Accelerated Growth
Nextgenaccess are on a mission to connect parts of the country which are underserved by fibre. After receiving
£22m in funding and recruiting an all-star senior management team they clearly think the time is right for the
Channel to grasp this opportunity
in Newport. e commercial
drivers behind that are our
carrier customers want an
additional, and entirely
separate, route out of the UK
and into NGD.
What we have also spent a
lot of time doing is mapping
that particular route so it goes
past as many residential and
businesses as possible, we call
it the snake. We nd the best
route which hits the areas that
need bre and gives us the best
opportunity to win business.
at could be a new residential
development, a business park,
or shopping centres for example.
On the NGD to Bristol
route it connects to eight BT
exchanges along the way. At
those key points we can extend
out to reach the consumers. We
are in realistic reach of 4,000 –
5,000 businesses which aren’t
already touched by decent bre.
e funding from Amber
is to speed up a very eective
business model. It allows us to
look at strategic routes where
Mark Weller, Managing Director
at Nextgenaccess
previously we wouldn’t have
been able to build them without
having them anchored with
carrier customers.
CBM: Where does the Channel
fit in?
Bob Falconer (BF): e reality
is this isn’t for everyone. It’s
more for those with technical
capability and those which have
reasonable volume to make it
worth their while. ey might
be mini ISPs, or have a cluster
of customers in an area and
perhaps want a bit more control
over what they do, or simply
someone that wants to be able
to dierentiate. We are looking
to work with a relatively small
number of players in order
to maximise the opportunity
where there is bre or where
there could be bre.
It is a reasonable assumption
that all businesses will want
bre to the premises at some
point in the near future. Some
will use that for competitive
advantage to be able to run
500+ experienced sta, the UK’s largest independent
network and 24 years of continual growth.
Not bad for a “small” provider.
services across that earlier. ey
might be smaller businesses
in niche segments or national
businesses who are changing
their business model. For
resellers the opportunity is the
guy who provides the bre. As
the guy who gets in rst you are
more likely to hold the fort for
the long term because people
aren’t going to be attracted
to overbuild. is will be
important over the next ve
years, we can enable that for
partners, they can then go and
sell all the additional services
which run over the top.
CBM: What services are you
offering?
Kenny Roberts: We oer speeds
which are anything from 100M
to 10 Gig. As time passes those
speeds are likely go up. We have
two simple oers really, one is
active Ethernet and the other is
GPON. at is driven by the
reseller, aggregator or ISP that is
operating locally in the area and
what they require.
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INTERVIEW
Bob Falconer, Non Executive
Director at Nextgenaccess
Comms Business Magazine
(CBM): Can you give us
a bit of background to
Nextgenaccess and your
approach to the market?
Mark Weller (MW): It was
founded by Kenny Roberts four
years ago and he brought me
onboard to secure the funding
which happened in October
2018. We are funded by Amber
who have invested £22m to
ramp up our approach to bre
roll out.
Essentially, we connect
important bits of infrastructure
using bre with our PIA
(Physical Infrastructure Access)
license which allows us to
install our infrastructure into
Openreach’s ducting.
CBM: Why is your method
significant?
MW: We are connecting NGD
(Europe’s biggest datacentre
in Newport) with the Bristol
BT Exchange. Our bre runs
from the Bristol BT Exchange
over the old bridge into NGD
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