updated feb 2020
The History of Compusurf
A business success story
The story begins in 2002, Frustrated with the ever worsening rat race and lack of opportunity in the UK , Chris Jennings and his wife Julie sold up, bought an off plan house on Camposol, packed up the three kids and moved to Spain to come and live the dream hoping to try something different. In the UK Chris was involved in IT & electrical engineering and Julie had a string of successful business ventures in the health and beauty industry under her belt.
However it wasn’t long before reality hit home and the realisation, if they wanted to stay in Spain, they needed to get back to work and earn a crust. So Chris took a job with Max Informatica in Mazarron repairing computers & Julie took a job with an estate agent while she worked on her master plan in the beauty industry. Their plan was to open a shop / Internet Cafe on Camposol called “Camposol Computers” However at this time Urbanization Camposol had no Internet service what so ever and there was nothing on the Horizon. Finally in late 2003 Telmicro announced they were providing Internet via the Cable TV system for A sector and “Camposol Computers” opened in a small property on A sector. It very quickly became the Hub of communication on Camposol for sectors B, C, and D as initially only A sector residents had access to the Internet. Shortly afterwards a company called “Broadband Solutions” Started to provide Internet access via satellite to the other sectors. Camposol Computers became a reseller and helped the residents of Sectors B, C & D get connected.
It’s now 2005, the lack of telephone lines on Camposol was still a major concern of residents, Chris has been trying out some new technology based on VOIP to bring landlines to people’s homes via the Internet, all was going well and Camposol Computer started to roll out the telephone system to people with internet connections, shortly after the launch Broadband Solutions went bust. A new company was created by the owners of an LCR provider called Fonicatel to take over the defunct Internet service on Camposol. Camposol Computers were chosen to carry on as the resellers for the new service known as Telitec and also became the installers and local support for the service. At first Telitec had no interest in Telephone lines so it was agreed that Camposol Computers could continue to develop and provide their own Telephone system over the Telitec Internet service.
Over the next couple of years it became apparent that everybody wanted a telephone line but not necessarily the Internet, that situation has totally reversed today, however the cost of getting the internet installed to carry the phone service was prohibitive to most at more than 300 euros to install and over 45 euros a month for a very basic 1Mb connection. The contact terms were also very harsh towards customers. Telitec did eventually reduce the install costs but at a price of even harsher contracts and various other means of tying people into the service, to be fair this was the norm for internet providers in Spain at the time.
It’s now 2008, Chris and Julie have become extremely frustrated by the amount of telephone business being lost because Telitec were not prepared to meet the market by changing its unpopular policies and reduce prices further to increase sales. Without more Internet connections, Camposol computers could not expand their telephone service, the only income Camposol Computers were receiving from Telitec was a dwindling one off finder’s fee, they desperately needed to increase their own telephone business to survive, to make matters worse, Telitec took the decision to sell their own version of the telephone system to their customers, in effect becoming an “in house” competitor.
This decision to renegade on the original telephone agreement caused the relationship between Camposol Computers and Telitec to quickly sour prompting a brave idea, they certainly had the technical expertise on board and with enough investment they could provide the Internet on Camposol themselves and develop the telephone service the way the residents actually wanted it without the financial and technical restrictions from third parties. After 2 years of research, deals, fund raising and long nights of planning finally In 2010 Compusurf was born. The Mission, to provide Internet & Telephone services at affordable, fair prices, no contracts, no hidden costs no catches and the ability to only pay when the service was actually required. It was hard work and not without a few setbacks, Initially Compusurf met fierce resistance from Telitec who hated the ideas as they were completely opposite to the business ethics of the time, they were hit with everything from slander campaigns to offers of buy outs, you would not believe some of the tactics employed to nip Compusurf in the bud, Compusurf really were the bad boys in the industry and had put a real nasty cat among the pigeons, Compusurf also had their own teething problems with system failures, software failures, bad hardware choices etc., determined to succeed they rose above all the flack, overcame all the technical problems and continued on their quest
By 2012 it seemed they got it right. All the effort had paid off, despite the attempts of others; consumer confidence in Compusurf had grown to the point that they were , and still are by a large margin, the most popular Internet and Telephone provider on Camposol with over 3000 clients and still growing daily. Interestingly, but not surprisingly, by this time the demand for Internet had overtaken the demand for telephones.
Ironically, thanks to Compusurf, the remaining customers of other internet providers on Camposol are now enjoying cheaper services, not quite daring to go to the lengths Compusurf did, but it just goes to show, competition really is good for the consumer. Even more ironic is that the brave new business model that Compusurf pioneered and was so hated by the competition is now becoming standard practice by those same companies, or at least some of them .
By 2018 the Compusurf network had grown to cover other areas in the Mazarron region and Compusurf are still pioneering new ideas in the form of add on services, things like Compusurf UK , and our very popular PAYG services like Hotspot. In 2017 Compusurf launched its TV service, again defying the rule book and giving it away free. Our competitors now watch us closely for new ideas and quickly follow with their own version, from fledgling bad boy to market leader in under two years. quite a remarkable achievment and proof that honesty and integrity do pay, However in the ISP world nothing stays the same for long and tough times are ahead that need daring decisions.
2019 sees a major change in the industry, online Tv piracy is rife in Spain, bandwidth demand is at an all time high. All the Internet providers were struggling to keep up with demand. Compusurfs main competitor starts to roll out fiber services on Camposol in an attempt to take a bigger market share by offering speeds of 300 Mbs or more to satisfy the piracy boom. The problem was the current infrastructure into Camposol was not yet at a point where the offered speeds of 300mbs could be sustained if the customer numbers grew to just a few hundred and Compusurf knew this so one of the most daring decisions yet was made, Compusurf would trust in its policy of honesty and respect for its customers and not take any counter measures by making unrealistic promises and not hinder in any way the migration of customers to the fiber providers, it sounds like business suicide but the policy worked and caused the new fiber providers to quickly become over subscribed so the customers could see the truth behind the marketing without any effort from Compusurf. Obviously this was only a short term solution as over time the infrastructure into Camposol would improve. Compusurf sat back and took a proper long term look at the state of affairs. The conclusion was that the TV Piracy boom would soon be bought to an end by law enforcement agencies and the evolution of consumer needs would return to normal. So instead of investing vast amounts of money in a new fiber network that would soon be outdated by emerging wireless technology, we held off on the investment so we could put it to use on our long term plan, utilizing emerging wireless technologies as they come to market to increasing bandwidth to customers at a rate that was sustainable with no extra cost to the customer.
By the end of 2019 the policy to resist installing fibre is starting to pay off as sure enough in august 2019 the big take down of illegal TV piracy began, At the same time, In the UK the regulators had caught on to the marketing hype of the UK ISPs forcing them to only advertise sustainable or average speeds and not theortical maximums, the big UK players advertising of super fast 300 megabytes or more speeds changed to realistic numbers like 40 to 60 megabytes and the Camposol fibre offerings became, by their own admission, oversubscribed, they still use the big numbers in advertising but eu regulators will likely follow the UK policy, and these numbers will have to be more transparent in the future.
In early 2020 preparations for new high speed wireless tech began by massively increasing the capacity of our network, we entered into a new partnership with COLT to provide new high capacity pipes in and out of the network , new distribution points and new customer equipment are also being installed. By mid 2021 compusurf wil be ready to start rolling out the new wirelessly technology and increasing bandwidth as its required in a honest and sustainable way, once bandwidth numbers are no longer selling points, as has happened already in the Uk, ISPs will be judged by their other qualities like support, honesty, ease of use and of course price, all areas where we excel.
the story continues………..
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