Freedom Fibre's goal of becoming a top five altnet is gaining momentum, propelled by its March merger with VXFibre and two Project Gigabit contract wins. Here, Delivery Operations Director Adele Cihlar shares how the altnet plans to continue climbing the industry ranks by utilising further debt funding and M&A.
Wed, 9/10/2024 - 12:35
With around £1bn at its disposal, Quickline is fully funded on its mission to bring gigabit-capable infrastructure to deep rural communities and is on target to pass 120,000 premises by the end of the year.
Quickline ended 2023 with around 65,000 premises passed across rural Yorkshire and Lincolnshire and has recorded a ten-fold increase in sales and installations within the last 12 months, with 20% penetration in many of its rollout regions.
In recent months, it has secured a £250m debt financing package with UKIB and Natwest and won four contracts from the government Project Gigabit programme. CEO Sean Royce said: “I believe this puts Quickline amongst an small group of altnets that are both accelerating build, growing their business and have the financial resources available to do that for many years to come.
“Our debt raise is arguably the most significant of 2024, given the sector has only been able to raise £900m in total since the heady days of 2021 and 2022. What this tells us is that our business plan, focusing on deep rural communities where there is little overbuild and a desperate need for gigabit-capable infrastructure, is both credible and will generate returns, as well as help to regenerate local communities.”
Working to this objective, Quickline’s immediate priorities will be to deliver the four Type B Project Gigabit contracts it won on its home patch of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire and address around 170,000 funded premises.
This will deliver the altnet the £300m of subsidy receipts required to make the economics work. In addition to that, as part of its own commercial build plans, Quickline aims to reach a further 190,000 premises in that same footprint.
Royce added: “We are a regionally focused rural broadband provider, and our people live and work in the region we serve. We know the local area extremely well and we provide broadband products and services to customers in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.
“We have never been distracted by large market towns or cities where everyone else is building because it is cheaper and easier to deploy. We are laser-focused on our rural communities and making sure they have access to all the same online services that others have. That was one of the overarching principles in all our bids and I think that must have come across clearly.”
Quickline has experience working with previous Government subsidy schemes that has helped it work at pace to deliver these contracts. It has previously delivered on several government contracts under the Superfast Broadband programmes serving Lincolnshire as well as West and North Yorkshire.
Royce added: “That meant in terms of our footprint, we were already familiar with the area included in the four lots which enabled us to ensure the greatest coverage possible for the public funding available. Winning the lots allows us to roll out our network even deeper into these rural communities.”
“All this also meant that could hit the ground running. For example, we were awarded the contract for West Yorkshire and the York area in February and within 77 days of that contract being awarded, we had connected our very first customer under Project Gigabit. That had not been done as quickly under any other BDUK contract that had been awarded to any other operator. Some of the other suppliers delivering these contracts are not connecting customers for a year or more after being awarded the contract.”
Quickline is blending its rollout with a wider social value programme, QFutures, which focuses on our three key pillars: Educate People, Enrich Livelihoods, and Enhance Environments.
“We have got an impressive schedule that sees us really engaging and integrating with rural communities through schools, charities, businesses, social enterprises and so much more to make an impact and regenerate these rural communities across Yorkshire and Lincolnshire,” added Royce.
In aid of the first pillar, Quickline recently joined The 5% club, meaning that over the next five years, it will increase the number of people in its team so that a minimum of 5% is in formal apprenticeships or graduation schemes.
“We have our first cohort of apprentices starting soon which is exciting and after that we’ll be integrating graduates and taking on students in year-long placements,” said Royce. “It will really enhance our business and I’m looking forward to moving forward with this.
He concluded: “Our aim and objectives are the same as they were when I started in the business following investment from Northleaf Capital Partners back in 2021.
“We want to continue our efforts to champion those people living in the hard-to-reach rural areas of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire and become recognised in those communities for doing that.”
