A new service is aiming to be the 'de facto choice' for business when it comes to mobiles, landlines and broadband. Operating as a mobile virtual network operator, ABICA offers coverage from established networks, but sets its own tariffs, contracts and service levels with customers.
Based in Glasgow, ABICA will be chaired by senior industry figure Rod Matthews, who founded Scottish Telecom, now known as Thus, which he took from start-up to a £200 million turnover business. He has worked in telecoms and IT for over four decades and been awarded the MBE for his contribution to communications in the UK.
Matthews has recently joined the board of ABICA which was set up by a team of young entrepreneurs with track records in fixed line and mobile phone services. The three entrepreneurs have worked together for the last two and a half years and prior to that ran their own telecoms businesses.
ABICA is the latest brand to come out of the successful privately-owned telecoms business, ABC, which in its financial year ending July 2008 had a profitable turnover of £1.1m.
Scott Allison, who founded his first company while an undergraduate at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, said: "Our re-branding is a reflection both of ABICA's new status as a virtual network and the higher level of service we are offering customers."
ABICA will offer businesses low line rentals and the ability to pay for their calls individually and at low rates. It also offers free ABICA to ABICA calls for customers, which can save a huge amount of calls between companies and their supply chain or their customers when calling each other.
Allison believes this is a much fairer way of charging businesses and company research shows it will immediately save new customers around 8% on current annual bills due to the low number of calls made during holiday periods and other seasonal variations.
ABICA also provides an online billing platform where they can see all of the calls made on their account up to and including the previous day, which allows business managers to monitor and control their telecoms spend easily for the first time.
Matthews said: "Customers can use this service to prevent spending more than they want to and ensure staff use phones appropriately. This will help firms introduce real efficiencies in the way they use their telecoms. At a time when every penny counts, this will help SMEs drive significant cuts."