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Profile: Easynet’s MD, Chris Stening, on 100Mb fibre broadband launch
15 Jan 2010 | 14.18 Europe/London
The increasing need for bandwidth as companies of all sizes conduct more business through cloud computing lies behind Easynet Connect’s launch this week of a £15k per year uncontended 100Mbps fibre service, according to its Managing Director, Chris Stening.
The new service is limited to within the M25 area at the moment but the company is promising a roll out based on where the service is most wanted and so is asking businesses across the country to register their interest in advance.
The Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) service incurs a £5k installation fee but Easynet is promising that this fee, like its overall £15k per year tariff, is fixed and not linked to geography (although if roads need to be dug up to install the line, additional charges will be passed on at cost).
Fibre worth the price
So, the service does not come at the cheap end of the leased line spectrum but Easynet’s Managing Director,Chris Stening, insists it represents value and, unlike some providers who place limits on how their lines are used, customers can use their connection for any purpose; be it a call centre, data centre, general business premises use or multiple IP addresses.
“You only have to think back a few years and people were paying thousands of pounds per year for just 256kb leased lines,” he remembers.
“There are a still a lot of companies paying more than £16k per year for their uncontended lines and they’re not getting a 100Mb fibre service. So, we think, it’s competitively priced. Companies can probably pay less but, of course, the problem is how well the company providing the service is set up to deal with problems and outages. Three quarters of the companies we surveyed last year said they couldn’t be without broadband for a day and so they know it’s worth their while working with a reputable supplier.
“Also, we’re charging a simple fixed fee without catches. We’re not increasing the prices according to distance and we’re not telling people what they can and cannot do with their connection.”
Speed in the cloud
Stening believes that the increased reliance on working across the net and, most specifically, companies hosting applications in the cloud is driving demand for faster communications and so believes demand for fibre is set to increase.
In fact, recent research by the company suggests 80% of companies are looking to improve their broadband communications this year and that the proportion of companies who intend to host applications in the cloud over the next five years increased from just under half in 2008 to nearly three quarters a year later.
“So many companies are seeing the importance of the cloud as giving their staff access to business applications no matter where they are, that it means companies need faster broadband,” he says.
“These applications are a lot more data rich now, including audio, video and voice, so we see the market needing faster broadband and that is only set to increase as audio and video moves in to high definition.”
Stening believes that history backs up his assumption that companies will be willing to pay £16k per year for an uncontended and fully-supported fibre connection. To his mind, if you think back to companies working on 64k modems and then moving on to leased ISDN lines to ADSL and then on to SDSL and bonded SDSL connections, there is an upward trend for bandwidth requirements that will lead business ultimately to an uncontended fibre connection where they, and nobody else, gets the full use of the entire 100Mb connection.
The new service is limited to within the M25 area at the moment but the company is promising a roll out based on where the service is most wanted and so is asking businesses across the country to register their interest in advance.
The Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) service incurs a £5k installation fee but Easynet is promising that this fee, like its overall £15k per year tariff, is fixed and not linked to geography (although if roads need to be dug up to install the line, additional charges will be passed on at cost).
Fibre worth the price
So, the service does not come at the cheap end of the leased line spectrum but Easynet’s Managing Director,Chris Stening, insists it represents value and, unlike some providers who place limits on how their lines are used, customers can use their connection for any purpose; be it a call centre, data centre, general business premises use or multiple IP addresses.
“You only have to think back a few years and people were paying thousands of pounds per year for just 256kb leased lines,” he remembers.
“There are a still a lot of companies paying more than £16k per year for their uncontended lines and they’re not getting a 100Mb fibre service. So, we think, it’s competitively priced. Companies can probably pay less but, of course, the problem is how well the company providing the service is set up to deal with problems and outages. Three quarters of the companies we surveyed last year said they couldn’t be without broadband for a day and so they know it’s worth their while working with a reputable supplier.
“Also, we’re charging a simple fixed fee without catches. We’re not increasing the prices according to distance and we’re not telling people what they can and cannot do with their connection.”
Speed in the cloud
Stening believes that the increased reliance on working across the net and, most specifically, companies hosting applications in the cloud is driving demand for faster communications and so believes demand for fibre is set to increase.
In fact, recent research by the company suggests 80% of companies are looking to improve their broadband communications this year and that the proportion of companies who intend to host applications in the cloud over the next five years increased from just under half in 2008 to nearly three quarters a year later.
“So many companies are seeing the importance of the cloud as giving their staff access to business applications no matter where they are, that it means companies need faster broadband,” he says.
“These applications are a lot more data rich now, including audio, video and voice, so we see the market needing faster broadband and that is only set to increase as audio and video moves in to high definition.”
Stening believes that history backs up his assumption that companies will be willing to pay £16k per year for an uncontended and fully-supported fibre connection. To his mind, if you think back to companies working on 64k modems and then moving on to leased ISDN lines to ADSL and then on to SDSL and bonded SDSL connections, there is an upward trend for bandwidth requirements that will lead business ultimately to an uncontended fibre connection where they, and nobody else, gets the full use of the entire 100Mb connection.