Jola Cloud Solutions' Blog

As many of you are aware the staff at Jola have all worked together before at Griffin. Griffin was a channel ISP that won multiple awards and was regarded by many as the UK’s leading white label broadband supplier to the channel.

Griffin predicted early on that when internet connectivity became fast enough and reliable enough, that there would be a market for cloud-hosted applications. Griffin invented managed broadband and enabled hundreds of resellers to become virtual ISPs.

Prior to the launch of MOPS (Griffin’s Managed Online Provisioning System), telecoms providers selling internet connectivity did so on a commission basis. As the market converged, they saw suppliers more as competition and needed to take back control of the customer experience. To eliminate the risk and maximise the value of their businesses, they wanted to provide broadband under their own brand. The prospect of becoming an ISP in 5 days was appealing.

Griffin developed MOPS to meet this need and helped the telecommunications channel grow new revenue streams from ADSL, SDSL, ADSL2+, FTTC and leased lines.

Could the same thing be happening with mobile broadband?

4G is widely available in the UK with typical download speeds of around 20Mb/s and theoretical speeds of up to 150Mb/s. We have seen a surge in demand for data-only SIMs in devices other than smart phones. Business users are keen to use 4G to connect devices to the internet, especially in areas where broadband connectivity is slow. The issue for many is one of management. Unlike FTTC, which is largely unlimited (usually with a fair use policy), mobile broadband is sold with monthly usage allowances with financial penalties for overusage. Pricing is high and there has been no easy management portal until now.

So what’s the solution?

As speeds increase and prices tumble, mobile data revenues are likely to soar. To allow resellers to manage large estates of mobile data SIMs we have developed Mobile Manager. Mobile Manager handles SIM activations, ceases, suspensions, reports, alerts and bolt-ons.

The National Infrastructure Commission recently published their report on 5G. With the Government’s ambition to make the UK the most digital nation in the G8, could we see Government intervention speeding up the availability of 5G nationwide?

If so, how will this benefit the channel?

With the availability of managed mobile broadband portals such as Mobile Manager, partners are able to meet the growing demand for 4G/5G as well as support any future applications, devices and solutions using the service. Partners are protecting their base from future competition and are increasing their ARPU without significant financial investment.

To find out more...