Opal VARs are urged to converge

Resellers are advised to develop voice and data skills or face extinction

Merge lane: Tier-two carriers could be in danger of being swallowed up

Carrier Opal claims the comms market is boiling down to a trio of multi-skilled service providers and has urged VARs to converge, or be converged out of business.

The telco currently has about 400 UK partners. Transformation director Andy Lockwood said Opal has worked over the past two years to recruit more data VARs and bring long-standing voice partners up to speed on networking technologies.

“Whether you start in the data or the voice world, the other one looks like black magic,” he said. “We are encouraging our partners that you are either the converger, or you get converged out.”

For end users and channel firms alike there should be three stages of convergence, said Lockwood, with the first being a move from legacy to next-generation network infrastructure. The second stage should involve combining voice and data networks into one, before finally adding high-end applications such as video.

Lockwood added that the industry can expect consolidation among carriers to continue and stressed that Opal will compete doggedly with main rivals BT and Virgin Media.

“There are only three credible providers,” he said. “We are happy that Opal has the biggest network.”

Smaller challengers will inevitably lag behind, he added.

“They just do not have the deep pockets to build a UK-wide network.”

But Don McQueen, chief executive of GCI Telecom, said there would always be a place for ambitious tier-two players such as his own. He added that GCI’s network allowed it to compete economically with the big three.

“The bigger players can be inflexible and not necessarily focused on what customers want,” he said. “We are inundated with customers that want a friendly and flexible service.”