How Comms365 can help MSPs grow through the provision of cellular and bonded connectivity
Following the most successful 12 months in its 15-year history, internet connectivity provider Comms365 is looking to recruit more channel partners to leverage the additional capacity and capabilities it has built into the latest iteration of its core network (see panel).
Founded in 2008 by Managing Director Mike van Bunnens and Technical Director Shaun Nicholls, Comms365 provides channel partners with resilient and always-on internet connectivity solutions and services utilising 4G and 5G, bonded internet, SD-WAN, fixed line and IoT technologies.
The company started out as a wireless ISP, building a small core network and buying wholesale connectivity from Vodafone and a broadband provider, before getting its big break when it won a contract to provide mobile data connectivity to support the rollout of Tesco Mobile pop-up stores.
“That really gave us credibility but also validation that we were doing the right thing,” explains van Bunnens. “At the time Wireless Logic, Mobius and Stream were the only other players of any note in this market and, of them, we were the only one to have a physical core network.”
A big opportunity
Today, Comms365 offers a wider choice of connectivity options, but cellular still accounts for more than 70% of its business – and a big opportunity for channel partners, according to van Bunnens.
“Cellular continues to be king in terms of revenue. Every single day there are new use cases for cellular and I think we’re at the start of a hockey stick growth curve. Everybody’s talking about it, and there’s still an incredible array of use cases that haven’t been discovered yet. There’s going to be plenty of room for people to get involved with this market.”
Van Bunnens points out that cellular is a good option wherever it can be hard to install a fixed line or where speed of deployment is a requirement. He cites the examples of a solar farm that prefers to use cellular technology than dig up a field to lay a fixed line, as well as cellular’s ability to bolster a fixed line with additional bandwidth.
“It’s brilliant for things like CCTV and remote monitoring and it’s great for failover and backup to fixed lines. However, we tend to say that if you use cellular just for backup, you’re using only half
the service because cellular can be used in conjunction with the fixed line or the primary connectivity to provide an active/ active connection, using both technologies at the same time. That’s what we refer to as basic bonding.”
Bonded connectivity
Comms365 started working with bonding technologies to boost throughput more than 10 years ago.
“Back in the day, we used cellular for pop-ups, for ticket machines, for vending machines and for office communications as a 3G connection may actually have provided a better connection than an old ADSL line. In about 2012/2013, we started experimenting with bonded services, because the throughput and the bandwidth on ADSL and 3G was very low. One of the ways we thought we could enhance that was by bonding multiple connections together to bolster that throughput. We worked with a manufacturer of early bonded equipment and built quite a healthy business from that. Now, we have our own bonded technology and are probably one of the biggest service providers of bonded technology in the UK – it provides primary connectivity, not only backup; it is extremely robust; QoS and other advanced features are available; and it’s become mainstream.”
Comms365 does bonded cellular (4G and 5G), FTTC/FTTP, SoGEA and Ethernet. It recently launched a new technology, Continuum, that will bond up to four 1 Gig fixed lines from multiple carriers to provide added resilience and throughout of up to 4 Gigabits per second.
“The beauty of that is that it comes onto our network,” explains van Bunnens. “We’re in control of the routing. We’re in control of the IP addressing. We can do QoS. We can pass traffic in different directions. We can build that bonded service into a full-blown SD WAN environment, enabling us to get multiple sites up and running very quickly. Gone are the days when you have to wait months and months for a carrier to deliver connectivity. We can even take non Comms365 connectivity and bring it into our environment very rapidly.”
In this context, van Bunnens points out that Comms365’s record results last year were powered, in part, by channel partner Daisy’s deployment of its SD-One bonding and 4G failover solution in 1,650 Greene King pubs.
MSP appeal
All this, he suggests, presents interesting opportunities for IT MSPs that already make up a big part of Comms365’s partner network.
“About a year ago, we did a deep dive into our partner base to try and understand what areas they worked in. Were they VARs? Were they UC resellers? Were they traditional voice resellers? Were they MSPs? We found that a lot of our biggest partners sit within that IT MSP space. MSPs are becoming more involved in WAN services and connectivity service because they want more wallet-share and because their customers now trust them to provide end-to-end services.”
