Palmer is also set to disrupt the business broadband market with an offer to his channel partners that will see Nine Telecom offer a free upgrade from ADSL to ADSL2+ wherever the service is available.
“Nine Telecom is not a broadband supplier in the same way as say Griffin and Murphx (both of whom have some great products) but as an aggregator we can negotiate hard with best of breed suppliers including BT Wholesale and it is through BT that we can now offer our partners a complimentary upgrade to ADSL2+ where the exchange supports the service. Being able to do this is a key attribute of being an aggregator.
Feedback from our channel partners is, as you would expect, great, and furthermore Nine Telecom will fully manage a white label customer service within the deal for our partners. This means that our channel partners can offer their customer an up to 20 meg service for the price of up to 8 meg whilst competitive offerings in the market are typically only available at a 20-25% premium price.
Resellers can simply use our provisioning portal and carry out a line test on the number. Where ADSL2+ is available it will be indicated and the reseller will be asked ‘would you like ADSL2+ for the same price as ADSL?’ And why wouldn’t they?
Nine Telecom Group is a channel business and is passing on directly to our partners the results of our negotiating and purchasing power. Our competitors often need to charge a premium for products such as ADSL2+ as they have to recoup the investments made in their network infrastructure.
For our partners, being with an aggregator of services is a little like going to a car dealer that sells BMW, Audi, Mercedes and Lexus. In this scenario the car dealer makes a small margin on all the available brands so you would expect to receive real independent advice on which car to buy depending on your specific requirements.
This offer for a complimentary upgrade to ADSL2+ from Nine Telecom is not just price disruption it is about Nine Telecom working for the benefit of our channel partners. We wanted to offer something more. As a successful aggregator of network services we have been telling our suppliers that if they want to work with our 400 plus partners then we want something special from them, such as this ADSL2+ deal. We have even set up an email address for anyone with a unique or interesting product, being newsupplier@ninetelecomgroup.co.uk where new suppliers can pitch their products or offers directly to the senior management team. They must however be prepared to come up with something very special.
“Our duty is to fight for the best deals for our partners and delivery them which is exactly what we have done with ADSL2+.”