Business communications provider Ntl Telewest Business announced that it had now fully integrated its two main networks in order to compete with telecoms incumbent BT.
Speaking on the first anniversary of the combined company, managing director Stephen Beynon said work to pull together the two main networks had now finished and this allowed the company to offer businesses an alternative to BT's offerings.
He said the newly-enlarged network was now the second largest in the UK after BT's and covered 85 per cent of businesses. This meant that it could offer businesses the largest Ethernet presence in the country and have a greater reach outside of the capital while most alternative telecoms providers tend to stick with operations within the M25.
"Ninety per cent of our generated revenue is outside London," said Beynon. "With our combined network we are ready to take on BT. We know hat many of the estimated 7,000 large businesses in the UK still relish a true alternative to BT and we aim to deliver that."
He also gave reasons for the company not taking on the Virgin moniker when the company bought Virgin Mobile and rebranded its residential offerings Virgin Media. "We didn't want to get drowned in the noise".
Beynon said that the company had invested 13bn in its network and would continue to invest to compete with rival telecoms providers. He said that of the 657m revenues the company had generated in revenues, half that came from IP-based sales.
He said that the company had four main offerings to business, Ethernet, IP VPN, IP Multimedia (VoIP, video conferencing) and IP CCTV. Ethernet sales for the company have grown 150 per cent over the last year and IP VPN by more than 180 per cent, according to figures released by the company.
