Our love affair with the Smartphone continues

Comparing JT’s own statistics to the findings of the New Media Forecasts report from ZenithOptimedia, JT has noted that Smartphone penetration in the Channel Islands continues to exceed that of the top-digital markets.

ZenithOptimedia’s report suggests that in 47 leading countries* Smartphone penetration rose from 41.6% in 2013 to 49.5% in 2014, and will reach 55.7% this year; it also stated that 66.5% of individuals in key digital markets will have a Smartphone by the end of 2018.

Meanwhile JT reports that by the end of November 2015, across the Channel Islands, nearly 70% of its customer base are already accessing its mobile network with a Smartphone. JT’s findings within its local market indicate that if this trend continues, Jersey and Guernsey will continue to exceed ZenithOptimedia’s forecast and will possibly reach 100% Smartphone penetration well ahead of other jurisdictions.

Looking locally at the Smartphone market, JT reports that across the islands 56.8% of its customers using a Smartphone are using Apple devices (iOS) which exceeds the UK figures and proves the ongoing trend in the Islands to favour Apple products. Snapshot of the two markets (UK data taken from market research agency GFK):

UK:
IOS 48.8%
ANDROID 43.9%
WINDOWS 7.1%

JT:
IOS 56.8%
ANDROID 37.8%
WINDOWS 5.2%

Tamara O’Brien, Head of Marketing at JT, said: “It’s always interesting when research comes to light concerning Smartphone, mobile and data trends as it is an opportunity for us to make comparisons against our own customer base and match these to the consumer trends here in the Channel Islands. This research from ZenithOptimedia has further reinforced what we already knew; that residents of the Channel Islands are early adopters of new technology and the rise of Smartphone usage in the Islands is racing ahead of global markets. Being ahead of the UK curve for Smart devices is also a clear indication that islanders are taking advantage of improved home Wi-Fi which our fibre and broadband networks have enabled, alongside the benefits that JT’s superior 4G network are providing.”

She continued: “It’s also worth noting that over the past 12 months we have seen a huge increase in the number of customers joining our multiple-device plans which allows them to have up to four mobile devices on one convenient monthly plan. Mobile data is expected to see an almost ten-fold increase by 2019 according to the GSMA (the body that represents mobile operators worldwide), and with an estimated 16% of Channel Island customers already owning multiple-devices it’s clear that Smartphones and Tablets will continue to be the number one Christmas present of choice for all the family, for some time to come.”

To find out more about JT’s range of Smartphones and exclusive Christmas offers across a range of devices visit www.jtglobal.com/christmas.

* The 47 countries covered in the New Media Forecasts were Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Belarus, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Israel, Japan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Malaysia, Moldova, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey,
Ukraine, UK, USA and Venezuela. ZenithOptimedia confirms that Smartphone adoption is highest in Asia Pacific and Western Europe.

http://www.zenithoptimedia.com/two-thirds-people-living-top-digital-markets-will-smartphone-2018/
www.gfk.com
http://www.gsmamobileeconomy.com/



Landmark Reached In Digital Progress For Guernsey

The final metre of a 38Km fibre-optic network was laid this week, marking the completion of JT’s three-year programme of works to connect 42 States of Guernsey buildings to the new JT fibre network; and 120 sites to the MPLS Wide Area Network (WAN).

JT Guernsey’s Managing Director, Paul D Taylor helped to lay the final pieces of cabling in Route des Fauconnaires on Tuesday 15 December 2015.

The WAN provides a foundation for future connectivity for the States of Guernsey. It delivers a secure, dedicated connection to share services and information via a robust, superfast broadband network. For our local children in education, thanks to this project their schools have been connected and they will benefit from greater opportunities for digital learning, faster and better online collaboration and enhanced speeds in their schools which are part of the WAN.

Guernsey’s Education Minister, Deputy Robert Sillars, said: “Technology not only enhances the learning experience it actually accelerates it and to ensure that Guernsey children can benefit from emerging technologies in the classroom it is vital that we continue to invest. Future-proofing education starts and ends with an infrastructure that is capable of supporting new technologies for generations to come, and the WAN that JT has delivered does just that. Coupled with JT’s fibre-optic network States departments and schools now have access to the fastest and most resilient connectivity, which importantly goes a long way to enabling our schools and pupils to excel.”

