-sized businesses, with a dedicated circuit for voice connectivity. VoIP is often used to support hosted telephony which is easy to budget for on a monthly basis at fixed costs over an agreed term.

Key differences

Whilst you may now understand what SIP and VoIP are, you may not know the exact differences between the two technologies. Below, we have put together some of the key differences, to help you understand which is the best option for your business.

How they work

Whilst they both use the internet to make phone calls, there is one main difference in the way that SIP trunks and VoIP work.

VoIP can only carry voice communications, so you can only make voice phone calls to other users, whereas SIP trunks can carry all forms of media, including video. This means you are able to have video calls with team members in other offices, or with clients.

Costs

There is one major difference in the costs associated with SIP trunks and VoIP that may impact your decision on which to choose.

VoIP tends to not have any upfront costs, whereas SIP trunking does have upfront costs associated with setting up the connection. For small businesses, these upfront costs may not be viable, so VoIP would be the best option.

Both options are cheap to upscale, adding extra bandwidth and SIP trunks being extremely cost-effective. VoIP is also great for budgeting, as each bill is the same each month, based on your initial connection choice with no surprise fees.

Upscaling

As stated above, upscaling is quick and easy on both options. Extra SIP trunks can be easily added or removed, depending on your staff levels. This means if a team member suddenly leaves or if you are experiencing rapid growth, you don’t need to worry about unused phone lines or waiting for new ones to be installed.

Who are they best for?

VoIP tends to be preferable to smaller and medium-sized businesses, this is because it can be supplied as part of a hosted telephony solution which offers predictable monthly billing that is easy to budget for with minimal upfront costs and easy scalibility.

SIP trunking is usually favoured by larger businesses, this is because it can easily deal with large communications, especially multimedia and can share the same connections as data traffic, with rules applied to ensure voice quality. Smaller companies tend not to prefer SIP trunks as they can be quite difficult to manage as they often do not have the IT departments and resources to manage the connections.

ISDN switch off

In 2027, the ISDN network is going to be switched off. This means that anyone on an existing ISDN network will need to find alternative communications, with SIP trunking and VoIP to support hosted solutions being the two main alternatives available to businesses.

In April 2017, BT Openreach announced that they will be switching off their existing ISDN network in 2027 (and will no longer have ISDN lines available for purchase from 2020), as they focus on a single IP network. ISDN stands for Integrated Services Digital Network and provides a high quality voice circuit with the ability to add features such as DDI services that are not available on analogue lines.

As a result, businesses will need to look to alternatives for their communications – keeping personalised numbers, managing a high number of concurrent calls, audio conferencing – and many see the switch as an opportunity to improve their telephone systems and even save money.

The two natural alternatives to ISDN are SIP Trunks and Hosted VoIP systems, both of which are advanced telephony options already used by small, medium and large businesses. Southern Communications offer an ISDN replacement service and can advise businesses on the best upgrade options, on a bespoke basis, based on your current infrastructure.

To help you know your options, what do SIP and VOIP mean and which is right for your business?

What is SIP?

SIP stands for Session Initiation Protocol and enables voice to be carried over the internet, rather than a traditional phone line. SIP is set-up and uses SIP trunks to enable voice traffic to be sent over a data connection without loss of quality .

To use SIP, a business is assigned a virtual SIP address and will access the system with handsets and other internet enabled devices. Once you’re using SIP, new channels can be created and removed at any time to meet demands and reflect your capacity or seasonal trends.

Main benefits include:

• Affordable monthly rental costs
• High definition voice quality
• Number of lines based on users
• Ideal for office moves/relocation

What is VoIP?

VoIP is Voice over Internet Protocol and can be accessed using SIP Trunks on an on premise system or via a cloud based hosted telephony system, where your telecommunication system is hosted off-site, rather than in your office. As it’s all in the cloud, the system is maintained by a telecoms provider, updates are carried out for your and the system can be accessed using multiple devices, such as smartphones and tablets.

It’s already a very popular alternative to ISDN and once on VoIP, your communications are future proofed.

Main benefits include:

• Cost savings over ISDN
• Advanced telephony features
• Scalability and flexibility

SIP vs VoIP

Both SIP and VoIP are ideal alternatives to ISDN and will upgrade your telephony system to be flexible, advanced and more cost-effective.

As both can be tailored to your usage, you don’t need to pay for more than you need or use – which is why it’s a good financial decision to switch before 2027 as you will benefit from cost savings for an additional seven years.

