Voice

Is your phone system ready for 2020…?

6th January 2020 by Kelly Green

Technology NEVER stands still and the telecommunications industry is no different...

Traditional telephony delivered via the ISDN network, whilst still functional, is no longer the most reliable and cost-effective solution. It dates back to the late 1980’s and since then we’ve seen many changes in the working world;

Remote working, flexible working and hot-desking
Reliance on both fixed line and mobile telephony
Driving cost efficiencies through financially uncertain times
Business continuity and disaster recovery plans commonplace for all

ISDN can struggle to keep up with the agility required by today’s fast-moving businesses. Scalability can be slow and expensive, plus managing across multiple sites can be difficult.

In many ways, using ISDN is like driving a classic sports car;

The car represented cutting-edge technology when it was launched, however these days, it’s not as efficient as its modern counterparts. The cost to keep the classic car running is much higher than the modern car, it’s less reliable, issues take longer to resolve and it may no longer meet you basic needs.

So it’s no surprise that there are now more economical, resilient and productivity enhancing options available!

It has also been widely reported that BT Openreach are phasing out ISDN over the coming few years with final switch off scheduled for 2025.

If your organisation is still using ISDN, now is the time to start thinking about how to future-proof your business telephony. But there’s no need to panic, there are plenty of cost-effective solutions available to you and we’re here to help you identify which is the most suited to your individual business.

London set to outgrow area code – again!

7th October 2019 by Kelly Green

As London continues to grow with new offices and homes, the demand for new landline phone numbers has grown rapidly. The city’s current dialling code is 020 and, across the (020) 3, 7 and 8 ranges, there are 30 million phone numbers.

Across all three ranges, there are fewer than a million numbers left to be handed out and London grows so quickly that, on average, Ofcom distributes 30’000 new numbers a week.

To help cope with the demand for new numbers, Ofcom have introduced a new range, ‘(020) 4’, which contains 10 million new numbers. Applications for the new numbers by telecoms companies began on the 1st of October and we can expect new ‘(020) 4’ numbers to be allocated in December.

London Numbers: History

The area codes for London have changed on quite a few occasions in the past, all to try and accommodate the growth in demand for landline numbers.

London was allocated the ‘01’ code in 1958. This area code would cover 10 million numbers and lasted until 1990, where the code was split. Inner London numbers became ‘071’ and outer London became ‘081’. As part of a change across the UK in 1995, all area codes gained a 1, so these numbers became ‘0171’ and ‘0181’. The day this occurred is commonly known as “PhONEday”.

However, the “Big Number Change” happened in 2000 and all UK phone numbers were reorganised to allow for more numbers to be created. This meant that London went back to a single area code of ‘020’ and the divide between inner and outer London was removed – instead being replaced with ‘(020) 7’ and ‘(020) 8’ numbers.

In 2005, Ofcom did some research in London regarding the split area codes and found that only a small minority of Londoners could correctly identify London’s single area code of '020' (13%).

In the same year, Ofcom released a new set of ‘(020) 3’ numbers to telecoms providers in blocks of 10’000 each. The amount of numbers available was 10 million and by 2019, these numbers have nearly all been allocated, resulting in the need for the new ‘(020) 4’ numbers.

Below is a graphic from Ofcom to illustrate London’s landline allocation timeline:

The history of landline number allocation in London (Picture: Ofcom)

With London still continuing to grow at even faster speeds, how long will it be before a new set of numbers is needed?

The Decline in Landlines…

25th January 2019 by admin

Landline phones have arguably been one of the most vital forms of communication for businesses and homes for decades!

However, as we continue to move towards internet-based solutions and we start to have a more mobile working lifestyle, landlines are becoming less and less important.

Ofcom recently published the results to a study they’d carried out; it focused on landline and mobile minutes as well as mobile data usage.

In 2012, there were 103 billion UK landline minutes compared to 54 billion minutes in 2017. It still sounds like a lot of minutes are being used, but in 5 years the number of minutes being used has halved across the UK!

On the other hand, mobile minutes have grown from 132.1 billion to 148.6 billion in the same 5 years. On top of this, the average monthly mobile data usage grew from just 0.2GB to 1.9GB!

Is it time to wave goodbye to area codes?

Did you know there are 1.3 billion landline numbers in the UK and around 610 different area codes?

Ofcom also used this study as an opportunity to see what younger generations think to using a traditional landline numbers and Ofcom found that younger generations are much less bothered about area codes and their use.

Often, calls from numbers with an area code that’s unrecognised are mistaken for nuisance callers or call centres.

Area codes are now starting to become redundant with the internet-based solutions we now work with and the flexible lifestyles we have.

VoIP systems allow people to have a central number that can be used both in the office and on the go! As the number no longer needs to be tied to a specific location in the country, is an area code it needed anymore?

If you want to find out more about what VoIP is and some potential benefits, you can click here!

Horizon Service Outage

15th November 2018 by admin

Yesterday Horizon users experienced a severe service outage.

Firstly and foremost we want to sincerely apologise for the disruption this caused to you, our customers.

GAMMA Horizon’s Andy Morris (COO) issued the following statement;

“We fully recognise the critical nature that communications play in the day-to-day operation of an organisation, however large or small. Wednesday’s issue was an extraordinary event and in no way represents our historical performance.”

