Places For People

Intro / Overview

Ocean Telecom partnered with Places for People, a leading UK social enterprise providing housing and support services, to deliver a large-scale digital transformation across its supported living housing portfolio. Working with DrayTek, Ocean Telecom modernised connectivity at residential and telecare-enabled sites, ensuring reliable, future-proof infrastructure ahead of the UK-wide PSTN and WLR switch-off.

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Background & Challenge

Places for People needed to transition a significant number of supported living and residential sites away from legacy analogue PSTN and ISDN services. These sites rely on dependable connectivity to support telecare systems, CCTV, and VoIP services, making reliability and continuity critical — particularly for vulnerable residents.

The project required a solution that could deliver robust broadband connectivity, enable remote management and monitoring, and support both current FTTC/SoGEA services and future full-fibre deployments. Minimising disruption to residents during rollout was also a key priority.

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The Solution

Ocean Telecom secured the project through a competitive tender and deployed DrayTek Vigor 2763ac routers across the estate, supported by the DrayTek VigorACS auto-configuration and management platform.

The rollout began with 350 sites, with scope to scale to 500 as the organisation continues to grow. By early 2025, approximately 200 routers had been successfully deployed. Devices were pre-configured using template-driven setups, allowing rapid provisioning and consistent deployment across all sites.

DrayTek’s ACS platform enabled centralised monitoring, firmware updates, diagnostics, and uptime visibility, significantly improving operational oversight. Wi-Fi access was included solely for engineering access where Ethernet was unavailable, ensuring maintenance could be carried out efficiently without impacting residents.

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Results & Value Delivered

• Operational efficiency: Over 200 routers deployed in approximately one year using templated configurations
• Improved support: Proactive diagnostics and reduced need for on-site engineer visits
• Enhanced reliability: Noticeable improvements in broadband stability across converted sites
• Future-proof infrastructure: Hardware supports SoGEA/FTTC and full-fibre without replacement
• Resident assurance: Reliable connectivity for mission-critical telecare and monitoring systems

Ocean Telecom has trusted DrayTek for over a decade after experiencing unreliable equipment with other vendors. Places for People is pleased with the rollout and the smooth transition of services. The management team is engaged and supportive.

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Find out more

Discover Ocean Telecom Business Phone Systems:
https://oceantelecom.com/our-solutions/phone-system/

Visit Places for People: https://www.placesforpeople.co.uk

Learn more about DrayTek:
https://www.draytek.co.uk