As both SIP and Hosted VoIP systems work for small, medium and large businesses, it will depend on your specific setup, budget, and needs. Here is an overview comparison of the two:

Consideration	SIP	VoIP
On premise?	Requires an on premise system	Can be used as on premise or a hosted system
Expenditure	Capex expenditure (upfront)	Opex expenditure (monthly subscription)
Maintenance	Ongoing maintenance	Maintenance included in monthly fee
Upgrades	Not included	Included
Training	May be an extra charge depending on your provider	May be an extra charge depending on your provider
Expansion	May be costly	No upfront cost
Pros	– Free internal calls – Simple process to add or remove SIP trunks – Secure connection – Add further UK numbers at any time – Great return on investment – Advanced features – Ideal for multi locations	– Does not require a dedicated staff member onsite – Provider handles installation and upgrades – Secure connection – Add further UK numbers at any time – Easy and fast enhanced features – Simple relocation process – Advanced features – Ideal for multi locations
Cons	– Loss of Internet results in loss of phone service (can go to voicemail or routed to mobile) – Will require a maintenance contract – Cancellation fees may occur	– Voice quality relies on Internet connection – Loss of Internet results in loss of phone service (can go to voicemail or routed to mobile) – Cancellation fees may occur

SIP would be the best option if:

• Your preference is upfront cost
• You don’t expect your telecoms requirements to change over the years
• You have a lot of users on just one site
• You like to keep in house resource to maintain your telephone systems

VoIP would be the best option if:

• You do not want to incur high upfront costs
• You do not have additional IT resource to manage the system
• You have remote offices and mobile workers
• You’re a small or medium sized business

Get in touch

If you would like to find out more about the best option for your business, or would like to discuss your requirements, give our team a call on 01256 391 046 and we would be happy to help you.

Businesses and organisations are likely to be aware of online fraud, but are less informed about the risks surrounding telephone fraud. Essentially, at any time fraudsters may attempt to hack into your telephone systems to make a high volume of high-cost calls to obscure locations for large financial gains.

Typically, experienced hackers will attack Private Branch Exchange systems remotely during the night and out-of-hours, when staff are most likely to be unavailable to check the system and respond. This affects a wide range of sectors, from schools to charities and hotels and retail.

The high cost of telephone fraud

Unfortunately, this type of fraud costs businesses millions of pounds a year and the cost can even force companies to close down; for a small to medium company spending £200 a month on their telephone system, an unexpected attack costing thousands can make them financially vulnerable.

Without the right protections in place, it can be surprisingly easy to become a victim of telephone fraud; cloud-based systems are at risk the same as traditional PBX set-ups.

How can you protect yourself from this type of fraud?

• Ensure adequate firewalls are in place
• Use secure password protection (never the default)
• Regularly update passwords
• Bar unnecessary phone numbers
• Look out for unusual activity

It’s vital that businesses protect themselves from attack by choosing telephony systems with built-in protection. A provider should be able to detail the  firewalls in place and the system should be password protected.

Additionally, restrictions on the system, such as barring unnecessary international numbers, out of hours calls and access to your voicemail system from external phones are essential. It’s also recommended that companies set-up voicemail passwords (never use the default) as this is a common route for attackers to enter a system. These passwords should also be changed regularly. Such a proactive approach should limit the ‘worst case scenario’ should a hacker successfully attack.

Unusual call activity can be a change in the patterns you typically see, such as a sharp increase in outgoing calls during off-peak hours.

Our message to businesses is to be proactive and aware of the dangers. Making and receiving calls is a key business component to success and customer service, so it’s important that it’s a top priority to keep them secure.

As added protection, our customers benefit from, VoiceSafe, which will credit the cost of  fraudulent calls up to an agreed amount.  A real help to fraud victims hit with unexpected costs. In the situation where a company is attacked without a service like VoiceSafe, the responsibility of paying for the calls sits with the business that has been hit by the fraud.

Read our case study with the BWI Group to see how we saved them over £5,000 of costs from PBX fraud.

Check your current security

If you believe your telephone system – either a PBX, IP or hosted system – is vulnerable to attack and is missing the necessary protections available, it’s important to take action quickly to protect your business. Any form of hack can be disruptive to productivity as well as to your finances.

As a general rule, implement a frequent review of call logs and call reporting to assess that calls are genuine and ask your provider to let you know when updates to security features occur. Updates are able to further secure your system from the developing threat from hackers who will be looking to advance their methods and success rates.

Contact us for solutions

Any concerned business can contact Southern Communications for a review of their security measures. Solutions from a review can include updated software and hardware, as well as proactive monitoring practices. These can be cost effective in the long term and if possible, it’s worth seriously considering financial insurance to minimise the economic strain should the worst happen.

