Apple’s new update is more than just a visual refresh. Featuring AI powered intelligence, enhanced security features and productivity improvements it can enhance how businesses communicate and manage their day to day roles.
A Fresh New Look with Real Business Benefits
One of the most noticeable changes in iOS 26 is Apple’s new “Liquid Glass” design. The updated interface delivers smoother navigation, improved customisation and a more modern user experience across the iPhone.
While design updates often focus on aesthetics, they can also improve usability. For business users who spend their day switching between emails, documents, messaging apps and video calls, a cleaner and more intuitive interface can help reduce friction and speed up common tasks.
Apple Intelligence Takes Centre Stage
One of the biggest upgrades in iOS 26 is the continued expansion of Apple Intelligence. Apple’s AI capabilities are now integrated more deeply across the operating system, helping users manage information and complete tasks more efficiently.
Key features include:
- Writing assistance for emails and messages
- Automatic summaries of content and communications
- Improved Siri functionality
- Context-aware suggestions
- Live Translation tools
- Enhanced Shortcuts automation capabilities
These features can help save valuable time by reducing repetitive administrative work and improving communication across both teams and customers.
Enhanced Communication and Collaboration
Communication remains at the heart of every successful business, and iOS 26 introduces several updates designed to make staying connected easier. Apple has improved the Phone and Messages apps while continuing to focus on reducing distractions from spam and unwanted communications.
The addition of Live Translation is particularly relevant for businesses operating internationally or serving multilingual customer bases. Real-time translation capabilities can help break down language barriers and create more seamless customer experiences.
Security Remains a Priority
Cybersecurity continues to be a major concern for businesses of all sizes. Apple has maintained its strong focus on privacy and security within iOS 26, with many AI features operating directly on the device and supported by Apple’s privacy-focused infrastructure.
For organisations handling sensitive customer information or operating in regulated industries, these protections help support compliance efforts while maintaining productivity. Recent enterprise-focused updates have also strengthened device management capabilities and security controls for managed business devices.
Turning Mobile Technology into a Business Advantage
For business leaders, iOS 26 represents far more than a routine software update. By bringing together AI-powered productivity tools, enhanced communication features and stronger security protections, Apple is helping organisations tackle some of their biggest workplace challenges. iOS 26 offers an opportunity to work smarter, respond faster and build a more productive, future-ready organisation.
With the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to take its’ toll on society during our third run of lockdown, some internet users are finding it more difficult than ever to stay connected.
A study from Citizens Advice found that more than a sixth of UK households are struggling to pay broadband bills due to using it so much being at home, and essentially leaving them cut off from the services, and in turn the rest of the world. It was found that ‘Towards the end of last year, an estimated 2.3 million people had fallen behind on their broadband bill’, and this is only set to get worse as large comms providers seem to be overlooking the advice to offer lower tariffs.
Over the last year, millions of brits have been placed on furlough, particularly those within the hospitality and retail industry, and being locked down at home day in day out means that they are already disconnected from friends and family. Many of us have found solace in the ability to host zoom calls and take part in virtual events, but such things cannot be done without a reliable, affordable internet connection.
As the times change and technology becomes a more integral part of our daily lives, it can be seen as one of the most essential services available to society for a number of reasons, and no one should be without.
At SCG, we pride ourselves on providing only the best to our customers at remarkable prices. Please get in touch to find out more about how we can help – we can’t wait to hear from you.
One of the interesting aspects looking back on my ten years in the telecommunications business is that today, the main service that I was working with at the outset is becoming an endangered species…
Back when I first started in the industry, the UK had 10 million landline numbers being used by domestic and commercial premises from Shetland to Lands End, and everywhere in between. Since then we have seen that number dwindle by 35% to just 6.4 million numbers.
Interestingly, the number of landlines has decreased and to boot the number of calls that are made over those landlines has fallen by 50% in that period.
With minutes of calls made over mobile networks increasing from 132 billion in 2012 to 148 billion now, is it any surprise that companies are looking to ditch their traditional phone systems altogether?
There are some great options now in the marketplace to move landline numbers into the Cloud and make use of the ability to take your office phone with you when you leave, using your mobile. If signal is an issue, SCG has you covered with our unique network guarantee.
If you’d like to discuss this or any other aspect of your telecommunications, all you have to do is call our team on 0131 445 2846.
It is no secret that businesses are becoming increasingly reliant on a good connectivity solution as data usage in the UK more than doubles every two years. A poor internet connection can quickly reduce business productivity and efficiency, ultimately impacting our economy.
The Government has hit their Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) target and 95% of UK properties now have access to this connectivity, meaning a far superior speed and reliability experience compared to traditional broadband services running wholly via copper.
