What does Avonline do?
Avonline is a leading resource partner delivering a complementary range of services to the UK telecoms, media, and technology sector. This includes installation, business services and digital switchover (IRS, broadband over IRS, satellite broadband and solar energy).
What is Avonline’s housing experience?
As a leading UK digital switchover specialist, we have been working with local councils and housing associations for many years. Our nationwide teams plan, install, commission and service cost-effective, high-quality digital communal aerial systems. These systems deliver television, FM and digital radio into communal blocks. Avonline teams have already upgraded over 150,000 communal dwellings with a similar number to be completed by 2012. These programmes have led to the provision of associated services such as broadband for communal dwellings, CCTV and door entry systems and now free solar PV installations.
What are the key technology trends in housing, and how does Avonline help address those trends?
Following the mandatory Digital Switchover programme, housing providers will see many new obligations over the next 5-10 years. Capital investment will be needed to comply with the Universal Service Obligation for broadband, carbon reduction targets and smart metering. Avonline is uniquely positioned and already working with housing providers to introduce new solutions and bundled service options which support both their own objectives and the needs of their tenants in a cost-effective and future-proof manner.
What should be on IT directors’ agendas for 2011 and beyond?
- A coherent and cohesive strategy to deliver broadband to every tenant;
- A roadmap and action plan to achieve carbon reduction targets;
- A smart meter strategy;
- An evaluation of home automation benefits, particularly for the elderly and infirm;
- An assessment of the potential benefits of IPTV.
Why is Avonline involved in the housing sector in particular?
With a field team of 500 staff, Avonline has developed excellent relationships in the housing sector by consistently delivering value, professional integrity and the highest standards of customer care. With extensive, localised field teams, Avonline places a high value on our partnerships with the housing sector. We will be providing an ever-wider range of unified, cost-effective and outsourced services as housing providers come under increasing pressure to deliver operational efficiencies and make the best use of their existing property portfolios.
What is Avonline’s proposition to housing providers?
As an established business, with a large, experienced field force, Avonline is committed to working closely with housing providers to deliver and integrate new technologies in a cost-effective manner to improve the standards offered to tenants and reduce total operating costs for housing providers.
What, if anything, should housing providers be doing to combat digital exclusion?
It is well understood that social housing has one of the lowest broadband penetrations in the UK, thereby contributing significantly to digital exclusion. A primary barrier for tenants in communal properties is access to reliable, cheap broadband. The benefits of broadband access are well-documented:
- Easier access to employment opportunities;
- Home learning for school and university students;
- Working from home and business set-up potential;
- Direct access to government & council services.
IRSNet, Avonline’s unique, patented technology, delivers secure broadband to every tenant using any communal aerial or integrated reception system. IRSNet has been recognised by RaceOnline 2012 with whom Avonline now partners to accelerate digital inclusion among social housing tenants and residents.