Van Bunnens points out that MSPs require a more consultative, supportive approach, which plays to Comms365’s strengths, from its broad offering to its technology expertise.
“Everybody can reach to cellular to solve a problem, but it can create other challenges. Likewise, fixed line. People say, ‘I would rather put fixed line in everywhere instead of cellular because it’s more reliable’. Well, it depends. Cellular can be very reliable technology. It’s just a question of understanding how to deploy it properly. Working with us, we can help our MSP partners win and retain more business.
“As always when you’re dealing with different technologies, it’s all down to how you support the partner. Most partners that sell cellular services have not come from a cellular background, so they will need advice on how to sell it and how to support it. If someone who has only ever sold Ethernet, which is very resilient and rarely goes down, puts in a cellular service, all of a sudden they’re using contended technology that can be affected by the weather, can be affected by buildings, can be affected by congestion. It’s very easy for that partner to get spooked because their level of support calls may increase. If they have a partner behind them that can support them in a quick, efficient manner, they are likely to engage in this technology a lot more. That’s one of the things we’re really hot on.”
Van Bunnens adds that while fixed line has become commoditised to the extent that resellers can buy most fixed line services for the same price as wholesalers, when it comes to cellular there are still a few key players, like Comms365, that have proper wholesale relationships and behind the scenes support capabilities, such as billing and portals.
“Our portals have been built over 15 years. They are a single pane of glass for all our cellular connectivity and we’ve incorporated our fixed line and our bonded services in there as well. That’s where we feel we can stand out and shine.”
The power of the network
Mike van Bunnens explains the value of having a core network of one’s own
Technology Reseller: What is the advantage of having your own core network?
Mike van Bunnens: We started out investing in a basic core network in a datacentre in London, which gave us the infrastructure to be an internet service provider (ISP). The core network is a collection of servers and routers and switches, routing and processing traffic in a data centre or multiple data centres. It allows you, if you are an engineer or a core network engineer, to bring wholesale connectivity into your own environment and then offer complex solutions to customers. You can do your own routing, control IP addressing, provide internet access and so much more. It essentially allows you to become an ISP and provide the same types of service that most ISPs provide. That could be broadband into offices; it could be a fixed IP SIM for remote monitoring; it could be voice services; and so on and so forth.
TR: What constraints did you face when building your core network?
MVB: There were a lot of constraints around cost. Core networks cost an absolute fortune. In the early days, we had to buy second-hand parts and servers, so it was all a bit Heath Robinsonesque to start off with. We were trying to prove a concept in our own environment before we went and invested in more cutting-edge equipment.
Three or four years in, by 2012, we’d proven that concept. We’d got Tesco’s (see main story). We’d won a very nice contract with Global Crossing to provide 3G into one of their customers, which we delivered within two to three weeks. We still have them as a customer now. And the only reason we could do that was because we had control of our own network. The mobile operators liked working with us because we were very low touch for them. And, from a wholesale point of view, we interconnected with and took control of everything else. So, we’re very easy to work with from a supplier relationship perspective.
TR: When you say it was a small core network does that mean you were limited on the number of people you could serve?
MVB: Yes, in terms of capacity and the sorts of things you can do with it. Core networks come in many flavours, from single servers and routers right the way up to multiple data centres. Our initial network was very small and, over the years, we’ve been through four iterations of core network. Our current version uses the latest Cisco NCS technology. It’s brand new – high capacity, multiple data centres, lots of wholesale connections – and it gives us the ability, which is core to Comms 365, to be very creative with our solutions for customers and partners.
Our partners find they get a lot of benefit from us. Because we are core engineers, we know how communications networks work, which allows us to be very flexible in terms of how we deliver services for customers and partners. Partners that have got their own networks, other ISP partners, get a lot of comfort from knowing that when we interconnect with them and deliver services to them, they’re getting what they expect. That is a fundamental part of our fabric as a business. We’re not just a reseller of cellular communications; we actually deliver very advanced communication solutions to customers and partners. Anybody can sell a SIM card, but with our capabilities we can do a lot of very clever things with those SIMs and with fixed lines and how we deliver technology to people. As we often say, not all SIMs are the same. We can help navigate MSPs to the best options for their customers.
Be First to Comment