Testimonials
Mr Hillis - owner, R&J Hillis - "Fibre broadband is essential to us and great value for money"
R&J Hillis - giftwareireland.com, Portrush
“We’ve been operating as a traditional draper and gift shop in Portrush since 1935, but we got fed up having no business from October to March each year when the season finishes. So about 8 years ago we started our giftwareireland.com website and the business has grown since then. I got fibre broadband 6 months ago and already I find the speed essential – I couldn’t contemplate going back to dial-up or lower speed. Our sites are now open 24 hours and available worldwide – I even get orders on Christmas Day. We ship Titanic mugs to Belgium and turf crosses to Korea – all from the office in the shop. Fibre broadband is essential to us and great value for money.”
Conor Quinn (IT Manager) - Superfast broadband has helped us save over £1,000 a month in call costs!
Ultra Pro Service, Newtownabbey
“We got fibre broadband in quite recently but it’s made dramatic changes to our business already. We get 40Mbps which means we have been able to move all our customer calls onto IP. We provide service and repairs for a range of household appliances, and being able to call our customers via the internet will save us £1,000 a month in call costs. That’s an incredible change to be able to make to our business in the current environment!”
Geoffrey Simpson - I’m half way up a mountain but even so I am getting a much better speed since I installed fibre broadband
Viewback Antiques and Auctions, Omagh
“I’m half way up a mountain but even so I am getting a much better speed since I installed fibre broadband about 6 months ago. It has allowed me to create a live internet bidding service, so that when we hold auctions we have people from all over the UK, the US, Australia and even China taking part. Our website has been averaging 150,000 hits a day recently, so we have to have the bandwidth to handle that demand. I’m delighted with the impact fibre broadband has had – I hope it keeps getting faster as I have all kinds of ideas I want to try out for my customers.”
Robin McMullen - It's just so quick and easy with superfast braodband!
Motorparts Ltd, Strabane
“We catalogue all our parts online, so keeping the records up to date is really important. With the speed we get from fibre broadband it’s no problem for all of us in the garage to be working online at the same time, finding parts for customers and managing our stock. There is a definite improvement over what we had before, and it’s just so quick and easy that you take it for granted. I feel we get more done these days as we’re not hanging around waiting to get online. “
Tommy Leckey - Superfast broadband has revolutionised my business
Photographer, Killough
"Superfast fibre broadband has really helped my business. I can now download photos and high resolution pictures much quicker than with my old non-fibre connection. Fibre has provided me with a swifter and better service and the ability to send many files simultaneously has really helped me out. It has revolutionised my business and allowed me to utilise different software packages that I couldn't previously take advantage of due to poor download speeds - this isn't a problem anymore!"
Gavin Oakes - The download and upload speeds are truly fantastic and I would recommend superfast fibre broadband to any forward thinking business!
Plus 2 Print, Downpatrick
"We at Plus 2 Print, Downpatrick, switched to superfast fibre broadband in October 2011 because it was the progressive step that we wanted to take for our business. We wanted to be more dynamic and be able to cope with the speed that customers demand in the print and design market. Producing work more efficiently is the mainstay of our customer base, and this certainly has been the case with fibre broadband - the download and upload speeds are truly fantastic and I would recommend the service to any forward thinking business!"
Mr Kevin Wheldon - There’s so much music and video available online and I can get the most out of it with superfast broadband!
Magherafelt
“I get 22Mbps at home, which is fantastic speed. There’s so much music and video available online and I can get the most out of it with the fibre broadband – no delays, great quality. I like using streaming and on-demand services like BBC iPlayer, and I can download movies in minutes. My employers are looking at a remote working scheme in the near future and the fibre broadband will let me be a part of that as well.”
Abigail Percy & Ryan Bell - As work and home overlap, having fibre broadband gives us the speed and flexibility we need to keep on top of everything!
Abigail & Ryan, Greenisland
“We love having fibre broadband at home, for movies and music – the download speeds are so fast so you never feel you have to wait around for something you want. We also run an online business from home – www.abigailryan.com – where we sell specialist home wares. The fibre broadband lets us keep our website bang up to date from home, and we take customer orders and arrange shipping directly and with no fuss. As work and home overlap, having fibre broadband gives us the speed and flexibility we need to keep on top of everything.”
Reuben Gourley (IT Manager) - Superfast broadband helps us spend more time producing the quality goods that our business is known for!
BA Kitchen Components, Cookstown
“Broadband now impacts most aspects of how we work in BA Components. All our employees work online, and the fibre broadband means there’s no problem with all of us using the same bandwidth. We also run our key business applications over fibre via terminal services in the cloud. We can manage our customers via our hosted portal in real-time, meaning customers can self-serve their accounts to place and check the status of orders and handle invoices. All of this means we can spend more time producing the quality goods that our business is known for.”
Grainne Madden - The kids are growing up with everything being so fast and easy thanks to superfast broadband!
Maghera
“I have young kids and already I can see how much they get out of what’s available online to help with schoolwork and learning. Of course, they like watching movies as well! They’re growing up with everything being so fast and easy thanks to the fibre broadband – I don’t think they’d believe me if I told them what it used to be like.”
Mr Pescott - Superfast broadband gives me a really stable service!
Scribble & Stitch, Magherafelt
“Fibre broadband gives me a really stable service with double the upload speed I used to have. That’s vital for me as I work on large image files that I often want to upload several at a time for clients. It’s so quick and reliable that I don’t even notice the time any more – but it takes minutes where it used to be hours. I have the internet open all the time and I can stream radio or Spotify while I work. And the kids can be on YouTube or Xbox Live next door – it doesn’t affect the speed or quality we all experience.”
