FROM THE INDUSTRY
Tell me about Ogi and your lightbulb moment. I worked for Teleste previously running their international network services business as VP; the largest component of that was a subsidiary of theirs called Flomatik Network Services, which I took on when it employed about 20 people and grew to over 200. We provided telecommunications companies with many services covering consulting, architectural advice, network planning & design and field engineering. We also advised investors in that space and undertook due diligence projects. We were launching the altnet community in its infancy – and I loved it. It was exciting, purposeful and progressive. However, as time went by it occurred to me that I was helping everybody else start telecoms companies when I could actually just start one myself! A seed was sown. It must have reminded you of the early days of cable. It did. I worked in several cable startups back in the early 90s and had a great time; I was lucky to be a part of that revolution. After Carlton Cabletime, a cable technology provider, I joined IVS, an operator, which became Comtel, which grew into NTL and finally, Virgin. That history is what led me to the SCTE and its brilliant network of industry experts. After some research, the opportunity that most piqued my interest was in Wales, where a small company called Spectrum Internet had completed some discrete fibre projects and had in place some of the things needed to build out a larger network, but needed a management team. Why Wales? When I examined the numbers, it was clear that Wales was poorly served; many operators were piling in on the larger towns, especially on the Home Counties and Thames Valley, but I didn’t see much interest in Wales. They were being left behind, and I felt this could be a great place to build something with real purpose. What’s the secret of your success? We have quite a different chemistry. Unlike a lot of operators, we are a full-service
now for the whole industry is take-up. This is where we’re really performing well, with average penetration at 22% already – and with many service areas and towns already at 30%.
company; vertically integrated. We build the network, but we also work hard to acquire and connect the customers. This business model meant that right from the get-go we put developing a brand and being customer-centric at the heart of our thinking. We wanted to speak to our audience and be relevant to their needs – not just another fat pipe offering. There are undoubtedly other altnets out there who built more, quicker, while we developed a sophisticated organisation that was more holistic. When we look around the market, Ogi’s brand is quite edgy, I think, unmistakably Welsh, fun and engaging. The investors hated it at first. As I said, the key to success is to build an outstanding executive team, and for them to set about building the teams beyond that, so early on I went out to the industry and hired top executives. Wales is a country, not a region, it’s not a Hampshire or an Oxfordshire. The country has a fierce sense of national identity, so having a purpose and strategy to deliver for Wales - embedding our values early on - has been very powerful. When I look back, I think we executed quite well. We had plenty of bumps along the road, of course. We found it hard to get our build machinery going and scaled quickly across such a large area, but when we did, it was good. In fast growing companies you make mistakes, but as long as you course-correct quickly, you can largely stick to your business plan. The acid test
Was rural a part of that business plan?
There wasn’t a commercial argument to head into Cardiff, Swansea, Newport for residential; if Openreach weren’t there yet, they soon would be. And Virgin Media’s Cable network, with its underlying DOCSIS infrastructure, already provided a solid alternative, albeit an expensive one at the time, for those needing higher speeds. Like most places, Wales doesn’t need a third or fourth operator in larger towns. Wales needed a first mover bringing full fibre to Abergavenny and Porthcawl. This ‘outside in’ approach certainly made our lives harder in terms of rollout and backhaul provision, because these are smaller towns with all the smaller town problems. Spreading our activities across south Wales from day one, to ‘own the patch’ brought many logistical challenges; Monmouthshire is a long way from Pembrokeshire and it was easy to disrupt those small communities and risk alienating your target customers However, people ultimately got to see Ogi as their south Wales provider, doing what we said we were going to do, and serving the places most neglected.
May 2025 Volume 47 No.2
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