FTTC connections still involve the use of the old copper network to connect a premises to its local cabinet, next generation Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) or ‘full fibre’ however, removes the legacy copper network from the equation. The capabilities of FTTP go far beyond what can be provided over existing copper-based services and is able to provide gigabit services (that’s much faster than FTTC). Removing the copper portion also increases reliability and resilience, giving businesses the certainty they need to grow.
According to the Government’s Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review, UK coverage for next generation Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) – or ‘full fibre’ – is currently only 4%. The Government is investing £30 billion to increase coverage to 100% by 2033 so you will have access to this service in the future, if you are not one of the lucky few who already has it. This article detailing how Openreach are investing in new technology shows just how seriously the fibre roll-out is being taken by everybody involved.
Whatever the connectivity availability in your area and your requirements as a business, 2 Circles has the perfect solution for you. As experts in helping our customers benefit from additional Government grants to upgrade their connectivity, you can be sure that you are receiving the best products at the best pricing.
Contact us on 03456 200 200 to find out more.
Land Rover has returned to the mobile phone market with a new smartphone that will suit those looking for a rugged phone that can survive a drop or a dunking and can be used whilst wearing gloves… This is less Evoke and more Defender or less Hunter and more Aigle!
The farming community have a long-term love affair with Land Rovers and these handsets will compete directly with the CAT range of Smartphones, which have proved very popular across our customer base over the last couple of years.
For the style conscious who may like the look of a Range Rover Sport, this phone is more substance over style, despite incorporating just a hint of the iconic Land Rover styling.
Whatever your mobile handset requirements, we have the perfect solution. Contact us on 0131 445 2846 for more information.
Adventures require technology, but while there are a handful of rugged phones available, most smartphones are slippery, terrible in freezing conditions, and lacking in the battery power required to fuel their feeble GPS skills. Cue the Land Rover Explore, an Android handset that contains a lot of unique outdoor tech It includes a proximity sensor, compass, accelerometer, gyroscope, barometer, a GPS patch antenna and a 4,000mAh battery that can be almost doubled with a clip-on module that comes with the phone.
As the nation struggled under the burden of The Beast from the East, many of us in metropolitan areas were able to keep working due to good use of Cloud services for accessing emails and the use of hosted phone systems to work from elsewhere.
As the extremity of the weather that we see seems to increase year on year, spare a thought for businesses in rural locations who are continuing to genuinely struggle with poor broadband provision.
I was very interested to read The Scotsman Article yesterday concerning Glencoe Mountain Ski Resort – a resort that, by popular local repute, on a good day can be as good as skiing in Colorado!
Despite having a full fibre local area network, up and down the hills, they are so poorly served by broadband that their business is materially affected. There are options available, but at a high cost, and if rural businesses are to be capable of operating on a level playing field with their Metropolitan cousins, more must be done!
“At the moment we’re relying solely on mobile data to take card payments, send emails, do everything, because the [landline] connection we get from BT is so bad. We get a maximum of 0.2 mbps [megabytes per second] on old copper lines that run through one of the oldest exchanges in the country at the King’s House Hotel. If we lose our mobile signal we’re basically just dead in the water. We can’t do emails, we can’t do payroll, we can’t do anything.”
Earlier this year BT announced their intention to switch off the PSTN and ISDN networks by 2025. Customers will be migrated to a single IP core network that ultimately will replace all legacy networks and platforms.
PSTN and ISDN: What’s the difference?
PSTN stands for Public Switched Telephone Network, also referred to as the Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS). Analogue voice data flows over circuit-switched phone lines (copper wires) owned and operated by your phone provider.
ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) allows both voice and data services over digital lines, for example video conferencing, data transfer and direct-dial in. ISDN digital services provide multiple channels per line, enabling simultaneous phone calls.
The alternative – VoIP
Instead of using PSTN & ISDN lines (the expensive ‘line rental’ part of your telecom bill) ‘Voice over IP’ transmits voice traffic over your Internet connection. Already many businesses are using VoIP or voice services, not least because it’s a cost effective way to manage telephony within an organisation: this has contributed to the steady decline in take up for PSTN / ISDN services.
For many BT business customers this move by the company will force them to explore new telephony systems, with the added benefit of a more cost effective solution.
So, if your business currently relies on one of the 3.2 million ISDN channels in the UK*, what do you need to know about the ‘big’ switch off?
