Vilicom Cellular Solutions News | Engineering for RF, cellular & wireless networks

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September 2011 - Vilicom appoints a new Head of Business Development

London, 3 September 2011 – Vilicom is delighted to announce the appointment of Baldev Gill to the company as the new Head of Business Development.

Baldev joins us with a wealth of experience having spent 30 years working in the telecommunications industry. He began his career with British Telecom and moved into the cellular industry in the UK when it was still in its infancy, subsequently working for several high profile organisations including Ericsson, Siemens, Motorola and NEC.

Baldev said “I am delighted be a part of Vilicom and I am very pleased to have been given this excellent opportunity and the challenges that this may bring. Vilicom has a terrific team culture, a strong focus on people development and an intense customer focused ethos. I will be looking to harness these to further expand Vilicom’s strong customer base with new Service offerings.”

Sean Keating (CEO) said “It’s great to be able bring someone of Baldev’s talent and experience into the Vilicom team. He brings with him over 30 years of experience in the telecoms industry as an Engineer, Technical Manager and Business Development Director focused on delivering the needs of customers in the UK and internationally. Baldev will significantly enhance our leadership team and we all look forward to working with him over the coming months and years.”

April 2011 - Vilicom announces senior leadership changes to support long-term growth strategy

Dublin, 1 April 2011 – The Board of Vilicom Engineering Limited announced today that Seán Keating has been appointed Chief Executive Officer, succeeding Oliver Farrell who will be assuming a new role as Chairman. Sean Morris will succeed Seán Keating as Head of Operations.

“Vilicom is committed to providing a broad suite of innovative cellular solutions to meet the evolving needs of its loyal and growing customer base,” said co-founder Paul Donnelly on behalf of the Board. “We believe that these changes will provide additional strength, stability and continuity to our management team as we deliver for existing customers, and embrace new markets, new alliances and new customers as part of our four year strategic plan. We congratulate our colleagues and wish them well in their new roles”.

Seán Keating joined Vilicom in 2002 and spent the past three years as Head of Operations. Seán started his career as a Network Engineer at Esat Digifone and worked for UK and American mobile operators before joining Vilicom. Seán’s vast industry experience and technical understanding of customer requirements will be critical in leading the Vilicom team to embrace the opportunities ahead. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree from DCU and an MBA from UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School.

Oliver Farrell is a co-founder of Vilicom and a driving force in growing the business since its inception twelve years ago. He led the repositioning of the company after the sale of the estates management division, and grew revenues significantly. He initiated a very successful international program (UK, Australia, and New Zealand) and an ambitious Innovation Program. In his new role, Oliver will leverage his experience to further develop international opportunities, build strategic alliances and drive the Board effectively. He will also work closely with the new CEO to shape business strategy.

Sean Morris joined Vilicom in 2010 and has proven his ability to understand customer needs within the broader business environment. Sean brings excellent international experience to his new role, including network planning and service management roles at Telefónica O2 and Ericsson. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree from DCU.

October 2010 - Vilicom is Named 2010 Engineers Ireland Small Sized CPD Company of the Year

Vilicom are delighted to announce that they have been named as the 2010 Engineers Ireland small-sized CPD Company of the year. The award recognises Vilicom’s commitment to the development of its people, processes and capabilities to benefit their customers worldwide and their commitment to deliver innovative solutions to support the evolution of communications networks.

The award also honours Vilicom for using CPD to increase revenues by 50% in under two years, doubling its engineering staff and winning new contracts in Britain and New Zealand.

Speaking about the award, Vilicom’s CEO, Oliver Farrell said ‘It is an honour to be recognised once again by Engineers Ireland and I believe the award demonstrates our commitment to develop our people and capabilities to deliver innovative solutions to our customers now and in the future."

Vilicom’s Continuous Professional Development Programme (CPD) is vital to ensuring engineering excellence in an industry that continuously adapts and changes. Last year, the firm was awarded an extension to its CPD accreditation for the maximum of three years following an audit by Engineers Ireland. The Engineers Ireland CPD Accredited Employer standard denotes an organisation which has good systems and practices to allow its engineering staff to grow, learn and develop, throughout their career.

September 2010 – ComReg Publishes Vilicom and Red-M's Joint Report on Retuning and Relocating GSM900 Spectrum Assignments in Ireland

In this report the implications of spectrum relocation and liberalisation in the 900MHz band were examined. The study analysed the equipment and labour costs of relocation, the impact on service quality of a reduction in the size of the GSM900 allocation, the mitigating steps that may be taken to offset such impacts and the cost of such steps. The report has been used as the basis for further consultation on how liberalised spectrum should be awarded and can be downloaded here.

May 2010 – ACMA Publishes Vilicom's Response to its Consultation on the Review of of the Mobile Phone Jammer Prohibition in Australia

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has published Vilicom's response to this consultation. The consultation can be seen on ACMA's website.

February 2010 – Pioneering Irish Telecoms Firm Opens Office in Sydney

Vilicom, a leading mobile engineering consultancy firm headquartered in Ireland, has opened an office in Sydney. Vilicom is no stranger to global markets having earned its stripes delivering mobile network solutions over the past decade in various markets including UK, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, and India. It has also operated offices in London and Riyadh.

