26 01732 759725 continued... CONNECTIVITY the answer was fairly obvious. It was healthcare. It was logistics companies. It was educational establishments. So we offered a product to that market. We also tapped into the CSR budgets of larger concerns in the region, people like Coventry Building Society, Next and Boots, getting them to sponsor circuits in community centres and schools.” After the first lockdown, when businesses still weren’t going back into the office, Gigabit Networks pivoted into the consumer market, providing connectivity services to people working from home who suddenly needed better quality internet. At this time, it also realised that the channel was probably the best way to attract B2B customers. Strong growth From these uncertain beginnings, Gigabit has grown strongly. “We've achieved 70% compound annual growth in revenue over the last three years,” explains Yates. “In terms of connections, it’s probably nearer 100% compound growth. So, we've done extremely well. And the reason for that is we've concentrated purely on the connectivity piece, rather than trying to diversify.” Much of this growth has been driven by the company’s expanding reseller network. “We’ve had great success amongst the smaller telecoms resellers, people who may have bought from Gamma or Giacom before but are now looking for a different kind of product or a different kind of service. And then there are the partners who haven't had connectivity as a major part of their portfolio before, smaller MSPs that are providing those over the top services, cloud, voice, IT support or whatever. What we provide is faster, more reliable fibre infrastructure, which means fewer support calls and a better customer experience.” A true partnership Yates says that compared to larger connectivity providers that might have very transactional relationships with their partners, Gigabit Networks prefers more collaborative partnerships. “We want to work with our partners. We like to sit down with them and say ‘What are your ambitions? Where do you want to get to? And how can we help you get there?’ Some of the things you'll get from us, that you may not get from the Gammas or Giacoms of this world, are almost bespoke marketing support – ‘What do you want to do? Do you want to do a door knocking campaign? Well, we can probably find people to help you do that and provide the collateral for it. Do you want to do direct mail or a digital campaign? We've got expertise in-house that can help with that too. You don't need to employ an agency, we can help you do that’. We’ve had some really good success with some of our smaller partners with this approach.” Yates points out that there are big opportunities for resellers right now, particularly around the PSTN Switch-off in 2025, which is a major catalyst for a connectivity refresh, and the ongoing full fibre rollout. While Yates welcomes initiatives like the Government’s Project Gigabit and additional £4 billion of investment, he says there are still areas where more needs to be done. “The large Altnets like Cityfibre are building out to millions of homes, but they're not catching as many businesses as they should. Residential properties are Gigabit Networks is a full fibre ISP, headquartered in Leicester, but providing fibre and Ethernet connectivity services nationwide, directly to some enterprises but predominantly through a growing network of reseller partners. “Essentially, Gigabit Networks provides plumbing – Gigabit-capable connectivity to the internet. This allows resellers and MSPs to deliver over the top services much, much faster and more reliably,” explains co-founder and CEO David Yates. Gigabit Networks aggregates a number of Altnets to provide coverage across the country. From its origins in Leicester, Nottingham and Derby, where it was a CityFibre City Champion, it has expanded its reach through relationships with FullFibre, F&W Networks, Digital Infrastructure and now Openreach. “Those four altnets deliver approximately 70,000 business customers on full fibre and we’ve recently onboarded Openreach, which adds another 300,000 to 400,000 business properties, so our footprint is growing all the time. On top of that, we now cover 170,000 business premises with Ethernet. We haven't connected them all, but they are available to us. We already have quite a large footprint for resellers to sell into and our ambition is to get to over a million business premises passed within the next 12 months.” Gigabit Networks has some direct, enterprise-class clients, like the NHS in Leicestershire, but its aim is to generate 80% of its business via channel partners. This wasn’t always the case. In fact, when Yates co-founded Gigabit Networks in 2020, the plan was to sell direct to SMB businesses. “With lockdown, that business plan went straight out the window. We looked at the market and asked ’Who's using this stuff? Who needs gigabit connectivity the most? Who needs high speed, reliable internet connectivity right now?’ And Not just a number Technology Reseller talks to David Yates, CEO and co-founder of Gigabit Networks, about how the fast growing full-fibre ISP is helping resellers and MSPs take advantage of opportunities presented by the PSTN switch-off and full-fibre roll-out
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