What to do now
If your current traditional telephony contract is up for renewal in the next few years, now is the time to start exploring the benefits and opportunities of VoIP technology. These include:
Cost savings – no line rental, cheaper calls including International calls, and free calls between your organisation’s offices
Mobility – remote workers can login to your VoIP from anywhere using an Internet connection, even on their mobiles
Multi-functional – as well as voice calls, VoIP can also be used for video-conferencing using a VoIP phone
Integration – because VoIP technology uses the Internet it is possible to integrate it with your other business systems, such as email clients or customer records
Scalability – VoIP technology scales easily to your business. New phone lines can simply be added, reassigned or removed depending on your business’ needs
You’ll also need to ensure that your office Internet can handle VoIP. You will need a baseline of 5Mbps down and 2Mbps up as the bare minimum for a small office of about five to seven users on VoIP.
Phone systems and handsets also need to support VoIP, having identified a provider you will be able to find out if they are compatible or not. If not, you can either upgrade to an IP-enabled on-premise PBX or replace your phone system with a hosted telephony offering.
When to migrate?
We would advise businesses to start thinking about migrating sooner rather than later. Now that ISDN is essentially viewed as a legacy platform, investment in it is likely to fall. This could mean that the standard of the existing network, and support infrastructure, could begin to suffer the effects of being retired well before the 2025 switch off date.
Dates for your diary
2020: Five years before PSTN and ISDN lines will be switched off; businesses will no longer be able to buy any systems that use these networks. Although 2025 may seem a long way off, 2020 is only four years away so if you plan to refresh or upgrade telephony systems within your organisation in the next few years, you should be looking at a VoIP solution instead of upgrading your traditional PSTN or ISDN system.
2025: BT plan to have migrated all existing customers to their IP network. This presents an excellent opportunity for businesses to explore VoIP technology prior to the switch off and find a competitive provider.
* BT own a significant proportion of UK ISDN channels.
As technology moves away from the desktop and into the cloud, it’s easy to overlook the most important link in the technology chain: your internet connection.
According to the Federation of Small Businesses, 85% of businesses see investing in new technology as a key driver for growth.
Without a robust, high-performing connection, cloud-based business innovations will not work. If you haven’t got the right connection today – and haven’t planned for the right connection in the future – your growth ambitions could be curtailed prematurely.
You may think that you don’t need the cloud. Maybe you don’t, today.
But tomorrow’s world will look very different. More business will be done online, more applications and programs will be cloud-only, and more data will be stored in the cloud. Already, cloud-based solutions give you the ability to store huge volumes of data, easily share files across your business, and do away with your on-premises phone system.
How do you know if your connection can cut the mustard?
A good place to start is to understand what you use your internet connection for now, what applications and websites your business relies on, and what could become essential very soon. Even if your business stays the same size, it’s more than a fair bet that your reliance on the internet will grow.
If you can, find out how much data your business sent and received over the internet a year ago and compare that with what you’re using today.
Then consider where your business is going in the next five years. Do you plan to expand? Will you employ more people who’ll need access to the internet? If you’re thinking about a new phone system, will you be taking advantage of one based in the cloud?
How to make your connection ready for the future?
If you’re a light user and expect to continue that way, then you’ll be fine with standard broadband or fibre.
If you’re using a lot of data or your needs are likely to increase, then you’ll need high-end fibre for better upload and download speeds.
And if you’re a heavy user (or plan to be) a leased line could be perfect. Guaranteed and consistent upload and download speeds on your own dedicated line, with very low latency, a leased line is ideal for businesses using a lot of data and where the internet connection is absolutely critical.
Before you or anyone on your team goes abroad, please make sure to call your account manager on 03456 200 200 to check you have the correct bolt-on in place. Once you have the correct bolt-on in place, managing your data abroad will be a lot easier. We’ve also got 3 tips on how to disable data hungry activities that go on in the background without you knowing.
1. Turn off auto-app updates
On most smartphones, apps can update in the background without your knowledge. This is handy when your apps are up to date whenever you check them, but this background activity could be eating into your data allowance without you realising, so it is best to disable.
2. Switch off email and app push notification
Does your phone alert you instantly when you have new mail? Do you get a notification when there’s breaking news on BBC News? That all requires data usage. Switching off email and app push notifications will help you reserve the data for the tasks that you actually need it for.
3. Disable video auto-play
When you’ve been scrolling through your news feed in the Facebook app, you might’ve noticed videos auto-playing. It looks great, but auto-play can be problematic if you only have a small data inclusion or you’re worried about your usage.
Switching off auto-play is a pretty effective way to cut back on your data usage, and might even save a bit of battery power as well.
To do this – open the facebook app > tap your phone’s menu button > tap settings > scroll down to video auto-play and choose an option
We hope you find these tips to keep data usage under control when roaming useful.