Mr Brian Law (IT Manager) - having superfast broadband means significant savings for us!
FP McCann, Maghera
“We used to have a big spend on leased lines to connect to the internet, so having fibre broadband means significant savings for us. We really need the speed for using rich media, such as hosting video or Skype calls with colleagues in GB. We also use the fibre broadband as resilience for our cloud applications, which run over a VPN. In our experience Northern Ireland is in a great position with broadband – our colleagues in England can only get a fraction of the speeds we enjoy. I only wish we’d had this capability years ago.”
Mr & Mrs Gerry Higgins - Since we got the fibre broadband we have certainly been popular!
Lisnaskea
"I wouldn’t claim to be a whiz with computers but since we got the fibre broadband we have certainly been popular. My grandchildren are up with all the latest – playing games and all that. They’re here without fail every Wednesday to use the broadband and they’d be here every day if they were let! They love it and we love having them here with their mates so everyone’s happy.”
Anthony Donnelly - Having a faster service means that we can do more business
Photo Dome - Kodak Express, Enniskillen
"Having fibre broadband has made a real difference to us, especially when the shop is busy. The speed that people can download or print pictures is really noticeable. Having a faster service means that we can do more business and customers don’t usually run into long queues in the shop. Bigger picture files aren’t a problem either, so we can cope with any kind of demand and have people out the door with their pictures in no time."
David McClean - We’re more efficient and I’d never go back to the old broadband!
Mobile Computer Services, Enniskillen
"Fibre broadband is so much faster then what we had before. We do repairs and upgrades for people’s computers and laptops. A full version of Windows would take a day or more to download before we got fibre – now we do that job in 30 or 40 minutes. We can keep our website up to date in a fraction of the time it used to take and we can also let our customers have remote access to our services. It means we’re more efficient and I’d never go back to the old broadband!"
Jack Reid - Our broadband feels 10 times faster – you wouldn't believe the speed.
Jack Reid Cars, Carrickfergus
When I heard that super-fast broadband was in my area I immediately enquired and before I knew it it was installed. The new speed is unbelievable. We can now download large files quickly, manage our website and control our stock without any sluggish connections. My day-to-day online tasks are so much easier now – so I can spend more time selling cars and less time dealing with admin.
John Paul Annett - Fibre broadband will continue to save us money, improve customer service and win more business.
JR Annett, Warrenpoint, Co.Down
In July of this year we entered the GB market with a very basic online presence. In October 2010, we switched to super-fast, fibre optic broadband and everything has changed dramatically. In the past it would take between 30-40 seconds for a single image to load on the website, it now uploads straight away. Videos, which were impossible to upload properly beforehand, can now be put up onto the site with ease. Fibre broadband will continue to save us money, improve customer service and win more business.
Paul Sherry
Energy Assessments Northern Ireland, Newcastle, Co.Down
Stephen Corrigan - Super-fast broadband is absolutely amazing. Not just for us – but for our customers too.
Rainbow Centre, Enniskillen
I run a Family Entertainment Complex, and while the kids play, parents can chill out and enjoy free, unlimited super-fast internet. You wouldn't believe the difference it has made to our bottom line. Every day, more and more people are coming through our doors to use our cafe, facilities and see what we have to offer. We see it as an exceptional marketing tool – and it's now an essential part of our business.
Angela Martin - The Ulster Farmers’ Union are happy to support any initiative that seeks to provide enhanced broadband services to rural areas.
UFU Rural Affairs Committee Chairman,
An increasing amount of paperwork such as VAT returns, Single Farm Payment forms are now encouraged to be completed online and enhanced broadband coverage can only improve the efficiency of our farms and rural businesses. Furthermore improved access to information will make rural areas more attractive and sustainable in the longer term.
Ann McGregor - Embracing new technologies is the way to give any business, big or small, a competitive edge.
Chief Executive of the Northern Ireland Chamber,
We ’re delighted that the rollout of the Next Generation Broadband Project is continuing at pace and that many more businesses can now avail of faster broadband speeds, opening up a world of new possibilities. We look forward to watching businesses grow and thrive as a result of this investment in Northern Ireland’s telecommunications infrastructure.
Roisin Chambers - In our line of business, high speed broadband is a necessity, not a luxury.
K-Point Solutions, Warrenpoint
We sell our RentPro property management solution to letting agents throughout the British Isles. Because the system is web-based we need access to fast broadband speeds to connect to our remote servers for large file transfers. In the past we would have been geographically challenged in terms of access to broadband speeds due to our remote location, but with the advent of the DETI next generation broadband network we are getting the speeds we need to compete effectively.
Bob Jordan - The best toy I ever had
Lisburn
Eighty-four year-old Bob Jordan of Lisburn, in Northern Ireland, calls superfast broadband “the best toy I ever had” (5).
Bob is a fully wired citizen: he banks online and uses online public services; uploads scanned photos and designs cards for friends and family. He uses his web cam to keeping touch with friends as far afield as Africa and has become an online consultant for his local peer group.
The arrival of NGA fibre-based broadband accelerated Bob’s internet access from an average of 730kbps to 38Mbps – a speed increase of 50-fold.
“I don’t know what I’d do without it and I certainly don’t want to go back to what I had before,” he says.
Frank McManus, Head of Broadband Services, BT says: “Bob Jordan is the pensioner of the future. Using superfast broadband to interact with public services online is going to be critical to future service provision.”
