Core Telecom is delighted to have been given the opportunity to further expand their partnership with the Disabilities Trust by sponsoring their brain injury research launch event.

The new research has been undertaken together with St. George’s Crypt in Leeds and is looking into the potential relationship between people who find themselves homeless and those who have suffered a brain injury.

The research launch took place on Wednesday 16th May at St George’s Crypt, and Core Telecom was represented by George Cotter (Head of Marketing) and Scott Walker (Sales Director).

As part of the sponsorship Core Telecom is also delighted to have been able to donate a brand new free helpline for homeless people in the Leeds area. The helpline will act as a vital free method of contact and further contribute to the great work done by both the Disabilities Trust and St George’s Crypt. The helpline number itself was officially launched by Scott Walker, in front of the Lord Mayor and health professionals from across Leeds.

Barrie Oldham, Cheif Executive of The Disabilities Trust commented: “The support of companies such as Core Telecom helps us to make a real difference to people’s lives.  Core’s donation of the helpline and their wider support for the Trust is warmly welcomed.”

Other speakers on the day included Professor Michael Oddy, who presented the research findings, Deborah Fortescue and Sabah Ahmed both of whom work directly with St George’s Crypt.

This latest work with the local community in Leeds, adds to the great work Core Telecom already does supporting good causes across the UK. The company has built long standing relationships with national charities, including The James Whale Fund for Kidney Cancer and Dreams & Wishes.

Upon donation of the phone line, Core Telecom’s Cheif Executive Mahmood Mazhar stated: “At Core Telecom we have a proud history of working with a wide range charities, and it is a great pleasure to be able to provide a brand new helpline for the Disabilities Trust. This is part of our on-going support of the foundation, who’s work is of great importance to me. I hope that by working together, Core Telecom and the Disabilities Trust can make a real difference to people’s lives.”

They had originally set the target of reaching this figure by the end of 2012, but by drafting in hundreds of extra engineers to cover the work they have confortably beaten the set deadline.

Speaking in the Guardian, Ian Livingstone BT’s Cheif Executive commented: “Rolling out fibre is no easy task and so to have passed ten million premises in such a short time is fantastic. Our roll-out is one of the fastest in the world and our engineers deserve lots of credit”

This news from BT has been released just as the group reported that during the 12 months up to 31st March, their earnings were 3% above their forecast, to £6bn.

In addition, during the same time period BT’s consumer facing arm reported new total broadband subscriptions of 589,000 acorss the UK. It’s thought that thanks to the new super-fast broadband service customers had moved to BT from rivals Virgin Media.

From 2013 BT plans to further extend their fibre optic footprint by introducing fibre direct telephone exchanges. The result would be broadband speeds of up to 300Mbps, with potential to run a 1 gigabit per second connection in the future.

Later this month two 1st year medical students from Leeds University will take part in the Leeds Half Marathon in support of Light of Africa. Genevieve Mullins and Anna Nielson-Scott will take to the streets of Leeds on Sunday 13th May to run the 13 mile course.

Light of Africa was established 12 years ago, and is based in Tanzania. The not for profit organisation cares of sick, abandoned and handicapped children and other unsupported people in Africa.

They rely on donations and various volunteer programs, and the money raised by Genevieve and Anna will be warmly welcomed.

Core Telecom is also proud to play a central role in the UK based charity, Dreams and Wishes. Our Cheif executive, Mahmood Mazhar has worked with Dreams and Wishes since the charity was first started and that support continues further including financial backing, and the donation of our complete call management services.

The main reason behind the research was that members of the public no longer trust non-geo numbers, are in most cases believe they cost far more to call than is the case. In addition, the variety of numbers and charges is causing mass confusion and as such the public no longer trusts non-geo numbers.

Over the last two years, Ofcom have undertaken a major review of the non-geo market, and following consultation with the industry, customers and the public, they have now released a series of proposals to reform how non-geo numbers work.

The reforms have been centred around boosting the income of number suppliers, as the predicted results will mean that the public will make more calls.

Overview of new non-geo proposals from Ofcom:

• There will be a maximum call charge to 080 and 116, which will become free to call on both landlines and mobiles.
• The cost to call an 03 number will continue to be linked to the price of a local call to any geo number.
• Introduction of new a tariff structure for other non geo numbers, this will seperate access and service charges.
• Calls to an 084X number will be up to seven pence per minute, and up to 13p for 087X, plus the connection charge.
• Calling an 09 number will cost up to 145ppm, plus the connection charge.

Building more trust with the public

The current plans do not involve introducing a cap on connection charges, but operators will need to clearly display charges on bills. Each bill will need to display the full cost of each individual call, though plans to clearly show the connection charge have not been followed up. That said, there will be a new rule regarding each service to have one single connection charge, irrespective of what type of phone the caller is using.

In addition, service providers will be forced to clearly display all charges on any marketing material. Plus, Ofcom wants to introduce new icons to represent each number.

Sonny is the current Commonwealth Junior Champion in his category, and has broken 40 British Junior Records to date. So far he has represented Great Britain at 6 European Senior events, which led to him being invited to the Olympic test event in London earlier this year.

This week Sonny popped in to confirm everything, and to pick up some brand new training gear we had printed with Core Telecom branding. In our picture (left), he has been photographed with our Sales Director, Scott Walker.

