Cambrian Veterinary Centre - keeping pets healthy - and their owners happy - with the help of Chameleon 

Struggling with patchy coverage; eight years ago Cambrian Veterinary Centre began to look around for an effective solution, and deployed Chameleon Strongest Signal SIM at the heart of their emergency call out system. 

the challenge

Rural mid-Wales presents unique challenges when it comes to keeping in touch using mobile technology. The mountains and valleys may be beautiful, but they can also act as barriers to getting a good mobile signal. For a small business offering a 24-hour emergency call out service, bad or patchy mobile coverage can become a major problem.

Established over 40 years ago, Cambrian Veterinary Centre is a small animal veterinary practice with two surgeries, one in Tywyn on the Cambrian Coast, and one in Machynlleth, a small town in the Dyfi Valley.

“We are a very busy practice, and use an appointment system during office hours,” says, practice manager, Marius Erasmus. “We also operate a 24-hour emergency service, which means that we rely on mobile phones. Vets in the UK are legally required to offer a 24-hour on-call service, and we are only too happy to do so as part of our commitment to our customers and their animals. Nevertheless, to do that successfully we need reliable mobile coverage, and that’s not easy in our operational area, as you can usually only get a signal from a single network in any given area. When you move to another location you can find that the only available signal is from a different network. When you consider the distances our vets have to cover, this is far from ideal, and carrying multiple handsets or multiple SIMs wouldn’t be very efficient, or even viable.”

Struggling with patchy coverage; eight years ago Cambrian Veterinary Centre began to look around for an effective solution, and deployed Chameleon Strongest Signal SIM at the heart of their emergency call out system. Out of hours calls come in on the normal landline, which diverts them to a mobile handset which has a Chameleon SIM.

maximum mobile connectivity

This mobile is carried by on-call vet. Chameleon maximises the chances of the caller reaching the vet and the vet being able to get back to them. The service allows the vet to contact the pet owner to find out more about the problem or to tell them that they are on their way. Also, sometimes when attending in a very rural location it can be vital that the vet can make a call to colleagues to get extra help. Chameleon maximises their chances of doing just that.

“We never forget,” says Marius, “just how important an animal can be to an individual or a family, and not being able to get help in an emergency can be devastating. Chameleon enables us not just to offer an efficient service, but to offer a personal one. If it wasn’t for this service, we would certainly have to use an out of hours messaging service, and our clients are frequently pleasantly surprised that their out of hours call is answered by a vet, in person.”

“There are over 5,000 veterinary practices in the UK and – whether they are based in the town or country and whether they are large or small – they all need to provide a 24-hour emergency service, and Chameleon can help them do just that. It’s not only vets; any business which is based on call outs, has a mobile workforce or offers an emergency service needs to maximise the resilience of their mobile communication. Connectivity isn’t just an add on to the business, it is the business,” says Sarah Creighton, Chameleon Product Manager.

Modern networks offer a reliable service, but each operator offers slightly different coverage, none promising 100% availability. Even the best networks can be compromised by unpredictable factors which result in poor, intermittent or unavailable coverage (not spots).

Chameleon can provide the solution – offering users the ability to roam across UK networks via a single SIM providing access to the strongest signal in any given location offering the best possible coverage at all times.

The SIMs can be used with virtually any handset which is free of network locks providing access to all UK GSM networks. Everything about Chameleon is simple to set up, easy to operate and scalable. Ordering new, replacement, or additional SIMs is easy and billing is straightforward. No complicated bundles, or subsidised handsets – just security and mobile access at the highest level. Chameleon is available from Global Solutions, the market leader in strongest signal mobile connectivity for the UK market.

maximum connectivity – when it matters most

• Maximum mobile connectivity
• Roams across UK networks via a single SIM
• Selects the strongest signal in any given location
• Provides the best possible mobile coverage at all times
• Can be used with virtually any handset, or device which uses a SIM card
• Gives 3G, Packet, and Circuit Switched data coverage across most UK networks
• Compatible with MTPAS
• Simple to set up, easy to operate, and scalable
• Straightforward monthly billing