2025 Big Switch Off Get ahead of the great migration COVER STORY technologyreseller.co.uk 19 To give customers reassurance when migrating their existing telephone lines and systems to Voice over IP (VoIP), Spitfire has a range of fibre broadband and Ethernet circuits that are Voice-approved and come with Service Level Agreements (SLAs) guaranteeing things like latency. This is very important when using data circuits for voice, as VoIP is highly sensitive to any delay in transmission. Customers can be confident that Spitfire will consider the needs of both voice and data when deciding on the most suitable option for a new fibre connectivity circuit. Spitfire also configures equipment on-site to ensure voice is prioritised across the network. Norton expects there to be a much bigger move to fibre and IP telephony next year as partners talk to existing customers about their migration roadmap (before their competitors do) and try to win new business from companies they haven’t dealt with before. “Most broadband lines aren’t full fibre but run on an analogue telephone line, and in a reasonable percentage of cases, people have their phone lines with one provider and their broadband with another and will be looking to move to a single provider rather than two.” He adds that Spitfire is helping partners to protect their base by advising them what lines their customers have that need to be migrated and what products they can be migrated to. IoT opportunities The second big focus for Spitfire in 2024 is mobile, following its mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) arrangement with a leading network provider. As well as giving access to a full range of mobile voice and data services, this gives Spitfire and its partners an opportunity to compete in the Internet of Things (IoT) space, which is growing fast and still largely untapped, certainly when compared to the fixed line space where every business already has an internet connection and margins are squeezed. Norton is positioning Spitfire’s network as a great solution for connecting sensors, meters and other devices largely due to its inherent security. “There’s going to be millions and millions of these devices and every single one is a potential entry point into a network. It’s all about how you keep that network secure and lock that attack surface down from the outside world. That plays to the strengths of the One Network that we’ve already built. All those devices and sensors out in the world are probably sending data to an application hosted in the cloud somewhere, and we can hook it all up for you so that none of that data goes over the internet.” Norton expects demand to come from new partners, including software developers, IoT solution providers, application developers and IoT device manufacturers, as well as existing partners, especially managed service providers. “At our launch event there was a huge amount of interest from existing partners that also offer workplace services because they realise every single one of their customers, either now or some point in the future, at a very basic level, will have to put in some sort of IoT solution for building management, control of lighting systems, access control, door entry, security cameras and so on.” To start with Spitfire will focus on connectivity, but Norton suggests that at some point it may become more involved on the solutions side. “Spitfire is an engineering-led company and we do like to innovate solutions. That is what we’ve done in the past, for example with our FireSwitch hosted telephony solution and I’m sure we will do the same with IoT. But right now, it’s all about getting the network in place and getting a suitable connectivity product to the reseller so they can deliver their solutions more effectively.” With so much change on the cards, 2024 promises to be a year of risk and opportunity. Spitfire has the network and products to help you come out on top. To find out more about our products or partnering with Spitfire, please visit www.spitfire.co.uk or call 020 7501 3150. “If they want a primary broadband solution and a backup solution, they can come to us for the whole thing. We can use one of our wholesale partners for the primary and another wholesale partner for the backup. And we can provide them with telephony too. For example, earlier this year, we launched a product called IP Voice, which is a direct replacement for an analogue telephone service. Where a partner has a customer with a standard BT phone line, we can give them the best choice of fibre provider and then move their telephone number onto our IP Voice service.”
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