Tiscali CEO: Bandwidth is key to fat pipe nation

Q&A: Mary Turner on why speed is no longer the issue...

Mary Turner heads up the operations of ISP Tiscali UK, occupying the CEO's chair since September 2003.

Her background is in retail and Turner originally trained as an accountant, but she has more than a decade's experience in the technology industry, becoming general manager UK and VP marketing Europe for AOL Bertelsmann/Compuserve Information Services in 1994. From there she moved on to become CEO of LineOne - and led the sale of the business to Tiscali in 2001 where she remained as managing director until her appointment as CEO.

The company recently launched a range of business ADSL2+ broadband packages for SMEs under the Pipex Business brand, following its acquisition of Pipex's broadband and phone divisions last year. Research conducted by the Cranfield School of Management for Tiscali found almost half (46 per cent) of SMEs surveyed feel the internet has raised the complexity of running a business and just 16 per cent believe it has increased operational efficiency.

On surprises in Tiscali's SME research...
Mary Turner: What did surprise me was the general feeling that the internet has made running businesses more complex and that it didn't help efficiency or made it less efficient.

I can see how it's increased competition and opened up the market - whether it's locally, nationally or internationally. However I was really surprised that they found it made it more complex to operate.

Broadband Britain - why speed is not enough...
The internet and broadband is not just about speed. There's a huge amount of focus on speed. If you track back two or three years ago and the whole of the UK was on half meg [Mb] I would say that's not sufficient. Today the basic package is 8Mbps broadband and we're now talking about 16 to 20Mbps broadband so I think from a speed perspective we're there. Can we increase the speed - yes. But I think the next phase of internet is the volume – i.e. the bandwidth. Because if you look at what the internet has been used for it has been used for email, surfing, file transfers and 1 or 2Mbps broadband is more than sufficient. The next generation of usage and users are going to download videos, stream soaps and so on and it's not speed that matters. Sure you need speed but 16Mbps is more than enough. What you need is the bandwidth.

BBC iPlayer as a bandwidth hogger?
The iPlayer is a good tool or application for consumers. Are we worried about it? We are only worried about the iPlayer on a reseller or BT's network. Because you're buying IP stream at a very high price it has limited bandwidth but we've actually rolled out our core high bandwidth multicast ADSL2 + enabled network.

We've got 55 per cent coverage. Are we worried about our usage in that area? Absolutely not. Because we have huge amount of capacity because we've actually built a network that's enabled for TV services. So is iPlayer going to be a big concern or issue for us? No, no in that area.

What customers want...
Speed is not an issue at the moment. We've just launched our business broadband - the 100,000 customers that we have today on Pipex are very satisfied with the service that we provide. What they're talking about is prioritised traffic, 24/7 support, guaranteed uptime and so on and so forth - so if there are any challenges, those are the areas that we should be focused on - are focusing on. How fast do you want your email to arrive? There is only so much speed before you've maximised or optimised the speed of transaction.

Fixing the bandwidth problem? The "issue is the connection"...
We've already rolled out a high bandwidth core network. We're probably today using less than 10 per cent of the bandwidth that we have put in. So [there's] huge amounts of bandwidth yet to be used.

Where the issue is is the connection, the bit between the core network and the exchange. Now that's where we have to buy a product called backhaul. Which is a very expensive product. Now is there enough bandwidth in the ground? Absolutely. The problem is the cost and there is only one supplier who can actually give us [that backhaul]… BT.

They are the only organisation who has fibre to the exchange, and they are not obliged by the regulator to resell fibre to the exchange. So it is not a problem of 'do we have the network?', it's a commercial argument.

The bandwidth is there, it needs to be commercialised so that we can afford to actually buy that and resell it at an affordable price to the consumer. And that's the argument and it is a point that we have made to Ofcom. And we are having those discussions with Ofcom on a regular basis because we have to because the discussion has moved on to fibre to the curb.

But what we're saying is before you get to fibre to the curb - you've really encouraged us to unbundle the exchanges, you've encouraged us to put high bandwidth core networks but you haven't given us the connection between the exchange and the core network, so it's still half a solution. They understand that and I believe they are working towards a solution but as to when and how much we don't know yet.

What other internet trends are you aware of?
The changing use of the internet from a consumer perspective - from emails and surfing to rich content.

How can women be attracted to IT? Addressing the gender balance...
It's not just women in technology, it's women in management and women in boardrooms.

Technology and engineering has always attracted the male gender. But I think that will change. I remember when I left university and went into accountancy. In the new intake of 80 there were two women and we were like the odd pair wanting to do accountancy. Today there are more women doing ACA [Associate Chartered Accountant] than men, so it will change over time.

So technology is seen as a geeky male arena but we are seeing more women coming into it and I think it will be exponential. As with everything in life you need the first cluster to come in and spread the word and encourage.

It's relatively easy to operate in this environment because it is quite male dominated and there is a certain approach which is very different to the approach that a woman would use and comes naturally. So there is no ego in the way. So I would probably ask questions that my male colleagues wouldn't dare ask because they might think it might look stupid, but I'm quite happy to ask those questions and therefore gain much more insight and experience - so there are advantages. But I would like to see more women not just in technology but in management, senior management and at board level.

Integration of Tiscali and Pipex...
We completed the acquisition on 13 September. And the networks have already been integrated and we'll continue to migrate those customers off the BT network onto our network. The call centres have been outsourced, where appropriate. But obviously for the business centre we are preserving the call centre - which is a UK-based centre. In terms of all the other aspects, most of it is underway but integration takes time. When we put the plan together it was an integration over a period of 10 to 12 months. And we're well ahead of our plan but it's still ongoing.