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Sure IP network engineer Josh Chaloner tells Laura Clayton why the company is prioritising the delivery of future benefits to customers’ homes and workplaces
WE have all lived through the technological revolution, with the advancements seen over the past couple of decades changing the way we work and relax beyond recognition.
Josh Chaloner has seen first-hand how these changes have benefited lives through his work over the Past decade as an IP network engineer for Sure.
One of the biggest changes in the very recent past has been the introduction of fibre technology, which Josh says has been “generating quite a bit of work, but also really improving and futureproofing the network for years to come”.
The ongoing successful Guernsey fibre rollout that Sure had been involved with was continuing to deliver benefits for the end users, he said.
“Now we’re able to push out gigabit or higher connectivity to residential customers, which is great. It’s going to enable household streaming, with kids gaming, no one’s going to be interfering with each other any more. There’s plenty to go around.”
Despite not being involved with delivering the fibre rollout himself, Josh said the islandwide uptake had been so positive that it was driving change elsewhere on the Sure network, with further benefits being realised for customers across the Channel Islands.
“There’s been a very big uptake from the consumer space, where people really want these services, which is great. It makes a massive difference, even on the very high-end speed services, where we can now offer up to 2gb per second services to premises.
“But even 500mb per second services make such a big difference compared to the old VDSL speeds for multi-use systems. Everyone is just so connected these days, whether that’s with your smartphones or laptops, gaming consoles or smart fridges. Everything is connected to the internet now, so everything is just using more of that bandwidth, even just idling in the background.
“You might have ten or 15 Internet of Things devices. Whether they are fridges, freezers, washing machines, smart light bulbs or ring doorbell systems, they are all using internet bandwidth. They’re all talking to something and these stack up, and it does have an impact, but often an unseen impact, or an impact you don’t think about. Just having that extra bandwidth there really makes a difference.”
You might have ten or 15 Internet of Things devices. Whether they are fridges, freezers, washing machines, smart light bulbs or ring doorbell systems, they are all using internet bandwidth
Josh Chaloner
With Sure leading the way in delivering these benefits to homes and workplaces across the islands, Josh said he was excited to see what was coming next.
“You were looking at ADSL broadband when I started, which was miles ahead of the old dial-up systems, but up to 20mb per second was more or less your limit. It was plenty for most people, but over time that’s just increased and increased, and demand has increased based on everyone being so connected now.
“From the business space, there has been a lot of change as well around your standard telecoms connectivity. You don’t have the big Mitel blocks any more with all your ISDN services coming in. A lot of it is moving now to voiceover IP. There are lots of things with Teams integration, SIP services and things like that, so now you can have a video call, or you can phone someone’s landline and you can configure it to use these SIP services, and it gets rid of a lot of equipment you no longer need. It all runs in the cloud, and that’s it. It’s a pretty simple set-up process. There is a little bit of connectivity required, but once you’re done, that’s it, and it’s the way everything’s going now.
“Things have changed a lot more in the last ten or 20 years, than in the ten or 20 years before that. It’s been a really rapid change with a rapid growth in the technology space and I’m excited to see what else is coming.”
Delivering future benefits to customers’ homes and workplaces is high on Sure’s agenda and Josh says that AI technology will have an impact in the next stage of the technological revolution, with it being used to assist in the further development and improvement of existing services and new services to elevate the benefits for all of us.
Those benefits will bring rewards for the islands’ economies as well through delivering new services for businesses to serve their own customers too.
“The connectivity, regardless of the industry that you’re in, is so important now. The old Mitel systems and the analogue phone systems are all now moving towards SIP or voiceover IP internet-based systems.
“The same applies to all the other services that businesses use. Regardless of their industry, they’re going to be using email, they’re going to be using word-processing applications, whatever that may be. Historically, you may have hosted servers in your office that your IT team would have looked after to facilitate that, but now a lot of it’s going to the cloud. It’s really enabled a much easier workflow for connecting people to each other. That’s what it’s all about.
“As a networking engineer, my job is literally connecting people or connecting devices, and that’s what it’s all about. This is especially relevant as we are offshore. The technology has enabled everyone to work together as if they were sitting next to each other in the same room.”
Sure has a multitude of systems that it can share with its customers to enable that connectivity, with options to suit small to large businesses, as well as residential users. Josh said the technology offered choice as well as security and speed.
“The connectivity is so important these days. And, again, when you think about speed increases, time matters. Time is money, as they say, and it does make a difference in certain industries.
“You need it to be fast and you want it to be reliable, and once you’ve got that reliable connectivity in place, you don’t have to worry about it. You can then focus on other areas.
“I think your telecommunications services should go unnoticed. You know you need that connectivity, but it should be there, working exactly how you need it to, and it shouldn’t be causing you any bothers.
“And security is a big aspect. I think it’s coming into the limelight a little bit more now. There has always been a need for it, but it’s certainly getting much more important. You hear about ransomware attacks and other things taking businesses out, so it’s very important to know where you’re connected, what you’re connected to and to use encryption and any available means to protect your data and your systems.
“That’s really important, especially from a data protection side of things, which also brings up another point, which is data residency: where you store your data. Lots of businesses are going to have databases of customer information. That will be recorded somewhere and that needs to be protected. In certain cases, that needs to be stored in a specific place, whether that’s in Europe, the UK or America. Depending on who that customer is, their data needs to be in a specific place based on the requirements and regulations set forth by the governing bodies.
“That’s why, when people shift stuff to the cloud, they also still host things in local data centres, largely because of data residency.
“They can guarantee that their data is here, it is not anywhere else, and they have full control of that data.”
To take advantage of Sure’s services and its insight into how the different technology available can benefit you and your business, there has never been a better time to get in touch.
Josh said there may be something new that was perfect for your needs.
“I’m not going to tell anyone how to how to do their business but certainly don’t sit on legacy services. See what’s available. If you’re a Sure customer, speak to your account manager. See if there’s anything new we can offer you, anything that will improve what you’ve currently got, just to make sure that you’re running on the latest, greatest tech available. Make sure that you’re making use of all the new technologies and the security that comes with those.”
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