An ambitious plan for Quickline Communications to become the dominant rural broadband provider across northern England and beyond has been revealed by chief executive Sean Royce.
More than 100 jobs, backed with £500 million of new investment from the new owner over the next four years, will aid the creation of a huge network, taking gigabit-capability to some of the most hard-to-reach locations in the country.
Formulated in his first six months in position, the growth strategy will also see the “10-year-old start-up” relocate to a new base close to the existing Hessle HQ as it accommodates the expansion to allow it to take in more than 500,000 premises.
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It comes at a lively time for the communications sector in the region, with Connexin and MS3 Networks - both recently invested in - on the ground in Hull where Mr Royce led the first full fibre revolution with KCom. His former business is also expanding further into East Yorkshire and northern Lincolnshire.
He decided on a new chapter in his 32-year career during lockdown, emerging from the managing director role of the retail business at the helm of a firm he wants to grow with the ethics fostered across the city.
“We must be one of the fastest growing companies in Yorkshire,” he said. “Our core purpose is to deliver life changing services to people in areas where other providers, quite frankly, find it too difficult to reach.
"We are investing £500 million in order to reach 500,000 homes and businesses in deep rural areas of the North of England and beyond. We will deliver it with a hybrid network capability blending wireless, with full fibre together with market-leading 5G technology.
“There is such huge potential here at Quickline. It’s like a 10-year-old start up business on the verge of immense, strategic growth. It began as a small business to disrupt the market and to challenge BT and essentially that is still the case. We are still here to do what others won’t because we care about rural communities - and we’re backing that up with massive investment.
"We are making life-changing services available to deep rural communities so that people can live, work, socialise and shop online. Imagine not being able to do that? Many of us in more built-up locations take it for granted. But that is not the case in deep rural areas.
"So, we are determined to level the playing field. The digital divide in these areas has been getting wider and we are ensuring that no-one gets left behind.”
The passion is clear, listening to communities and responding to needs.
“What I liked about KCom was how we regenerated the area. We did some work and it found the full fibre network we installed in Hull enabled £500 million GVA - now the exciting thing for me is what we can do in the rural area.”
And it means big growth in the surrounds of the city he helped become a digital pioneer.
“I must have made 50 (job) offers in the last few months, new roles, and I expect this business to grow four-fold from the 40 here when I arrived.
“There will be hundreds more full time roles, proper skilled jobs. We are trying to create a business that will have 100,000 customers, there will be opportunities for contractors too, be it digging up streets or putting up the masts.”
Wider Yorkshire and neighbouring Lincolnshire has been the immediate focus, with Cumbria, Northumberland and beyond also on the radar.
As well as targeting hundreds of thousands of new locations, it will replace legacy technology it has delivered since 2008, while the roll out of new 5G will sit beside full fibre “to provide a technology patchwork” to serve the needs the best.
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“We are working with various partners to provide 5G solutions in rural areas. You can’t get a phone signal in some of these villages, never mind 3G or 4G. This is 5G technology on a different spectrum. No-one has done it before.
“We work with different vendors, hardware and software providers, be it radio transmitters, receivers, whatever is required, then stitch them together. No-one else does that, our USP is how we stitch it together.
“We build the network and supply the service. We are laser focused on rural areas.”
There is quite a market out there too. “Government targets are for 85 per cent to have superfast broadband by 2025 - that means 4.5 million properties will be missed,” Mr Royce said.
“That’s what we exist to do. We are prepared to invest and take a risk. It is a model that will work for us.”
Appointed less than a month before the near £50 million deal was agreed between Canadian investment house Northleaf Capital Partners and previous owner Big Blu Broadband, it was a vital element in the high-profile move.
“It was important,” he said of the work in the background when he opted to join. “In Northleaf we have investors with good ethics, who want to build a business like I want to build one. It is important for them to see a leader who knew how to build, so it was very timely, and all worked out very well. It completed a couple of months after I started, and supported buying Boundless, adding scale and supporting the plan.”
The Bradford-based fellow hybrid network provider was acquired in July.
Since then more key experience in fibre and 5G has been added, and with the enhanced senior management team came founder Steve Jagger’s stepping down.
“I have known Steve for years, we were friends, and he has done an amazing job for 10 years - having set the business up from nothing,” Mr Royce said. “The experience he has got in this is really helpful.
“He knew how to run a small business really successfully, and disrupt the market. I know how to run a big business and scale them up, and disrupt the market. It was always the plan, always agreed, that at some point he would hand the baton across. It has been an elegant transition, and I’m lucky to have him on the board.
“We are taking an existing business, and starting from scratch but with people who understand wireless, know how to provide a service and have thousands of customers already. There is a huge growth aspiration.”
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