Virgin Media 2013 Annual Report Download - page 10

I - 8
In 2013, we continued to focus on increasing our proportion of higher-value postpaid customers, improving access to content
via our mobile platform, expanding our range of higher value mobile handsets and cross-selling into homes already connected to
our cable network. We have continued to promote the use of our mobile platform to view internet and television content by
introducing features such as Virgin TV Anywhere.
As at December 31, 2013, we employed approximately 550 members of staff in our mobile services call centers.
Business Products and Services
We offer a broad portfolio of business-to-business (B2B) voice, data and internet solutions to commercial and public sector
organizations in the U.K., ranging from analog telephony to managed data networks and applications. B2B peak usage generally
occurs at different times of the day from that of our residential customers, which allows for more efficient use of our network. We
provide B2B services to approximately 50,000 U.K. businesses and almost 250 public sector organizations. We also supply
communications services to approximately 55% of the U.K.’s fire and ambulance services and approximately 60% of U.K. police
forces. We have security accreditations across a range of B2B products and services in order to increase our offerings to public
sector organizations in the U.K. These accreditations are granted subject to periodic reviews of our policies and procedures by
U.K. governmental authorities. We are currently undergoing a review of one of our most significant accreditations. If we were to
fail to maintain an accreditation or to obtain a new one when required, it could impact our ability to provide certain offerings to
the public sector.
We offer contractual service levels to all B2B customers and these are supported by U.K.-based regional teams. In addition
to our standard B2B service levels, a tiered B2B service level is available to tailor service requirements based on size of organization,
sector and importance. These tiered B2B service levels include priority response, named dedicated staff and customer premises-
based teams managing service levels.
Converged Solutions
Converged solutions use a single network to transport voice, data and video, allowing our B2B customers to benefit from cost
synergies. Additionally, we offer services such as internet protocol (IP) virtual private networks, which enable our customers to
prioritize bandwidth for different types of traffic so that more time sensitive data or critical application data is transported with
priority, providing increased flexibility and control over data management. Our extensive network reach also enables us to offer
large or dispersed organizations the ability to effectively link sites across the U.K. using a wide range of access technologies,
supporting services such as voice and video conferencing, instant messaging and file transfers.
Ethernet
Our Ethernet network has approximately 300 Ethernet nodes and is capable of carrying a variety of services and high bandwidth
applications simultaneously. We have been delivering Ethernet services for over 10 years and have achieved both Metro Ethernet
Forum, or MEF, 9 and MEF 14 accreditation (becoming the first service provider in the world to renew this accreditation), ensuring
our Ethernet product portfolio can support stringent real-time communications applications, including voice over IP, or VoIP, and
HD-quality videoconferencing. We offer a range of products from local area network extensions to managed wide area Ethernet
networks, providing our B2B customers with high bandwidth and flexible solutions, including market-leading point to multi-point
services.
Applications and Services
As an overlay to network products, we also offer applications, such as video conferencing, and managed services, such as
information security services, designed to increase flexibility and reduce costs of our customers.