MARKET REPORT Connectivity - Digital Britain
“It’s not just about Openreach shutting down its legacy platforms to save costs, it’s an opportunity
to open the market up and give UK businesses a much better range of connectivity options
5G can happen only if bre
connectivity is increased manifold.
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than they had before. “ Paul North , Head of Sales, Entanet
more margin-friendly business
opportunities for them but in
return they are taking all the
risk on the customer. at’s the
quid pro quo and keeps all sides
engaged and motivated.”
“It’s a tricky one,” according
to Pangea’s Dan Cunlie.
“As a rule, they should only
be subsidised once they deliver
on their KPIs—and perhaps
funded even further if they top
those KPIs.
If by nothing else other
than sheer longevity, there’s
enough opportunity within
these technologies for business
plans and deep investment to be
rewarded.”
Daren Baythorpe at ITS
echoes what a lot of people
are realising when he says the
drive for full bre and 5G has
certainly created some new and
interesting dynamics.
“I think there is already
huge motivation to deliver
on the government’s vision.
e various initiatives and
schemes it has launched are
a springboard to stimulate
markets – the Local Full Fibre
Networks (LFFN) scheme is a
great example of this.
Perhaps further help/
support/subsidy could be
centred around schemes to
make it more straightforward
to deliver on its full bre
vision. Phasing grant funded
programmes would also help to
stagger programmes reducing
the pressure put on highly
skilled resource which is in
short supply vs. demand. e
government should look at
innovative nancial models
that will allow them to invest in
alternative commercial schemes
such as asset sharing e.g. reusing
existing ducts (tramways,
CCTV, etc) where the capex
build costs are signicantly
reduced, speed to market is
increased, and environmental
impact reduced.”
ED SAYS…
I think our editor summed up the connectivity market well in his weekly comment
recently when he said ‘money is pouring into the UK infrastructure space at the
moment’. Just recently we saw traditional provider KCOM sell for £627 million after
a bidding war pushed the price up by over £120 million. Country Broadband has just
received £46 million in private investment to build-out fibre in Norfolk, Call Flow
Solutions has raised £30 million from European investors for a fibre network in
Kent. That’s before CityFibre’s £2.5bn fibre investment plan! For the Channel this is
fantastic opportunity to deliver customers some truly ground-breaking connectivity.
exaggeration.
Part of the onus is on
government-approved sources,
such as the IEEE, to provide
accurate, informative resources
that educate the sector.
And the other part is on
us—the Channel—to properly
specify the capabilities,
applications, and outcomes
people can expect from the
rollout of these technologies.”
Andrew Dickinson at Jola,
says the issue with 5G is how
quickly the MNOs will make it
available to the channel.
“e enlightened will
understand that volume and
land-grab early-doors is more
important than those extra
few points of margin by going
retail only. Especially as we
are better served to address the
xed location market, where 5G
will get the fastest traction in
competition with FTTP.”
Digital Britain could prove
the catalyst to build new
propositions and business
relationships but will the
infrastructure provider be
sufficiently well rewarded
(subsidised?) to become
super motivated?
Steve Mackervoy, Channel
Sales Manager at Nextgenaccess
says the government voucher
schemes are certainly helping
make the business case stand up
for infrastructure providers.
“But having signicant
corporate investment funding
in place is essential. While
Digital Britain is no free
ride for wholesale full bre
infrastructure providers such as
Nextgenaccess, the rewards on
oer are signicant. However,
you have to be prepared to take
the long-term view.
It’s always been the same
in connectivity over the years
when it comes to risk versus
reward. e infrastructure
provider takes a long-term view
and must expect to take lower
margins, providing operators
and channel partners the
opportunity of layering services
over the top such as VoIP and
hosting. is presents ongoing
46 | Comms Business Magazine | September 2019 www.commsbusiness.co.uk
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