PTT – Providers of Telecommunications Training, the UK’s leading provider of e-learning for the telecoms industry – is delighted to announce a partnership with the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO). The CTO is an international development partnership which aims to bridge the digital divide by delivering unique knowledge sharing programmes.

PTT will provide its extensive range of e-learning courses to the CTO for use in its “ILearn@CTO” learning portal.  The courses will be available through the CTO for those in the Commonwealth and beyond. 

All courses will be completed on a computer – either using the Internet or a CDROM.  This will allow people in remote locations and developing countries to improve their knowledge and skills in a cost-effective, manageable way. 

Trainees will have 12 months access to their course, allowing them to complete it at their own pace, anytime, anywhere.

PTT’s Managing Director, Bob Nott says “This is a fantastic partnership.  The work of the CTO is crucial to developing telecoms skills in the Commonwealth.  We are delighted to have been chosen as their supplier – enhancing our reputation as a leading e-learning provider to the telecoms industry.  E-learning is vital to the developing world because classroom-based training can be too expensive and difficult for those working remotely to attend.  E-learning also ensures that all employees receive the same content.”

The “ILearn@CTO” learning portal will officially launch on the CTO website from 20th October 2008.

About PTT

PTT was founded by telecoms experts in 1993 to be at the forefront of what was then the new field of computer-based training (CBT). Since those early days, the Internet has become an important enabler of learning and PTT has developed considerable expertise in the design and use of online e-learning for the telecommunications and ICT sectors. For more about the telecommunications e-learning offered by PTT visit: www.ptt.co.uk

About the CTO www.cto.int

The Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) is an international development partnership between Commonwealth and non-Commonwealth governments, business and civil society organisations. It provides the international community with effective means to help bridge the digital divide and achieve social and economic development, by delivering to developing countries unique knowledge-sharing programmes in the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the specific areas of telecommunications, IT, broadcasting and the Internet. The work of the CTO goes back to its creation in 1901 as the Pacific Cable Board. 

There has  been much discussion of late about the effect of new multimedia services on Internet traffic loads and who should pay for the extra network capacity needed to meet the growth in traffic.

In the UK the discussions have been centred around the BBC’s popular iPlayer service which lets users download or stream TV programmes to a PC. The BBC has said that its iPlayer service is accounting for between 3 and 5 per cent of all Internet traffic in Britain. According to figures from UK regulator Ofcom it will cost Internet Service Providers in the region of £830m to pay for the extra capacity needed to allow for services like the iPlayer.

So who pays? Should it be the consumer with metered charges, or the content provider? Or should ISPs absorb the cost of extra capacity?

PTT isn’t going to answer that but we can tell you about the technologies that give consumers access to those bandwidth-hungry services. We have just released two brand new e-learning courses about the provision of ADSL and VDSL broadband services over copper wires. These courses join our existing course which discusses how even more bandwidth can be provided using FTTH or FTTC optical fibre systems. More about these three courses here .

We also offer a course covering the provision of IPTV services over broadband – more here .

Telecommunications has experienced major changes in the last few years but perhaps the most radical transformation is occurring now with the introduction of Next Generation Networks (NGNs). These IP-based networks promise long-term cost savings for operators and innovative new services for both residential and business customers.
PTT takes pride in producing e-learning that is up-to-date and relevant and several of our existing courses already deal with technical aspects of NGNs. We will also be releasing in December a brand new course that offers an introduction to the advantages and underlying technologies of NGNs. If you would like more information, please email info@ptt.co.uk with the subject title “NGN course”.