Local to National
In the early 90’s, many small ISPs were set up on a local regional or city-wide basis in the same vein as the US dialup ISPs. The UK telecoms market however didn’t have the same free or fixed rate calls local rates so dialup modem traffic could be delivered nationwide for the same price using 0845 numbers. This meant there was no advantage to being local, especially in the residential markets where scale matters.

Set free?
In March of 2000, the UK ISP market was still quite fragmented, with literally hundreds of dialup ISPs (who also provided a little bit of web space and hosting on the side!). Then came a spate of “free” ISPs who did not charge a monthly subscription, but relied on the revenue share from 0845 (and for technical support, high cost premium rate) telephone numbers to build value. This led to a polarisation of the market into those who decided to aim for the residential consumers with these free offerings, and those who knew that there would be only a handful of winners in that space. edNET always focussed on delivering quality, and so decided to aim for the business market, who wanted a reliable, fast, effective Internet access and hosting provider, but was willing to pay a little for robust and high quality support services. Wireless ambition brought down to Earth with a bump!

We have always innovated in order to deliver the best and most effective possible service for our customers. With frustration at the delay in roll-out of a national broadband service in the late 90’s, we invested in one of the earliest implementation of WiFi technology (the first incarnation of the 802.11 implementation for those interested!). Providing a 2km radius cell in Edinburgh at speeds of up to 3Mb/s, it was cutting edge. However, the Radio Agency (now subsumed into Ofcom) wasn’t particularly joined up at the time with the rest of the government “Broadband Britain” agenda and decided that the 2.4GHz spectrum for WiFi should only be used for private use, not Internet access. They went up and down the country shutting down wireless broadband networks set up by local ISPs, including the one run by us at edNET. This approach was later reversed (a year or two later), but not before our and other ISP investments in wireless technology was defunct, and we had moved on to other ways of delivering service to our customers.

Back to basics – local loops
Having to replace the wireless service we were providing to customers in a cost effective way was going to prove to be a nightmare – and necessity being the mother of invention this intervention from the Radio Agency drove us to launch one of the UK’s first SDSL services in 1999. Using “dry” copper circuits with our own SDSL modems, we migrated over the years to our own LLU (Local Loop Unbundling) offering, taking our equipment directly into BT exchanges across the central belt of Scotland.

Business and the broadband revolution
In 2000, not long after the launch of the “free” ISPs, the UK enjoyed the launch of the first commercially available “broadband” services. This term was (and still is) used as a metaphor for cheap Internet access for any speed from 256kb/s upwards.

Lumison (or edNET as we were called in 2000) launched broadband services as quickly as the wholesale network operators and Ofcom (or Oftel as they were called then) would allow. Whilst perceived as expensive for residential consumers, early broadband services were a boon for small businesses keen to enjoy the high speed services that previously only our leased line customers could afford.

Change of colour
Though growth had been steady, and we were delivering services nationally, we recognised that delivering business class services to a high standard is not enough when you are perceived from the outside as a local provider. Being called edNET did not help, and so in 2004 Lumison was born. As trivial as these things may seem, rebranding the company (whilst changing nothing more radical under the bonnet than our stationary and sig files!) has since helped us gain increased momentum and recognition in the business and government for delivering to a high standard – always.

Hardhats to the ready – building for the future!
As our hosting business has grown over the years, at Lumison we recognised early on the importance of ensuring the performance and quality of the datacentre infrastructure we rely upon to house our own and customer servers. Whilst we do use a number of 3rd party facilities nationwide for network interconnect and client needs, Lumison embarked on a construction project to deliver a wholly-owned Tier III datacentre just outside of Edinburgh.

At a time when most ISPs would not dream of building their own datacentres, Lumison delivered the first phase of the Newbridge facility in October 2004. With a steady, incremental fit-out model in place, our sustainable approach has delivered a high performance (zero downtime), low impact (using energy efficient chiller technology) facility. In August of 2007, Lumison added a second facility in London, providing the scalability and performance needed by clients who want a single supplier with geographic diversity. This facility also takes Lumison into key markets who demand that they are close to their server infrastructure.

Next generation networks
Over these years, Lumison has also seen the falling costs of network services in the business market as an opportunity, not a threat to margin as others have claimed. The Lumison customers who adopted leased line technology in the past can now afford to enjoy 10Mb and 100Mb MetroEthernet services de-rigeur. With this capacity, Lumison has built up an enviable track record in delivery of security, VPN, privateDSL, and now award-winning Voice over IP services.

Recognition for service
We all know it is not enough to be good at what you do – someone has to notice. And we are proud to say that Lumison has been noticed at many different levels over the years. Commercial awards and nominations include the Deloitte Fast50 (for 4 years running), Sunday Times TechTrak and Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards (both for 2 years running).

In recognition of our investment in our customers and the service we deliver, Lumison has been recognised as the ISPA Best Business Broadband Providers (Sumo category), Best VoIP Provider (2007), and finalist for the Best Light and Heavy Business Broadband provider in subsequent years.

Most importantly to us, we gain and maintain our customer’s recognition for service. With customer feedback consistently delivering satisfaction surveys in the 95th centile, we work hard to ensure our customers keep getting great value from our network and our teams.