JT Guernsey’s Managing Director, Paul D Taylor, said: “We are delighted to announce the completion of the States of Guernsey WAN on time and within budget, and I thank the States of Guernsey team and all our engineers and project managers in helping us reach this point. The WAN will ensure that the States departments have the very best connectivity now and well into the future and JT is proud to have been chosen to deliver this very important and large-scale project.

“We would also like to take this opportunity to thank members of the public and local businesses for their patience whilst we carried out the essential road works as part of this project which are completed for now. We did our best to minimise disruption through working closely with other utilities and the Public Services Department which is something we always try to do.”
Furthermore, the completion of the WAN also represents another key milestone in JT’s on-going commitment to investing in the Channel Islands’ infrastructure to provide fibre-optic gigabit broadband to revolutionise the internet experience for islanders and businesses alike, so helping ensure Guernsey’s future as a ‘Digital Isle’ is supported.

Paul D Taylor, added: “JT holds a long-term vision to future-proof infrastructure across the Channel Islands, firstly to cope with the growing amount of data we are consuming at an exponential rate and secondly to support new technology as it emerges. Ultimately, our commitment to build fibre networks across Jersey and Guernsey, coupled with our £12 million investment in an advanced 4G CI mobile network is ensuring the delivery of seamless, high-speed connectivity that is scalable and makes our islands an attractive proposition for digital progression.”

JT’s ongoing £7 million programme to deliver a fibre network for Guernsey continues with residential trials currently being carried out within two developments across the island.



2015: Reaching key milestones in an anniversary year

What better way to mark our 120th anniversary year operating in the Channel Islands than through the launch of our new superfast Advanced 4G mobile network, which is enabling local businesses to fully harness the power of the latest technologies.

Our investment of over £12 million involved building a completely new mobile network in Guernsey, completing an island-wide replacement and upgrade of all our mobile network equipment in Jersey and introducing a wireless link for Alderney.

Key to ensuring that we delivered the very best 4G technology was our decision to partner with one of the world’s leading communications providers, ZTE. With their support we brought the most advanced 4G mobile network to the Channel Islands which not only better supports today’s rapidly evolving mobile technologies but also helps us be ready for future trends as they emerge.

It’s our vision to become partner of choice for global telecoms innovation and strategic partnering has been central to increasing our reach and growing our global footprint in 2015. Throughout the year we have secured some high profile independent peer recognition and several key accreditations for our products and services which help ensure, wherever your business is, we’re ready to support you.

Amongst these was securing the coveted top Platinum Partner Status from Avaya, a leading global supplier of business communications technology and a long-term strategic partner of JT’s for over 15 years. This status placed the company firmly among an elite group of telecommunications companies and the first in the Channel Islands. We believe this has been achieved thanks to our attention to detail and our focus on excellent product knowledge, underpinned by consistent customer service.

JT’s data hosting facilities also became further recognised as the largest, most accredited and secure in the Channel Islands when our data centres achieved the coveted ‘SOC’ quality certification in addition to the European standard ISO27001. Becoming SOC (Service Organisation Certification) certified is a rigorous, independent process, which inspects the full detail of a company’s controls, processes and procedures in a wide range of business critical areas from HR to security, financial management and operations.

During 2015 we also went on to secure the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) certification further underlining our market leading facilities. To get to this point took a great deal of hard work and determination by our team to ensure that we met the stringent requirements of this specific industry.

The third key achievement to gain external recognition was our Cloud Platform, which was the first to gain approval from The Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC). This approval bolstered JT’s existing AGCC Data Centre Hosting Certificate License and strengthened our position as Cloud partner of choice for the eGaming industry. Successfully on-boarding new clients across industries from eGaming to financial services, including a major progamme of works in the US, saw our global client base grow to over 2,200 active business customers in 2015, a landmark that is testament to the hard work and commitment of our teams.

Across the JT Group we are gaining more and more recognition for our experience, knowledge and capability, all designed to better and consistently meet the needs of our customers.  Backing this up our team continued to take our message around the world representing JT at key industry events, including the Seimer Summit in the US, the Telecom Council and a series of global eGaming events.