He his now totally focused on claiming a place in the GB Weightlifting Team for London 2012. Sonny told us he is now down to the final 5 athletes who are competing for just 3 places.
Like all full time athletes, Sonny relies on external support as the small amount of funding he receives from British Weightlifting does not cover his costs.

As part of our support, Core Telecom is providing Sonny with the funding he needs to travel from his home in Bristol, to the excellent training facilities that are located in Leeds.

If you would like to follow the fortunes of Sonny, he regularly tweets his latest news and we will keep everyone up-to-date on his progress. Everyone at Core Telecom wishes Sonny all the best as he continues to achieve his Olympic Dream.

As part of the partnership, Core Telecom will now be able to offer our customers access to new Ethernet based services. The new service additions will provide businesses with dedicated and high availability internet connections.

As part of the new services, Core Telecom will be able to offer our customers with a series of additional benefits, including instant online pricing.

This move by Gamma means that, together with Core Telecom, we can take a major share of the data market, in addition to our wide range of products.

Talking with Comms-Dealer.com, James Bushell, Head of Data Services at Gamma commented: “Partners cannot only turn quotes around instantly, but they are also given a comprehensive quote across both Ethernet and IP Telephony. This joined up approach is central to our offering, from quoting to project management of orders and all the way through to in-life support, our Partners deal with a single and accountable supplier for voice and data access.”

Core Telecom’s partnership with Gamma has enabled us to further build on our strategy of developing our products portfolio. Our customers now have access to the most comprehensive telephony service in the UK.

According to Strategy Statistics consumers have purchased 44.5 million handsets so far this year. The figure is far more than Apple, who have sold 35 million. That said, sales figures for Apple are very impressive considering the price of an iPhone.

As Samsung offer a much wider range of handsets, from the Galaxy S2 to rival the iPhone, to the more affordable handsets – with more new models in the pipeline this year. Samsung have stated they they expect to announce record profit figures for every quarter this year.

Speaking to the Guardian, Robert Yi, Head of Investor Relations at Samsung commented: “We cautiously expect our earnings momentum to continue going forward, as competitiveness in our major businesses is enhanced.”

These sales figures signal more heart ache for Nokia, who have previously been the biggest mobile phone distributor since 1998. They were only narrowly behind, but they now hold a 22.5% share of the mobile phone market.

By the end of the year, these figures are expected to change somewhat with the eagerly awaited launch of Apple’s, iPhone 5.

The competition for a place in the market is set to heat up further as demand for the latest technolgy grows worldwide. Analysts are predicting this will force the big manufacturers, such as Samsung and Apple, to lower their prices.

While this may cause confusion to consumers while deciding with handset is best for them, I’m sure they won’t complain about cheaper pricing!

Until last there was two companies in discussions to take over C&W, but after the Indian based Tata Communication walked away, this left Vodafone has the sole bidder. They are to set to pay 38p a share in C&W, but this could change as negotiations continue.

Vodafone has been keen to expand it’s corporate arm for some time after seeing slow consumer growth. The fact that C&W already provide services to many large companies including Tesco has proved to be a very attractive prospect to Vodafone.

Talking to The Independant, Vodafone Group Cheif Executive Vitorrio Colao said: “The acquisition of Cable & Wireless Worldwide creates a leading integrated player in the enterprise segment of the UK communications market and brings attractive cost savings to our UK and international operations.”

In recent months Cable & Wireless has been hit hard by the reduction in Government spending, as well as a very weak economy. Last year the company posted heavy losses.

As the two companies overlap in many parts of their business, it is feared that job losses are inevitable but Vodafone have moved to assure the current work force that no decisions have been made.

Their work involves providing people with any immediate care and support they need, and then doing all they can to find people all the help they need to move forward with their lives.

Our visit involved being shown around the great facilities they provide, such as the food canteen, bedrooms, TV Room and gardens. They also have private interview rooms where people can discuss their situation with a case worker and a larger function room. We were also given the chance to meet many of the staff and some of the people the Crypt is helping to re-build their lives. For more information please visit the St George’s Crypt Website.

As part of this work, St. George’s Crypt has teamed up with the Disabilities Trust to launch new research into the reasons why people find themselves homeless. This will focus on strong evidence that many homeless people have suffered from a brain injury before they found themselves on the streets.

Core Telcom are delighted to be able to support this research through sponsoring the launch event which will take place at the Crypt in May. Plus, through supplying the Crypt with a free to call number and complete use of our call management systems, more people will be able to benefit from the great work St. George’s Crypt does in Leeds.

Sonny, 17 is the current Commonwealth Junior Champion and is the holder of two junior British records. To date he has represented GB at 6 European Senior Events and now has set his sights on a place in the Olympic team for London 2012.

Recently, he was invited to compete in the Olympic Test Event in London where he finished 9th. This was a fantastic achievement considering that all the top weightlifters in the world were competing. See Sonny in action below:

Like all full time athletes, Sonny requires funding for training sessions, travel expenses and equipment. He does receive a contribution from British Weightlifting but is reliant from extra support from sponsors in order to maintain his strict training schedule.

As part of the sponsorship Core Telecom will provide Sonny with some training gear, as well as financial backing to ensure he can concentrate on his Olympic Dream.

This week Sonny is competing in the European Championships in Turkey, everyone at Core Telecom wishes him the best of luck!