The communications world has been left in a state of shock this week, following the announcement that Grasshopper would be officially closing its UK service, effective immediately. Although the cloud communications company has shown no signs of weakness up to this point, they released a statement on the 15th of January, noting that they would no longer be accepting signups and that services will cease on the 30th of April 2018.
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Grasshopper's notification to users of their exit from the UK market[/caption]
Like many in the industry, I was very surprised to see Grasshopper abandoning their customers in the UK so suddenly. While there are some challenges to address for US companies entering the European and UK market, a cloud solution should mean that they had the opportunity to offer service from anywhere.
Time to Migrate - and Fast
With the April deadline just over two months away, clients have been left with no option but to find an alternative provider - and fast. I spoke to Sunny Dhami, a product marketing expert for RingCentral EMEA, who told me that no-one had seen this change coming.
"Obviously the market is becoming more congested, and Grasshopper may have decided that the UK and Europe are simply too competitive, but it's unusual for such a large and successful company to close so quickly."
The Grasshopper statement mentioned that the brand would be willing to assist existing customers in porting away to different vendors, they have now provided a list of service providers to choose from here. It's also worth noting that porting UK numbers to a new vendor can take time, particularly when manual processing challenges and porting agreements are considered.
Don't be Left in the Lurch
Ultimately, the best thing that Grasshopper customers can do right now is look for an appropriate alternative for their communication needs, as quickly as possible. If you're too slow to respond to this news, it could be that you find yourself without a service at the end of April.
Sunny told me that RingCentral is advising Grasshopper customers to choose their new partner by the end of March at the latest.
