Utility upgrades mobile systems

Utility firm Yorkshire Water is upgrading its mobile telephony infrastructure to GPRS (general packet radio service) to improve customer service.

The company is hoping the move from GSM will improve communications between its field workers and customer call centre by enabling faster access to work scheduling tools and other applications.

Around 500 field workers will have their GSM data cards upgraded, and a further another 1750 mobile handsets will be replaced.

'By providing faster updates and better connectivity between our field workers and our call centre, we can provide customers with a better service,' said Yorkshire Water's senior IT professional Roy Noakes.

The company, which delivers water and sewerage services to around 4.5m people in 1.7m households and 140,000 businesses in Yorkshire, switched from a private mobile radio (PMR) system two years ago, rolling out GSM handsets and data cards from Orange to its mobile workers.

Following the switch, the company speeded up the process of job allocation by assessing each worker's location, schedule and skills in order to send jobs to the most appropriate people.

It also managed to improve access to job details, customer records and order histories.

'By moving from a basic voice platform to the implementation of a combined voice and data solution with Orange, we have seen a noticeable increase in our efficiency and effectiveness,' said Noakes.

He says the switch to GSM helped save money, providing the firm with a reduction in operating costs through more efficient controls and maintenance.

The firm's field workers, who perform on-site inspections at customer sites and handle maintenance at treatment works, currently use Panasonic Toughbook laptops to update job records, sending in updates via GSM data cards.

The upgrade to GPRS, which is seen as an interim step before 3G, will provide an always-on data connection at about four times the speed of a standard GSM connection.