Providing customers with high-speed connectivity to the Internet is at the forefront of ECN’s business strategy, and by introducing new Fibre and Wireless microwave options to their Internet Access portfolio, ECN has done just that.
“As a leading provider of voice services, Internet access was previously seen as a complementary service which we offered to our voice customers. The demand for high-speed Internet access products however has grown rapidly in the last two years, so we took the strategic decision to build closer relationships with key industry players so that we could take more competitive products to market.” says Chris Baisch, ECN’s Executive Head of Product.
Chris reiterates that these new offerings will now meet that growing demand, and by including voice trunks in both offerings, ECN is now able to provide customers with a broader set of voice, data and cloud services solutions.
In order to move into this high-speed Internet access space, ECN invested a significant amount of capital to upgrade its core network infrastructure, core capacity and software systems. Mike Britz, ECN’s Executive Head of Networks, says “This positions our state of the art network in the same league as other leading ISPs in the country.”
One of the key partnerships is with Frogfoot Networks, so we discussed this crucial decision with ECN CEO, Andy Openshaw, who had the following to say:
What does your partnership with Frogfoot Networks mean?
“At ECN we have always been last mile or backhaul agnostic when it comes to getting our clients connected to our network. With the rapid uptake of fibre and the current land grab underway across the country, it was critical we selected a primary fibre build partner who could match and support our planned rapid expansion of fibre usage in our product portfolio. Frogfoot Networks provide us with an experienced and wide fibre build capacity, along with a great commercial model as well as an energy and focus that best matched with ours.”
How has this improved ECN’s product suite?
“Over the past few years while ECN has been able to secure the leadership position in the IP Voice space, our drive has been to expand our offerings to a wider set of services, for example; Cloud offerings such as our Virtual PBX (VBX), our Virtual Boardroom teleconferencing bridge, our Hosted Call Recording offering, and a comprehensive range of Internet Access offerings. All these offerings are available over a variety of last mile options, be that LTE, ADSL, Copper, Wireless and now Fibre.”
How will this benefit your customers?
“We are now able to offer ECN customers, from SME to large corporates, a full connectivity and communication basket of offerings backed by our renowned network stability and superb customer service from our support teams.”
So, as always, ECN is proudly advancing into an era where they are able to offer all types of businesses valuable connectivity solutions to suit their pockets. This is not only a step towards future-proofing for ECN, but so too for their customers.
ECN is one of the leading IP Services and Solutions providers in South Africa. ECN offers a broad set of cost effective voice, data and hosted services to meet its customers ever growing technological needs. For further information contact ECN.
Read more from ECN: Telecommunications Trends 2017