What a year it’s been, and we’re all excited to get stuck back in after a well-deserved break, so on that note.
The team at Lightwire and I wish you a very happy and safe holiday season, as well as a massive thank you for your continued support!
I look forward to the opportunity to reconnect with you in the new year, and just in case you missed any of our correspondence on support and provisioning over the break, keep reading because the rest of the team has you covered.
See you in 2024!
Nick and the Lightwire Team
Reminder of Embargo Period
The Local Fibre Companies (LFCs) and carriers will be implementing a level of change restriction on some parts of their network environment over the holiday period.
They do this to minimise the risk of customer impacting events occurring at a time of reduced staffing levels across their organisation and suppliers.
As a rough estimate, most carriers have their embargo periods between 22 December and 8 January. For more detail, check out the blog.
Make sure everyone has access to illume
Your colleagues can only add value to clients if they know what’s going on. Add them to illume – Ensure you never miss out on important events for business-critical services, and be able to lodge tickets and service requests.
The teams's recommendation
Good reads for the break
Continuous improvement is something we take very seriously at Lightwire. Collectively, the team has read a little over 200 books this year.
Always looking to share knowledge and insights with our partners, the team has put together a few life-changing favourites. Happy reading!
Peak Performance: Elevate Your Game, Avoid Burnout, and Thrive with the New Science of Success
Every chapter of this book is packed with opportunities to learn and improve, all supported by engaging evidence and great stories of people achieving peak performance.
It’s an excellent read for anyone interested in not just excelling in their field, but also in understanding the importance of balance and sustainability in their pursuit of success.
Never Split the Difference
Negotiations are everywhere, the boss, co-workers, clients, and the partner. Especially with the latter, there’s more to it than just rationality and intellect.
Never split the difference is a great book to learn how to apply active listening techniques, emotion, and empathy to build and create trust.
It’s listed as a “sales” book, but it’s much more.
Why We Sleep - The New Science of Sleep
Sleep. It’s one of the most important things that we do. It impacts our health, brain function, and overall well-being, but getting quality sleep is easier said than done and it’s impossible to “make up” a debt of lost sleep.
This book is a game-changer, offering eye-opening insights and practical advice for anyone looking to improve their sleep and, consequently, their life.
Atomic Habits
It wouldn’t be a book recommendation list if we didn’t include “Atomic Habits” by James Clear, because whether we like it or not, we’re creatures of habits and routines. Even the smallest change in behaviour and habits can accumulate to bring about significant changes.
Atomic Habits is a great read for anyone looking to develop good habits and break bad ones.
Genius Food: Become Smarter, Happier, and More Productive While Protecting Your Brain for Life
With the holidays just around the corner, getting healthy nutrient meals is probably the last thing on your mind. “Genius Food” shines a new light on the importance of eating well and how the food you eat changes the way your brain ages.
The book is a practical guide to eliminating brain fog, optimising brain health, and achieving peak mental performance.
Lightwire Support Structure
Holiday Hours
Some of the team will be taking a well-deserved break over the holidays. Here’s how the holiday season will impact support hours and provisioning.
Support
Hours are running as per usual except Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year’s Day, and 2 January. On these days, we will be running an on-call schedule with a 30-minute response SLA.
Provisioning
Orders can be lodged throughout the holiday period, but a number of carriers won’t commence new build work or porting numbers between 22 December and 8 January. Existing fibre orders and orders only requiring a logical build will be unaffected (next port activations).
New Voice Platform
Partner SIP Trunk Testing
Lightwire’s voice team has been working to deploy our new state-of-the-art voice platform, completed all our internal testing, and moved most of our residential customers and our Teams Phone customers systems onto it.
As our partners use a range of PBX products with Lightwire SIP Trunking, we’d like to invite you to work with us to complete testing to ensure that they can be migrated with minimal issues.
If you would like a free test SIP Trunk to ensure interoperability with the new platform and to complete any testing prior to the start of schedule cutovers next quarter, simply raise a ticket via Illume or email support@lightwirebusiness.com, and our Voice team will work with you for testing.
Public Holiday Diversions
December is pretty much here already. Get your clients’ phone system diversions in place for the holiday period before it’s too late.
Here are the upcoming public holidays:
- 24 December – Christmas Eve (AU – NT, QLD, SA)
- 25 December – Christmas Day (AU & NZ)
- 26 December – Boxing Day (AU & NZ)
- 31 December – New Year’s Eve (AU – NT, SA & NZ)
- 1 January – New Year’s Day (AU & NZ)
- 2 January – Day After New Year’s Day (NZ)
- 10 January – Devonport Cup (AU – TAS)
- 22 January – Wellington Day (NZ – Wellington)
- 26 January – Australia Day (AU)
- 29 January – Auckland Day (NZ – North Island except Northland & Wellington)
- 6 February – Waitangi Day (NZ)
- 12 February – Royal Hobart Regatta (AU – TAS)
- 28 February – Launceston Cup (AU – TAS)
If Lightwire hosts your clients’ PBX(s) we can do this free of charge. Open a ticket via illume or send an email to support@lightwirebusiness.com with the following detail:
- Account name and number
- Date and time you would like calls diverted
- Date and time you would like calls returned to normal
- Diversion destination (voicemail, mobile, etc)
If you require a special recorded message to be played, please include the audio file with your email as these cannot be recorded by Lightwire staff.
Please send through your request as soon as possible to ensure that your clients’ diversions are in place for the public holiday.
