Tiscali takes on BT in SME sector

Tiscali is gearing up for its first foray into the SME channel after inking distribution agreements with Gamma Telecom and Griffin.

Having traditionally focused on the consumer and corporate sectors, the telecoms provider will now lock horns with BT in the SME arena with its Voice Ready broadband offering.

Lance Spencer, product and marketing director at Tiscali Business Services, said Gamma would act as the major channel for the product in the UK.

“To make Voice Ready effective for the channel, it needs a voice wraparound – and this is the part Gamma is providing,” he explained.

Tiscali has also appointed Griffin to push its standard broadband portfolio to VARs serving the SME market.

“Griffin has a good base of resellers,” Spencer said. “Until now it has been selling BT’s IP Stream service, which can’t be used for voice. This allows Griffin to offer VARs a better price proposition and voice-ready services.”

Spencer said the agreement would hand Tiscali access to 400 dealers.

“Tiscali has been very active in the consumer arena and Tiscali Business Services has been very successful in mid-market enterprise, but neither has done much in the SME market until now,” he said.

John Carter, managing director of BT distributor DMSL, said: “Guaranteed quality of service is what SMEs want, and they can’t currently get that from BT. There’s not a lot of choice in the business market because a lot of the vendors have swallowed each other up.”

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