The UK connectivity market is offering partners more choice than ever before.
Alongside established Openreach-based services, alternative networks are expanding. Availability, bandwidth, lead times and commercial models can vary considerably by location. The right service for one site may not be the right one for another.
That wider choice can be useful, but it has also made the market harder to navigate. Partners need to understand what is available at a customer location, assess the relevant options, quote accurately and manage the service once it is live. When those activities sit across several suppliers, portals and processes, the operational work can quickly increase.
This is the problem Gamma is seeking to address through FibreXchange.
The platform brings provider options including BT Wholesale, PXC and CityFibre into a single portal environment. For partners, the intended benefit is a clearer view of availability, pricing and service options at a specific location, without needing to start the process in several different places.
Making Choice More Manageable
Customers are not concerned with which portal a partner uses or how many underlying supplier relationships sit behind a service. They want a suitable connection, delivered reliably, with a clear route to support if anything goes wrong.
For partners, establishing what is available is the first step.
“The goal of FibreXchange is to become that place where you can take a postcode, put it into FibreXchange and it will tell you what is available,” says Tom Chedham, Head of Connectivity and Wholesale at Gamma.
“It will show the different bandwidths, the cost involved, the lead time and the different intricacies.”
The idea is not to remove the need for partner expertise. It is to give that expertise a more useful starting point. Rather than searching separate systems or relying on a small number of people who understand particular provider processes, partners can see relevant options in one place.
This was a recurring point in Gamma’s partner experience discussions. Chedham says partners wanted broader choice, but did not want that choice to create further complexity around contracts, ordering or support.
“Partners want a one-stop shop where they can get everything they need from a single place,” he says. “They want a single commercial agreement with one supplier they trust, where everything can be provisioned, ordered and managed. When they come to support, it is all in a single place.”
For a partner, that can mean less time spent navigating supplier-specific processes and more consistency in the way services are handled internally.
Moving The Conversation Beyond Like-For-Like Comparison
Price will always be a consideration in connectivity. Where two services are broadly equivalent, it is a natural comparison point.
But the expansion of alternative networks means many customer conversations are not simply like-for-like comparisons. Availability at a particular location, the required bandwidth, lead time, resilience needs and the customer’s wider technology estate can all affect what represents the appropriate option.
“It is okay when you are comparing vanilla with vanilla,” says Chedham.
“But what we are talking about is an availability search. A customer is located here, and that means they can get a particular service.”
In that context, FibreXchange is intended to support a more informed discussion. Partners can use the information available to explain which services can be delivered at a site and why one may be better suited to the customer than another.
That does not remove commercial considerations, but it can make the conversation less narrowly focused on monthly price. The partner can consider the practical requirements behind the connection, including timescales, service characteristics and the role connectivity plays in the customer’s wider operations.
Part Of A Broader Connectivity Direction
FibreXchange sits within Gamma’s wider connectivity roadmap. The company is building out a broader range of routes, including traditional connectivity, Ethernet, alternative networks and satellite broadband.
The objective is to help partners identify the relevant options for a customer location and make a recommendation based on what is available and what the customer needs.
“When a partner looks at a postcode or they look at a customer, they should know all the best connectivity options for that customer,” Chedham says. “Their salesperson can go out and talk about what is available, what is good, what is not good and what the right decision is for them to make.”
The provider mix within FibreXchange will continue to evolve. That expansion will give partners more potential options to consider, but the wider point is the development of a simpler way to access and manage that choice.
Gamma is also developing supporting service capabilities, including integrated porting, enhanced installation options and premium service levels. These can be relevant where a customer’s requirements extend beyond a basic connection, such as a more specific installation need or a particular level of resilience and support.
A Reason To Revisit The Customer Base
The PSTN switch-off is creating an additional reason for partners to discuss connectivity with existing customers.
Many organisations are reviewing legacy services and considering what they need for the next stage of their technology plans. That does not automatically mean a single prescribed solution, but it does create a timely opportunity to assess what is available, what is changing and whether current services remain appropriate.
“This is a big change that is driving a lot of this,” Chedham says.
“Customers have to review their connectivity because there is something happening in our industry that we will probably never see anything like again.”
For partners, that review can go beyond replacing an existing connection. It can create an opening to understand how a customer works today, what they need from cloud applications and communications tools, and how connectivity supports resilience and continuity.
FibreXchange is one part of Gamma’s response to that opportunity.
It is designed to make the process of identifying and managing connectivity options more straightforward, while giving partners a better basis for conversations shaped by the customer’s location and requirements, rather than by price alone.
