Telecom operations at scale. Without the spiralling cost.
Scaleshore staffs your NOC, provisioning desk, and field-coordination teams from South Africa — running 24/7 shifts, integrated into your OSS/BSS, operating to your customer SLAs. We’ve built telecom-shaped delivery from day one.
NOC. Provisioning. 24/7 shifts. OSS-integrated.
24/7 Coverage achievable
Margin is tightening. Customer expectations aren't.
UK and EU telecom providers are caught between two forces: customers demand faster provisioning and tighter SLAs; ARPU is flat or declining. The traditional path — hiring more local NOC engineers and field coordinators — doesn't math out anymore.
24/7 staffing is expensive
Night-shift and weekend premiums double the cost of UK NOC engineers. Most providers undersupply weekend coverage.
Provisioning backlogs
New customer activations stall. Order-to-activate times stretch. Customer satisfaction drops.
Niche technical skills
SIP, MPLS, SD-WAN, NOC tooling. UK engineers with these skills are scarce and getting scarcer.
Margin compression
Wholesale carrier costs are stable. Retail prices are competitive. Operational cost is the only lever.
What Scaleshore actually delivers for telecom partners.
These aren't hypothetical numbers. They're the outcomes our telecom partners measure in their first two quarters with offshore-augmented operations.
30% Backlog reduction
Typical reduction in provisioning and incident backlogs within the first quarter of NOC augmentation.
25% FTR improvement
Improvement in first-time fix rates across L1/L2 NOC tickets from properly trained and governed offshore teams.
48% Cost reduction
Average cost saving per NOC seat vs UK equivalent, including 24/7 shift coverage and statutory costs.
Every layer of the MSP stack.
From triage desk to security operations centre. Office-based delivery, not remote freelancers — your offshore team works from a managed Cape Town office on managed devices, under Cyber Essentials Plus controls.
NOC Engineer (24/7 shift)
- Network monitoring (PRTG, SolarWinds, LibreNMS)
- Incident triage and escalation
- Carrier ticketing (Openreach, BT Wholesale, etc.)
- SD-WAN, MPLS, BGP fundamentals
- CCNA, JNCIA, or equivalent certifications
Provisioning & Activation Specialist
- New service order processing
- Carrier portal handling (Openreach EMP, Carrier Suite)
- Customer onboarding and acceptance testing
- OSS/BSS data entry and validation
Field Service Coordinator
- Engineer scheduling and dispatch
- Customer site coordination
- Job-pack preparation and parts management
- Real-time progress tracking
Voice / SIP Engineer
- SIP trunk configuration and troubleshooting
- Hosted PBX deployment (3CX, Teams, Webex)
- QoS and codec analysis
- Number porting and CLI management
- Typical cost: 45-55% lower than UK equivalent
Telecoms Project Manager
- Multi-site rollout coordination
- Vendor and carrier interface management
- PRINCE2 or APM certified
- Customer-facing stakeholder reporting
Billing & Carrier Ops Analyst
- Carrier reconciliation and dispute resolution
- CDR processing and validation
- Margin analysis and pricing reviews
- Wholesale to retail billing alignment
24/7 coverage
Around-the-clock NOC, without around-the-clock cost.
Three-shift rotations from South Africa cover UK business hours and US East Coast hours seamlessly. Adding a Philippines second-shift extends coverage through Asia-Pacific morning. Most of our telecom partners run a SA-anchored model with Philippines supplementary cover for true follow-the-sun support — at roughly 50-55% of the UK-only equivalent cost.
"NOC engineers in the UK on weekend shifts cost us nearly £200 per hour all-in. With Scaleshore's SA shift rotation, we cover the same hours at less than half that, with better consistency."
Conversation with a UK telecom operator
What telecom operators ask, before they sign.
Can your team work in our OSS/BSS systems?
Yes. Your offshore team logs into your OSS (Netcracker, Amdocs, Cerillion) and BSS (BillingPlatform, Aria, in-house systems) just like a UK employee. We train every placement on your specific stack as part of onboarding. The integration is fully transparent — your customers, your carriers, and your auditors see a unified operation.
How does 24/7 shift coverage actually work?
Three-shift rotation. South Africa (GMT+2) covers UK business hours directly. We extend with a second shift (afternoon SA = US East Coast morning) and a third overnight rotation. For full follow-the-sun, we blend with Philippines (GMT+8) to cover APAC mornings. Most partners start with single-shift coverage and add overnight rotation in month 3-6.
What carrier portals and systems can your team handle?
UK carriers: Openreach EMP, BT Wholesale, TalkTalk Business, Virgin Media Business, Vodafone Wholesale. International: Lumen, GTT, Tata, Telstra. Voice: Gamma, BT, Vonage, RingCentral. Network monitoring: PRTG, SolarWinds, LibreNMS, Zabbix. We train on your specific tooling as part of placement onboarding.
How is this different from outsourcing NOC to a service provider?
Big difference. Outsourcing puts NOC operations under a third party’s control — different SLAs, different reporting, different processes. Our model is offshoring through EOR: the engineers work for you, in your systems, under your processes. You control the work; we provide the legal employment, payroll, office, and HR infrastructure.
What's the typical engagement size for a telecom partner?
Telecom partners typically start with a single NOC engineer or provisioning specialist for a 90-day proof of concept. Successful engagements scale to 3-8 offshore seats within the first year, often replacing or augmenting UK headcount as natural attrition occurs. A few partners run 15-25 seat offshore operations.