Retail Telecoms & IT Solutions

Connectivity, tills and phones that keep trading when the line does not — from a single shop to a multi-site estate.

A shop stops trading the moment its connection does. Card payments, EPOS, stock and pricing updates, click-and-collect, CCTV and the back-office systems the manager works in all arrive over the same line, so an outage is not an IT inconvenience — it is a queue at the till and customers walking out. That is the difference between retail and most other sectors: the cost of downtime is immediate, visible and measured in lost sales rather than lost productivity.

So the connection comes first, and it comes with a second one behind it. We supply Ethernet leased lines from 100Mbps to 100Gbps and superfast FTTC or FTTP broadband, with GSM 4G/5G backup alongside as a separate route to the internet — which for a shop usually matters more than raw speed, because it is what keeps the card machines up when the primary circuit is down. Across an estate, sites can be joined with SD-WAN or a PWAN/MPLS network, with voice and card traffic prioritised so an overnight stock sync cannot degrade either.

On top of that sits cloud telephony on Evonex, or calling built into Microsoft Teams for retailers already on Microsoft 365, with SIP trunking and number porting to keep the numbers customers already ring. Timing matters: stop sell is in force and the UK PSTN and ISDN network switches off in January 2027, so any store still on analogue or ISDN needs a plan. Guest Wi-Fi is kept on its own network away from the tills, and CCTV, ANPR and cyber security cover the rest of the estate — with 24/7 UK-based support and a named local director behind all of it.

How we help retail

Tills stay up when the line drops

GSM 4G/5G backup as a second, independent route to the internet, so card payments and EPOS keep running through a primary circuit fault.

Guest Wi-Fi, kept off the tills

Customer Wi-Fi on its own segregated network so shoppers are never on the same one as payment and stock systems.

One phone system, every store

Evonex cloud telephony or Teams calling across the whole estate on a single numbering plan, with calls routed between stores and head office.

Ready for the 2027 switch-off

SIP trunking with full number porting moves stores off analogue and ISDN before the PSTN closes, keeping the numbers already on your signage.

Connectivity and communications

The lines, phones and wireless behind every sale, order and delivery.

Ethernet leased lines from 100Mbps to 100Gbps
Superfast FTTC and FTTP business broadband
GSM 4G/5G backup as a second route for tills and card machines
SD-WAN or PWAN/MPLS to join an estate, with voice and payment traffic prioritised
Evonex cloud telephony
Microsoft Teams calling for retailers already on Microsoft 365
SIP trunking with number porting ahead of the 2027 PSTN switch-off
Structured cabling, enterprise Wi-Fi, business mobiles and IoT SIMs

Security, payments and continuity

Cover for the shop floor, the stock room and the systems that take the money.

Guest Wi-Fi segregated from payment and EPOS networks
CCTV across the sales floor, stock room and car park
ANPR for retail parks and barrier-controlled entrances
Cyber security for the store network and its cloud applications
Voicesafe fraud protection on voice services
Business continuity and disaster recovery, with UK data centre hosting
24/7 UK-based maintenance and support

Retail customers

Published in full on the SCG group site.

Portway Domestic AppliancesSCG helped Portway find a telephony solution with reduced call & line costs, whilst offering a better service to resolve technical issues & reduce downtime. (opens on the SCG group site)

See all customer stories

Retail — Common Questions

What happens to our card payments if the broadband goes down?

That is what the GSM 4G/5G backup is for. It is a separate route to the internet on a different network, so when the primary circuit fails the tills and card machines fail over to it rather than stopping. For most shops this is the single most valuable part of the setup, because the cost of an hour offline at the till is immediate and obvious.

Should customer Wi-Fi be on the same connection as the tills?

It can share the same line, but never the same network. Guest access is kept segregated from payment and EPOS systems, so a customer device cannot reach anything on the till network. Keeping the two apart is also what stops a busy Saturday of shoppers streaming video from slowing down the systems you trade on.

We have twelve stores on different contracts. Can that be simplified?

Yes, and it usually saves money as well as admin. Sites can move onto one provider, one bill and one numbering plan, joined by SD-WAN or a PWAN/MPLS network. Send us a recent bill from a couple of sites and we can give you an early indication before anyone commits to anything.

Our shop phones are still analogue. How long have we got?

Stop sell is already in force and the PSTN and ISDN network closes in January 2027, so the answer is less time than most retailers assume. SIP trunking can move the existing numbers across and keep a suitable on-premise system in service, or hosted telephony can replace it — your local director will go through both.

Services for retail

Where we cover retail

Areas where retail is part of the local economy and a director already covers it. Each page names who you would be dealing with.

Let's talk about your retail setup

Send us a recent bill and a list of your sites, and we will show you what one supplier, one numbering plan and a backup route would look like across the estate.

Get in touch Find your director