I wanted to write to wish you the best for the coming festivities and to say thank you for working with us this year. I really hope it is a good one for you and your family.
Before doing so, we’ve posted a few blog updates that you might want to cast your eye over. We really don’t want you to have any expensive surprises over this period so have highlighted 4 quick ways to stay safe from VoIP fraud. You’ve heard some of them before but one of them is brand new today and probably the most useful over what is usually a quiet period business wise. Please do take a look.
We’ll be on-hand over the entire period ensuring the network is operating and dealing any issues as they arise. However, the banks will be closed and we won’t be dealing with routine issues. Please therefore ensure you have enough credit before the period and if you run out please make use of the credit card top-up facility in the portal for self-service top-up. Remember you can also add and remove IP addresses through our API so do not need to wait until the New Year.
2013 was our 16th year in business and it is easily the most exciting and fulfilling one yet. We’ve talked about new features continuously here but have quietly made massive changes behind the scenes with continued six-figure investment in upgrading our IP and SS7 networks as well as growing our rather large vSphere stacks (which run all of our non voice apps such as billing etc.). Our 3 redundant sites offer resilience and performance to a level we really don’t think compares. There’s more to do and I’ve signed some exciting purchase orders for January delivery so the progress can continue in 2014.
Of course, you can’t invest money without making it. We’ve never been a company reliant on debt, grants or the goodwill of venture capitalists. We invest cash that we’ve made so it is important we remain efficient and lean and keep on growing at all levels. In 2013 our voice termination revenues have grown 35% but that is the tip of the iceberg really. The revenue we make for, rather than from, our customers has grown exponentially and due to new products such as Virtual Interconnect we’ve more than doubled what we bill other operators such as BT. More significantly to you we’ve paid out more than 4 times as much to customers for their incoming traffic and have millions of customer numbers now on-net through Virtual Interconnect. And for the record that is millions of voice capable numbers, not a figure that includes other services for impression!
I’d also like thank and welcome our new customers. As a wholesale only provider we don’t have thousands but have grown our customer base over 25% in 2013 and now work with over 440 Communications Providers of all shapes and sizes in over 70 countries. Our customers range from start-ups through medium size ISPs to incumbents and fixed-line operators in a number of territories.
There’s been a few changes to our team this year. It is hard to believe (in the nicest way!) that Ross only joined us in 2013 and I know many of you have had contact and said nice things about him to me. Rachel has been sadly missed as she’s embarked on a new adventure as a Mum, but she’s been keeping her hand in and will be back more fully in early 2014. We want to add more great people to our team in 2014 so if you know anyone exceptional, please let me know. Last but not least, we got a new Chairman in Grahame Davies who’s support and counsel has been priceless.
2014 is going to be even better. We have some awesome plans in the pipeline that I can’t wait to tell you about! As always though we’re really receptive to hearing what you need and want from us so do get in touch.
Once again, thank you for your support, have a wonderful festive period and we really look forward to working with you in 2014.
All the best,
Simon
PS – don’t forget those 4 quick ways to stay safe from VoIP fraud this Christmas!
