Getting fibre broadband means you can ‘get a chunk of your life back’ and save thousands of pounds, says a Peterborough company director.
June Titterton-Fox has been relieving small businesses of their IT headaches for over 20 years through her company YOUSystems.co.uk, which specialises in maintenance and managed support contracts.
As a broadband champion for the Connecting Cambridgeshire programme, she campaigned for better connections for local businesses in Peterborough and was delighted when the new fibre broadband cabinet serving her offices in Fengate went ‘live’ in 2015.
June, who lives in Rutland, can now work from home and keep in touch with her team, as well as offering the latest technology benefits to her business customers.
She said: “The difference is fantastic! I can connect to the office without losing speed. The engineers can be downloading software and updates from Microsoft and I can still work online without being affected.
“Best of all we now have a VOIP phone system – all running on the same fibre broadband line so I no longer need to come into the office! Gone is my 45 minute trudge up and down the A1. I now have a phone extension at home that allows me to make and pick up any phone calls coming into the office as if I was sat at my desk. The line quality is as good as ISDN.
“Working from home and coming into the office one day a week means you can get a chunk of your life back and save money on commuting. I’ve gained at least eight weeks of my life back and will save thousands in travel costs each year, which means I have time to develop the business and work with new customers.
“We are very keen to get more businesses on to fibre broadband because there are so many benefits, particularly phone systems. Our engineers still go out to clients but having fibre broadband means we can also do remote work on their IT systems more easily.”
June calculates that upgrading to fibre broadband with a new VOIP phone system for the office costs her business just £10 more a month than previously on ISDN and broadband lines, while being able to work from home also saves her over £100 a month in travel costs including fuel, servicing and tyres.
She now blogs regularly and is planning to use more videos on the company website at YOUsystems.co.uk to keep customers updated on the latest technology.
The Connecting Cambridgeshire programme is funded by BT, Cambridgeshire County Council, Peterborough City Council and the Government’s Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) initiative. The programme is rolling out faster broadband in areas not covered by commercial broadband networks.
More than 93% of households and businesses across the county can already get fibre broadband and the Connecting Cambridgeshire programme is on track to reach at least 95% by the end of 2017 when combined with the private sector’s commercial roll-out of fibre. The next two years will see the programme reaching some of the most challenging rural areas of the county, with other technologies, such as wireless and satellite, being used for the remainder by 2020.
The network installed by BT’s local network business, Openreach, as part of the Connecting Cambridgeshire programme is open to all broadband service providers on an equal wholesale basis and so households and businesses in Cambridgeshire can benefit from highly competitive products and pricing from a wide range of service providers.