BASINGSTOKE, UK – Business-to-business communications specialist, Southern Communications Ltd, will join Fitbit as a major sponsor for Francis Benali’s latest challenge in support of Cancer Research.

Francis Benali announced his latest challenge to complete 7 Triathlons in 7 days, in Southampton, home of Saints FC where he was a respected player for 20 years. The challenge will see Francis, affectionally known as Franny, travel the UK, stopping along the route, completing a 26.2mile run, 112 mile bike ride and a 2.4mile swim each day. The challenge known as “Iron Fran”, will take place 29th April – 5th May 2019, with stops across the country from Manchester to Southampton.

Southern Communications, previous sponsors of Benali’s Big Race, have taken on the supporting role once again in this epic challenge to raise funds for Cancer Research.

Paul Bradford, Southern Communications CEO, said: “We are delighted to be sponsoring such a fantastic challenge and supporting all the wonderful work that Cancer Research do. It is a charity close to many of our hearts and we have absolute admiration of Franny and the commitment he is making.”

About Southern Communications

Established in 1965, Southern Communications is one of the oldest telecoms companies in the UK. Since 1995, led by Paul Bradford (CEO) and supported by a dynamic management team, the business has grown from a turnover of just £4.3m in 2006/7 to £43million 2017/18.

Today, Southern Communications is a Tier 2 ISP, supplying communications products and services, including telephony and cloud computing, to SME customers. The company employs more than 250 staff in a range of disciplines from engineers and sales to customer services and accounts.

Website: scgconnected.britwebtest.co.uk
Address: Glebe Farm, Down Street, Dummer RG25 2AD

About Francis Benali:

Francis Benali started his football career with Southampton training team at the age of 13 and signed as an apprentice to the club at 16. He turned professional at 18 and enjoyed a further 20years playing for Saints before retiring. On retiring from professional football his drive to achieve has continued and he is now undertaking his third big charity push for Cancer Research. This follows two previous challenges. Benalis Big Race in 2016 and Benalis Big Run in 2014.

For further information please contact:
Sue Michaelwaite
Marketing Manager
DDI – 01256 391 081
E: suem@southern-comms.co.uk

Cloud environments, are a fantastic way for businesses to manage their business applications on virtual servers, removing the need for costly on-site servers, which need regular maintenance and a controlled environment.

The benefits of Cloud Technology

Migrating to the cloud may seem like a difficult process, but it is one that we have simplified meaning your small, medium or large business can benefit quickly and easily from making the switch.

For most businesses, the benefits of being on the cloud make it incredibly appealing. Here are some of the improvements you can expect:

High quality and flexible communications

• Accessible from anywhere, anytime of year (including the holidays)
• Easy to add and remove users

Fully managed by your provider

• Reduce the strain on your team

Opex model

• Only pay for what you need

Future-proofed and ready for expansion

• Be set for business growth

Resilient, secure and backed-up

• Never lose work again
• Built in business continuity

The process of migration

To obtain the benefits of using better technology, we migrate your business over after stages of planning and assessment to ensure minimal disruption to your productivity. As we’ve completed numerous migrations, you have peace of mind that our data will be secure and that you will have as much control as you wish and peace of mind.

Training

Once we understand the critical data and applications being migrated, we work with you to transition them.

Creating a cloud environment

The cloud system itself will be flexible and created for your business, based on your needs and the solutions we have discussed with you. Our expert technical specialists have years of experience in migration and will be able to answer questions every step of the way.

On going support

Once you have migrated to the cloud the data centre teams take care of the environment, with 24/7/365 monitoring and depending our your requirements, we can offer access to authorised users or carry out maintenance on your behalf to allow you to focus on your most important business goals and being productive.

Hybrid cloud solutions

Not sure you want all of your applications based in a cloud environment? We also offer hybrid cloud solutions, whereby some applications  can be migrated to the cloud, whilst others  stay on-site.

This solution works well as both a permanent setup for your business, or as a pathway into a full cloud environment. This again is very flexible and created to maximise the benefits to your working environment.

Is cloud computing right for your business?

Cloud technology is ideal for most businesses, small, medium, large, local and international, due to the fact it’s flexible, reliable and secure.

It’s scalability is definitely a factor in migrating to the cloud for companies who have plans to expand in the future, and removing the servers and maintenance responsibility to a provider saves key members of staff time to concentrate on other factors.

Find out more about a hybrid cloud environment and see if it’s right for your business, or get in touch with us today.

Make an enquiry

If you’re looking to migrate your business to the cloud, either to a full cloud environment or a hybrid solution, get in touch with our team to discuss your requirements.

Call us on 01256 391 046, or email our team on sales@southern-comms.co.uk for more information.