Here at Boxx we live and breathe this product, so experienced the same frustrations yesterday. However, Horizon is still a product we firmly believe in.

We choose to work with GAMMA over and above other hosted telephony suppliers because of their commitment to and continued investment into their network. On this occasion the issue was unprecedented and appears to be related to a software bug. In over 7 years, this is the first time an issue like this has occurred, which is an outstanding record of resilience.

In saying the above, we do not underestimate the severity & impact on your business. We absolutely respect the critical nature and all of our staff have been committed to dealing with the situation.

This morning we were invited to attend a webinar with GAMMA, who have been very open & forthcoming about what caused the problems yesterday.

Andy Morris reassured us with these comments;

“The underlying root cause is fully understood and we have no reason to believe we will not be able to continue to support the high levels of service you rightfully expect.”

We of course understand that it was an incredible difficult time yesterday and feedback provided to us this morning by some of our customers indicates that we could have communicated with you better.

A situation like this brings spotlight to disaster recovery plans and we now intend to revisit our own processes, so that we are able to provide information to our customers more quickly.

We would also recommend that all businesses review their own contingency plans – covering all business functions, including telecommunications. Account managers here will be to looking to discuss your telephony disaster recovery plans with you in the coming weeks.

Dean Burgin
Director – Boxx Communications

Horizon and a Mobile Working Lifestyle!

14th September 2018 by admin

In 2015, a survey involving 1000 IT decision makers from Europe & the US found that 13% of employees work from home most, if not all the time, with many other employees being workers on-the-go or office workers who occasionally work from home.

Work has now become an activity that we do, not a place that we go!

Hosted VoIP (Voice over IP) is a telephony solution that is taking over the workplace (whether in the office or based at home) to support the growing trend for home and flexible working. Our Horizon solution is a complete communications service that provides an extensive range of fixed and mobile telephony capabilities.

One of the major features of Horizon, the hosted VoIP solution, is its ability to make your work far more mobile.

How it works;

Hosted telephony is delivered over the internet and provides a range of fixed and mobile telephony capabilities via an easy to use web portal.

What it offers;

Greater Flexibility – Horizon’s mobile app improves interoperability between mobile and fixed phones to ensure you never miss a call, wherever you happen to be, and no-one will even know if you’re working away from the office. In fact, you don’t even need to have a physical handset. A headset connected to your laptop may be all the hardware you need, without compromising on functionality.

Work Smarter – From in-depth call reporting and wallboard integration to a whole host of inbound call management features such as ‘call forwarding’ and ‘do not disturb’, Horizon’s desktop portal will improve your organisation’s productivity.

Scalability – Horizon is suitable for any sized business and is particularly effective if you have multiple sites working together. It works on a licence basis, which can easily be increased as your business grows or decreased if required.

Improve Customer Service – Enhance the service you can provide to your customers with dynamic call handling, pre-recorded messages and seamless transfers at the touch of a button.

Save Money – With minimal capital outlay, no hardware maintenance costs and competitive call rates, you can reduce your telecommunication costs with Horizon.

What next;

In summary, it’s not difficult to adjust to a mobile working lifestyle and Horizon could be crucial in helping that happen as well as improving the efficiency of your business.

Want to learn more about VoIP and how Horizon works? Get in contact with us: 01908 350795.

New Year’s plans

31st January 2018 by admin

Here at Boxx we like to stay transparent and keep you up to date with the latest news both in and out the office…

That’s why we want to share our plans for 2018 with you – a bit late we know, but what better time than the present to ready you for the year ahead, hey?!

Our first objective is to prepare everyone for the future disconnection of traditional ISDN (and PSTN) phone lines, by bringing our future-proof telecoms solutions to you.

These are a variety of IP (internet protocol) telephony products which use the internet to host calls, as opposed to a traditional landline. These include SIP Trunking, On-premise VoIP and Hosted VoIP.

If you’re worried about losing your number during the change, there’s no need – in fact one number can be attributed to multiple handsets. Handsets can include your mobile: with our Horizon voice app which pairs your landline with your mobile, making sure no call is missed when you’re out the office.

As well as the added flexibility, VoIP will save you money on calls while presenting the opportunity to add call-management features such as; an auto-attendant, music-on-hold, or a tailored voice-over.

Secondly, as we look to improve our call-management features, we’re introducing our very own, professional, voice-over and music-on-hold. To see the full potential of this service – check out our specially dedicated blog so that you know exactly what you’re getting!

As we look to improve your phone services it’s only right that we improve internet connectivity too!
That’s why we’re proud to be offer 1Gbps (1000Mbps) up and down in certain locations across the UK. This is ideal for businesses with extensive phone systems or just a high internet usage.

If 1Gb sounds a bit excessive but you like the idea – don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! We have a vast range of FTTP, FTTC and EFM connections ranging from 10 Mb to 1000Mb upload and download speeds. We have no doubt that we have the perfect solution for your business!

Finally, following our office move we’re determined to maximise the potential of our new work environment by migrating towards a hot desk layout and totally flexible working plan. The first step has been the employment of Microsoft Office 365 alongside our pre-existing VoIP system which allows us to bounce calls round the office at the push of a button. The benefits – a more collaborative workforce!

If this sounds like something that you’d like to implement within your business then please, feel free to get in touch and we’ll help you on the way.

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