4G SIM News
Vodafone has recently announced the launch of its Sure Signal Premium service for medium and large businesses, which provides a robust solution for indoor mobile coverage throughout out the workplace. Although the Ultrafast 4G version of this service won’t be available until the summer, businesses can already test out the service using 3G.
The release of Sure Signal Premium is a response to the growing use of mobile devices within the workplace, and the necessity of an ‘always connected’ workforce. Professionals now expect to be able to access apps and mobile internet at all times. There is also a growing trend for BYOD, or Bring Your Own Device in business, and this requires high-speed, high-quality mobile internet access to succeed.
Who Will Benefit from Sure Signal Premium?
The Sure Signal Premium service is designed for medium to large business that have:
- 320 or more employees
- 3,200 or more square metres of floor space
The robust solution is fully scalable so can be expanded to support many thousands of employees. It is designed for business of the future, and includes support for location-based analytics as well as mobile device management.
Sure Signal Premium will be installed quickly and easily by Vodafone and can be configured to provide the optimum mobile coverage for any shape or size of business premises. It will allow high volume data transfer, video streaming, conference calls, and a variety of other mobile internet based activities within the workplace.
The Ultrafast 4G version of the service will only be available to businesses in areas where Vodafone has rolled out its 4G network. You can check whether your business location is likely to fall into this category using the coverage checker on the Vodafone website. However, Ofcom has stated that it expects all of the UK’s 4G providers to provide 98% 4G coverage by the end of 2017, so even if your business is not in an area with 4G from Vodafone it shouldn’t be far away.
Development of Sure Signal Premium
The Sure Signal Premium service has been developed in partnership with NEC Corporation, a leader in the integration of IT and network technologies with extensive experience in indoor mobile coverage solutions. A second partner in the development has been SpiderCloud Wireless, a specialist developer of small cell network platforms to provide enhanced network coverage to businesses.
According to Fergal Kelly, CTO at Vodafone UK, “With Sure Signal Premium, large businesses can satisfy rising indoor capacity and coverage demands in a highly integrated, well managed way. This new service is just one benefit from the £900m we spent last year on our fixed and mobile network in the UK. This is one of the reasons 72% of FTSE 100 companies choose Vodafone to meet their communications needs.”
We often think of Ultrafast 4G mobile internet being used for recreational purposes, such as gaming, personal social media, and catch-up TV, but in fact it is now becoming a real driver for modern businesses. The use of mobile devices in the workplace is growing, and solutions such as Sure Signal Premium from Vodafone are designed to ensure that in future everyone can access 4G at the office.