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.