There were 200 speakers including regional innovators, government experts, connectivity providers, regulators, tech companies and government experts across the two-day event discussing how connectivity can drive economic growth and improve quality of life in regions across the North of the UK.
Daren Baythorpe, CEO, ITS Technology Group, opened the conference programme with an overview of the company’s business- and channel-first connectivity mission.
He said, “Our extensive network coverage in the North now passes across areas including Greater Manchester, the Liverpool City region, Blackpool, Preston, east Lancashire, Sheffield and, most recently, Leeds, which we launched last Friday. We have over 500 specialist partners, from local resellers to national providers, and we're now delivering on our strategy which is to enable businesses to connect right across the UK.”
Baythorpe reflected on how the market is changing, and what ITS has been doing to ensure the business and its partners can succeed amidst those changes. He said, “When I stood here 12 months ago, I talked about the three Cs: connections, convergence and consolidation. Our own journey in ITS has been from a build business migrating over to a connections business, and that’s meant we now put a great focus on delivering an excellent service. That's given rise to the fourth and most important C: the customer.”
He emphasised the importance of service as the ultimate benchmark for the industry. He said, “It’s often said that, while price can win new customers, it's service that ensures you keep them. Our genuine commitment to our customers has meant significant investment in systems and processes, and a big mindset shift to deliver differentiated services for the markets we serve.”
Consolidation has started
Next, Rob Hamlin, chief strategy officer, CityFibre, sat down with Sophie Greaves, head of telecoms and spectrum policy, techUK, to discuss key highlights for the company over the last year such as CityFibre’s participation in Project Gigabit-funded projects.
Hamlin reflected on CityFibre’s heritage of organic growth but emphasised the market changes that have led to a new approach. The altnet market, Hamlin said, is “getting more conducive for consolidation”.
“We’ve been engaging very broadly across the altnet market to see if there are opportunities for consolidation. We announced our first transaction in this first quarter where we’ve acquired Lit Fibre and are in the process of integrating that into the group. That adds about 300,000 further premises. That was our first acquisition but we aim for it to be the first of many.”
Hamlin said CityFibre has a “clear line of sight” to get to 5.5 million premises across its footprint, but more acquisitions could accelerate that. He said CityFibre would be keen to talk with altnets at the event that might be suitable for bringing into the CityFibre fold.
Keeping builders building
Next, Georgia Grimes, director, fibre build, Openreach, outlined the milestones the company has met in the past year as it expands its fibre network. She said Openreach is now hitting the pace needed to meet its objectives.
Grimes also emphasised her view that the current regulatory landscape is working and is successful. She said, “The policy and regulatory framework that we have in place has attracted billions in private investment. It’s enabled fierce competition in the industry.”
As we look ahead into the remainder of 2024, a general election is imminent and Grimes explained it is important the industry is provided with regulatory certainty as soon as possible as “we don’t want to risk stalling something that is working”.
Later in the morning, Baythorpe, Hamlin and Grimes joined Conal Henry, chair, Fibrus, Martyn Taylor, chief commercial officer, BDUK, and Rajiv Datta, chief executive officer, Nexfibre, for a lively panel discussion (image above) that dived into how the North of the UK can be empowered with improved connectivity.
The connectivity leaders discussed the significance of Project Gigabit in facilitating the development of next generation connectivity infrastructure in rural areas. With the possibility of a new government on the horizon, competition and regulation were also key topics of debate.
More detail on Connected North will be available in our next print edition.