Are You Moving Business Premises? Top 10 tips

A guide for planning your telecommunications.

Keeping your number is the least of your worries.

Check out these useful Top 10 tips:

1. Check what telecoms services you can have before you sign for the premises. You could be signing for a building that someone has left because they cannot get decent broadband or basic telephone services. Make sure the new premises has a valid address with Openreach and it’s a “served” premises. If there is no valid address you have got to leave a lot more time; at least six weeks more and delays could be months. No one can even order you a basic telephone line without this pre-requisite as they can’t find you on the EMP portal service providers use to order a line, fibre optic or broadband.  The key to establishing whether your premises is served is it must have an Openreach NTTP within the confines of your premises (Network Testing and Termination Point).
2. Leave enough time to fit the correct services. Openreach often issue a misleading CDD (Contracted Delivery Date) giving the number of working days lead time following an initial survey. These dates are the absolute minimum the service will be provided in and very often overrun. Be warned there is zero flexibilitywith Openreach or any other Carrier’s delivery times. If Openreach ask you for some information, give it back to them immediately. If you don’t tell them straight away, the CDD is put off and automatically extended by the amount of time it took to get a response inputted into their system.
3. Check how much line plant (copper wires) is feeding the building. If there is enough line plant for three lines and you order four, your whole order goes into delay until they can appoint contractors to pull new cables through. It could take months to provide new services and especially in rural areas. If there are not enough cables ask the landlord for a rent holiday while new one’s are fitted, if there is a significant delay.
4. Check if landlords will allow you to cross their land to provide services, the ducts leading to buildings silt up over time and new services cannot be “rodded” through.
5. Check where the NTTP is in relation to where you are putting your patch panels. Openreach are obliged to fit a line within 3m of the NTTP. If the NTTP is in the wrong place your hardware is going to be too far from the equipment and moving the NTTP takes a long time.
6. Mobile phones. Check what the reception is like inside the building in all locations, with live phone calls. You need at least three bars or more in most locations for a consistent signal. Power lines also dramatically affect a “good” signal, always test the phone calls near them. Bad signal or inconstant quality is very frustrating for your staff.
7. Are you insured in both your old premises and new premises without a working Redcare alarm line? Both need to be active until you move in or another tenant moves in your old premises.
8. Do you know what every phone line does in your present business? You will need to replace them at the new site.
9. Moving business broadband means changing IP addresses, so remote access to most business telephone systems and IT systems won’t work. Changing your IP address means your domain name will take 48 hours to update, affecting your web site.
10. Numbering, what is the local range of telephone numbers and can I keep my existing one?

How Midland Telecom Can Help You?

Rather than expose yourself to some of the risks detailed above, apply for a free, no obligation, ten part survey of your new premises. We will complete the major checks you need to know and warn you of any potential hazards.

• Validate address on Openreach EMP as a served premises
• If premises is possibly divided without an exclusive NTTP
• What phone lines are active in the premises, how much spare line plant there is and any stopped lines available for instant connection
• The actual cable distance from the exchange rather than as the “crow flies”
• Leased line and business broadband services available including ADSL2, Fibre Broadband, Ethernet First Mile, Fibre leased lines and analogue, ISDN2 and ISDN30 telephone line connectivity
• The true speed of main services based on the actual cable distance
• If any services might have excess construction charges or high costs to provide
• Local telephone number ranges and suggest good, reservable numbers
• If you can keep existing numbers and check if current number ranges can be ported
• The mobile phone coverage and if decent 3G and 4G services are present on each of the main mobile networks

If you are thinking to move your office premises, make sure you do within the right time! Call us on 0121 214 1100 to help you planning your moving premises.