In May we also hosted representatives from other telcos around the world including Cyprus, Greenland, Gibraltar, Malta, the Faroe Islands, Liechtenstein and Iceland, at the Telecom Operators of Small States Annual Teleforum in Jersey in May. This event was the ideal opportunity for us to showcase to 70 international visitors the capability and vision of JT’s mobile and fixed networks in the Channel Islands.

Closer to home and as the Channel Islands only locally owned communications operator we remain very active in the island communities, providing infrastructure and support for high profile events. Such as the major role which JT played in providing the technology behind the Island Games; alongside our on-going support for Jersey Live; the Institute of Directors Convention and Tech Fair Jersey 2015. We also sponsored National Coding Week and are actively involved in supporting and furthering the efforts of both Digital Jersey and Digital Greenhouse Guernsey.

Everything JT has strived to achieve in 2015 demonstrates our commitment to our customers, by building on our partnerships and growing our global reputation and network, we can bring back much needed insight and investment to ensure we deliver the very best service for our global and domestic client base.



What will you spend your tech budget on in 2016?

In its midyear forecast, Forrester Research estimated that European firms will have spent 28% of their total 2015 tech purchases, or €190 billion, on the adoption of new technology; that’s technologies that help firms win, serve, and retain customers.

The dedication of a third of their budgets to new tech represents a growth in spend across Europe which Forrester attributed in the report to the rise of mobile apps, analytics and big data, and customer-oriented applications, along with the related services for helping firms choose, implement, and maximise value from these software products.

But exactly which new technologies will businesses be buying in 2016?

Cyber Security

There is and will continue to be an increased focus on how data is dealt with and protected following some very high profile data hacks in 2015. It’s a major concern for all business and with ransom attacks only set to rise, this is one we all need to address both personally and at work. Traditional blocking methods should continue to be invested in but businesses now need to also consider how they can maintain the very highest level of security for their businessWe are able to offer our clients advanced security services and protection as well as a ‘Cyber audit’ on request.

Privacy, identity and freedom rises up the agenda in 2016

While using handheld devices for Smart payment systems (mobile to mobile) has become widely adopted, it now can lead to the question of how personal information is stored and how safe is that data. Knowing how to protect your privacy (personal and corporate), and in particular having procedures in place to protect the privacy of your business critical data, will also be a big factor for businesses in 2016.

The Internet of Things

Market research firm Gartner* suggests that the number of ‘things’ connected to the Internet will increase by 30% in 2016, with an estimated 5.5 million new things connecting every day. That’s huge though when we think how mainstream virtual reality, 3D printing and wearables have become this year alone, it’s not hard to imagine deeper and wider human dependency on Smart machines in the not too distant future.

More and more data

Speak to our network consultants and they suggest that what customers are looking for in 2016 is ‘data-centre bridging’ technologies. This technology is gaining interest as more companies in the CI move closer to requiring 10GB products. That demand is building rapidly, where the requirement for Storage Area Network (SAN) data within the front-ends of your business is becoming more mainstream.

Customer insight

Next up is the growing interest for greater customer insight and with Wi-Fi technology comes some interesting new applications that can enable us to track the customer’s experience and purchase/journey while at an event or within a retail outlet or venue. Demands for real-time marketing through Wi-Fi based technologies have greatly increased and are set to merge with video apps driving feature rich and proactively intelligent solutions that can even alert security breaches by exception in real-time.

Ultra-high definition video

Another ‘hot trend’ we have anticipated and which our team are already seeing increased demand for is ‘unifying communications’; such as video with voice for business. Combining the latest video technology with existing telephony systems can bring greater benefits and maximises investment in current voice communication assets. We anticipate this to be big in 2016 and we also have some exciting product developments to announce in this space early in 2016.

*http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3165317



Dealing with disruption, Business Life

Disruption – It’s the holy grail of innovators and entrepreneurs the world over. No longer is a business model sufficient if it has a unique selling point, today’s investors are looking for more than gradual improvement; they want to see companies destroy existing paradigms and build new ones in their place.

Click here to read the full article.



Discounted Hardware and Software for Businesses

JT are a proud preferred partner for major brands like HP, Dell, Cisco, IBM and EMC², and as a result we have some fantastic end of year discounts across a full range of IT hardware and software. If you need an end of year upgrade now is the time. Together with our partners we can promise you the best value deals on the Channel Islands.

For further information please contact:
David Simpson
+44 1481 888105
david.simpson@jtglobal.com