Deep Blue are pleased to announce the launch this week of their newest Fibre Broadband package; Fibre Lite.
Priced at £30 (ex VAT) a month and with a 20GB download allowance, the Fibre Lite Package is ideal for small businesses and home users. If you would like to know more, please do not hesitate to contact the office on 0844 848 2300.
There are lots of intermittent internet issues affecting large areas of the country. There are engineers currently working on these and hoping to resolve them as quickly as possible.
Primarily the drops resolve themselves within a few seconds, if you experience extended loss of service please contact us and we will investigate the issue further for you.
Deep Blue Networking is a brand new venture which wil bring together a group of dynamic business men and women in Yorkshire to support and work together in a relaxed environment.
It will give you an opportunity to present your business to a wider audience, search out a local reliable supplier or simply catch up with likeminded professionals, the Deep Blue Networking group is the no pressure solution. By joining you can:
• Start and contribute to online discussions on Linkedin
• Enjoy relaxed networking events in local venues after work
• Perform even?
• Act as a mentor to other businesses and individuals
• Create mutually beneficial working relationships
• Contribute to local charities
The first gig is booked for May 10 at The Royal Oak in Wetherby at 6pm. The entrance fee is £10 and you need to sign up for membership through our website or Linkedin. Click here for more details. This promises to be a refreshing change from the traditional networking formula. As an early member, you’ll get the chance to shape the direction (and song choices) of the Network. We look forward to welcoming you.
Deep Blue are pleased to confirm we will be attending the Yorkshire Business market on Monday 9th May.
The following are our office opening times over Easter and the Bank Holidays:
Wed 20th: 9am – 5pm
Thur 21st : 9am – 5pm
Fri 22nd : Closed
Mon 25th : Closed
Tue 26th : 9am – 5pm
Wed 27th : 9am – 5pm
Thur 28th : 9am – 5pm
Fri 29th : Closed
Mon 2nd : Closed
After this, office hours will be as normal.
As ever, our emergancy support service is available outside of office hours on
01937 220 603
Thank you
Just imagine, it’s your first day in a brand new office. The desks are in place, the PCs up and running, customers have been informed – but your phones aren’t working. This is a major crisis for any company that depends on calls or the internet for its business.
If you’re facing office relocation, there are 101 things to organise, cancel, pack and arrange but your phone lines and numbers are one problem you can be totally relaxed about. Deep Blue is experienced in ensuring a smooth transition between locations, taking over the communication with BT and ensuring all your services move with you – including broadband.
Just let us know when you are moving, where you are moving to and which lines and services you will need and we do the rest. Any additional costs are quoted in advance and we will keep you informed of any engineer visits and installations. So if you are moving or adding new offices, give us a call today for valuable free advice or click here to visit the relocation section of our website.
Think of phone hacking and you probably think of the current news reports of newspapers allegedly gaining access to the phones of celebrities and politicians to gather information. What you may not think of is criminals hacking into the phone systems of businesses.
Once access has been gained to a company’s network, this can be used to illegally route calls, either to make international calls or even to generate revenue from premium rate numbers, all at the expense of the hacked company. It is the latter that has recently been done to some companies in the Harrogate area.
Usually after the companies have closed (often at weekends or bank holidays to help avoid detection) the hackers have gained access to the network and called premium rate (09) and special rate (0871) numbers which they earn revenue from. In some cases this revenue is used to fund organised crime and terrorist activity.
A case in America that made it to court uncovered an international crime gang that had access to over 2,500 PBX’s and had illegally routed calls to the value of $55million dollars. Another case of note, and probably the most high profile UK victim was New Scotland Yard.
The average call charges faced by a company hit by this type of hacking is £10,000, but one company that was hit over the New Year weekend had £25,000 of call charges generated.
As you can see by the figures above, phone hacking is a serious crime and in all cases we advise affected parties to notify the police as soon as the hack is brought to their attention. The called numbers should be reported to Ofcom and Phonepay Plus.
As with computer hacking, there are measures to reduce this risk of being hit, however as fast as these measures close one door, the hackers find ways to open another.
One of the main ways access is gained is through services such as voicemail which allow you to dial into a network externally, but there are simple steps that can be taken to reduce the risk of this happening. Ensure all ways of accessing your network are password protected (just as you would put a password on your wireless internet network), change these passwords often, don’t share passwords, make passwords as long and complicated as possible (many hackers have sophisticated methods that can crack passwords 16 digits long) and keep all access codes secure (some victims had calls from individuals claiming to be from telephone companies asking codes to do work on the network or to update their security).
It is also worth considering what kinds of calls you make; does your business need to be able to call premium rate or international numbers? If not, consider call barring features so if your network was compromised, it would be harder for extensive call charges to be built up.
If phone hacking is something you are concerned about or if you would like to discuss this further, please email the office at info@deepbluetelecom.co.uk
Lightning and strong winds have caused some users in North East Scotland, the Highlands and the surrounding Islands to suffer service issues. Work is being carried out to restore service as soon as possible, but the damaged caused by the weather and the difficult working conditions resulting for it mean that there may be some delays in returning to service as normal.
The Internet is key to so many aspects of business nowadays, but with some providers it is not always clear what you are getting. Below are some of the key areas we get asked about, to help you understand broadband for your business.
‘Up to’ speed vs actual speed- while many providers state an ‘up to’ speed, you are very unlikely to achieve this, even if you are close to the exchange. Factors affecting the speed you ultimately get include; the capacity of your local exchange, the line length from your premises to the exchange and the quality of the copper in the line (unless of course you are receiving fibre). Speed tests can be run to give you a more accurate expected speed for your site.
Loss of speed- do you notice your broadband speed varying throughout the day? It may be that your current provider isn’t supplying you with business grade broadband. Business grade broadband is more robust and more resilient and is especially worthwhile if you work outside of standard office hours, such as evenings and weekends, when general traffic is likely to be higher.
Fibre broadband vs traditional broadband Fibre broadband is the latest revolution to the internet market. With faster download speeds and upload speeds, it allows you to get even more from your broadband service. Unlike traditional broadband, which uses copper wiring, fibre broadband uses fibre optic cabling which means faster broadband with less signal degradation.
Can I get fibre? – To receive fibre broadband your site will need to be connected to an upgraded cabinet within an upgraded exchange area. Sites positioned too far from an upgraded cabinet as well as sites directly connected to the exchange will not be able to receive fibre broadband.
To find out if you are in a fibre enabled area, or to get more information on any of our products and services, please contact the office on 0844 848 2300 or by filling in our email contact form here.
If you are planning extra telephone lines or services, our advice is plan ahead. Following on from the bad weather throughout Britain in December, the workload of Openreach (BT’s engineering arm) has vastly increased and the result is a backlog that will continue for some time to come.
The latest update confirmed that provision lead times remain high with Northern England having the worst case average of 30.84 working days. So if you are planning to extend your services or move offices, call us as soon as possible to book ahead.
If you have a fault that needs repairing, the news is much better as the company is using contractual overtime and postponing engineer training to bring the workload down and reduce waiting times. The impact of this is a wait of around one and half days, although a worst case of 5 days has been recorded in Wales.
As usual, contact our office as soon as you notice a fault and we will report it straight away and keep you fully informed of progress.