This development will enable the firm to more effectively leverage existing expertise, build stronger relationships locally, and grow its service offering in the region.

"New market entry is central to our medium term strategic plan. Our team has carefully researched a number of markets and prioritised Australia based on the potential identified; we are staffing up our local operations accordingly”, said Oliver Farrell, CEO.

Graham Steele, Head of Business Development, will manage the operation from new Vilicom offices at Darling Park. Graham noted that “Australia is an exciting market, and Vilicom has a lot of expertise to offer in Network Consulting, Network Quality and Site Solutions. With major changes expected in the mobile industry and its infrastructure requirements, Vilicom will be well positioned to maximise resulting opportunities”.

Graham is joined by Paul O’Byrne, Engineering Manager, and a veteran of the Vilicom Site Solutions Business Team. Graham and Paul will recruit additional team members.

Vilicom Engineering Ltd. specialises in design, testing, optimisation, analysis and strategy for radio frequency (RF) and cellular networks. This ISO accredited firm was set up in 1999 and provides leading-edge wireless engineering solutions for all types of networks in various global markets.

September 2009 - Engineers Ireland Re-approves Vilicom's Professional Development Programme

Vilicom’s Continuous Professional Development Programme (CPD) is vital to ensuring engineering excellence in an industry that is continuously adapts and changes. The firm has been awarded an extension to its CPD accreditation for the maximum of three years following an audit by Engineers Ireland. The Engineers Ireland CPD Accredited Employer standard denotes an organisation which has good systems and practices to allow its engineering staff to grow, learn and develop, throughout their career.

Commenting on the award, Dr. John Butler, Chartered Engineer and CPD & HR Director said, “Engineers Ireland congratulates Vilicom Engineering on their retention of the CPD Accredited Employer standard, a sign of their continued commitment to professional development. The Vilicom business model identifies CPD policies and strategies as key factors in maintaining profitability, driving growth and delivering on their vision to create novel and diverse solutions for customers. We see Vilicom’s strategic investment in its engineering professionals and technical staff as an excellent example of how indigenous companies can effectively harness their most talented minds to bring about innovative, business benefits.”

Grace Kenny, HR Manager added, "Vilicom’s success has been built on the skill and dedication of its people and the company places a high value on lifelong learning. Over the coming years we look forward to further extending and developing this programme to greatly enhance the services we give to customers."

July 2009 - ComReg Publishes its Second Interim Report on the 2010 Programme of Measurement of Non-Ionising Radiation Emissions Carried Out by Vilicom

The Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) arranges for Non-Ionising Radiation (NIR) surveys to be conducted near a sample number of licensed transmitter sites nationwide. Each survey involves measurement of NIR emission levels at the point of highest emissions (in a public area) associated with the transmitter. Sites are surveyed in order to assess compliance on the part of transmitter operators with their licence conditions relating to NIR emissions. The report can be downloaded here.

July 2009 - Vilicom Certification to Integrated Management System Re-approved

Vilicom Engineering Ltd., a leading engineering consultancy for the world’s communications networks, has had it’s certification to the three major ISO and OHSAS standards re-approved following a regular audit review by NQA.

The ISO9001, ISO14001 and OHSAS18001 certifications were originally awarded by NQA to Vilicom in 2003, 2006 and 2007 respectively, and the current audit process took place in January 2009 with final certification in March 2009.

During the audit, NQA closely examined the company's Integrated Management System through work practice assessments, document verification and one-on-one interviews.

"The Integrated Management System incorporates quality, health, safety and environmental controls for our operations in Vilicom Engineering," said Oliver Farrell CEO of Vilicom. "These certifications recognize that we have established and implemented world-class systems, procedures and standards covering all aspects of our business."

According to the audit results, the company successfully satisfied the requirements of the new ISO 9001:2008 (Quality Management Systems), ISO 14001:2004 (Environmental Management Systems) and OHSAS 18001:2007 (Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems).

"These awards demonstrate Vilicom’s continuing commitment to world class service and will further reinforce customer confidence in our services. Our customers can be confident that we have the knowledge and systems in place not only for control, but also processes to ensure that we actively take steps to continually improve our performance," continued Farrell.

"It also proves that we have skilled and qualified personnel dedicated to productivity, quality and safety, and I'd like to thank everyone in our team who contributed to this significant achievement."

March 2009 - ComReg Publishes Redacted Vilicom Report on UMTS Network Design and Cost

ComReg, Ireland's national communications regulator, has published a redacted version of Vilicom's report on the relative costs of deploying a national UMTS network in the 2100, 1800 and 900MHz bands. The report can be downloaded here.

The study involved the high-level design of a network required to deliver 95% population coverage, 80% geographic coverage and the desired voice and data capacity. Standard hardware and rollout costs were used in estimating the final cost of the network. It was found that for the dimensioning assumptions used, the deployment cost for a UMTS1800 network in Ireland is 88.5% of the cost of deploying a UMTS2100 network. It was also found that deployment cost for a UMTS900 network is 65.6% of the cost of deploying a UMTS2100 network.