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Challenge
A national CCTV and security infrastructure provider had exhausted three separate connectivity suppliers without finding a solution that could meet the demands of a modern, distributed surveillance estate.
Operating hundreds of camera sites across the UK — including remote rural locations, urban retail environments, and critical infrastructure — the organisation faced five compounding challenges:
- Connectivity failures on single-network SIMs left cameras offline with no automatic failover, creating dangerous blind spots and liability exposure.
- No integration with existing systems, leaving IoT SIM connectivity siloed from the company’s security infrastructure and NOC and resulting in fragmented monitoring.
- No secure network tunnel between the SIM estate and the company’s on-premises video management servers, forcing unsecured data paths.
- Three consecutive providers failed to deliver on promises around uptime, security integration, and cross-network roaming, with poor service levels and slow responsiveness further eroding internal confidence in third-party suppliers.
- Inconsistent signal strength at remote and semi-rural camera sites due to reliance on a single UK mobile network operator.
With an obligation to maintain continuous surveillance for end clients across local authorities, retail chains, and construction sites, the organisation required a connectivity partner that could provide genuine resilience, deep technical integration, and a secure data path from camera to control room.
Solution
Cellhire supplied a managed multi-network IoT SIM estate with a dedicated IPsec VPN, pre-configured for plug-and-play deployment across the customer’s UK-wide CCTV infrastructure.
Key elements included:
- Multi-network roaming across EE, Vodafone, O2 and Three, ensuring each camera site locks onto the best available signal in line with GSMA 3GPP standards for regulatory-grade network selection across every location.
- IPsec VPN tunnel providing an encrypted, private data path directly between the SIM estate and the customer’s on-premises video management and monitoring infrastructure, eliminating exposure over the public internet.
- Network integration with the customer’s existing NOC and security platforms, enabling real-time SIM visibility within their own management environment.
- Live SIM management portal offering granular usage monitoring, site-level diagnostics, and remote SIM actions, delivered via API directly into the customer’s backend systems without requiring on-site attendance.
- Staged, pay-as-you-go billing removing upfront capital commitment and allowing the rollout to scale in line with contract wins.
- Seamless onboarding with expert guidance — Cellhire’s IoT specialists handled VPN configuration, infrastructure alignment, staff training, and go-live support.
After three providers that couldn’t deliver what they promised, Cellhire gave us something we’d stopped believing was possible: a connection that just works, a VPN that integrates cleanly with our infrastructure, and a team that understands how security networks operate.
We’re now rolling this out across every new site.
Result
- Zero unplanned camera downtime. Automatic network switching between EE, Vodafone, O2 and Three ensures continuous connectivity even when individual networks degrade or fail.
- Secure, encrypted data path. The IPsec VPN tunnel means footage and control traffic travel over a private, encrypted connection, removing public internet exposure from the video stream.
- Full infrastructure integration. SIM connectivity is now visible within the customer’s own NOC and security management systems, eliminating the siloed monitoring that plagued previous providers.
- Significant annual cost savings. Right-sized tariffs, usage-based billing, and the removal of unnecessary fixed contracts delivered measurable savings versus the combined cost of previous providers.
- Single contract, single point of contact. One supplier relationship replaced three failed ones, simplifying procurement, vendor management, and escalation for the internal IT and security teams.