FROM THE INDUSTRY
Tell me about your background Paddy.
Sometimes it takes a fresh pair of eyes to appreciate the wealth of knowledge available in an organisation. Exactly that. INCA is about 15 years old. Malcolm (Corbett) had taken it from inception. 15 years ago, altnets weren’t a thing; making government understand they existed and doing reports that effect change in government was a huge undertaking. The future of gigabit Britain was one of those reports. Do you have a two-to-five- year plan? With consolidation in the market we need to be thinking about how INCA continues to exist. In five year’s time, what does INCA look like and what does it do then? The focus now is preparing for the TAR (Telecoms Access Review), our response to that and possibly the government’s SSP (Statement of Strategic Priorities) depending on what emerges from it.
It was a great success, Wildanet got off the ground; we were delighted by the take up and how we expanded across Cornwall. But the people that get right into the nook and cranny of everything, making marginal business improvements all the time tend to last longer than I do. I can’t concentrate that long. In the end Helen Wilde, the CEO of Wildanet at the time and a good friend, took me aside and said, look, I think that’s enough, Paddy. So you stepped away. I find if more than two days are the same, I can get a little disruptive. I’m not great with that. Once processes are in place and we know exactly what we’re doing, you’re in a routine, that is how you run a business well. I’m more motivated by ‘what do I need to do different today to make it succeed?’ Building something and maintaining it take different types of Energy. I can relate. Tell me about INCA and your vision for the future. I’ve inherited a real bank of information and knowledge, some good policy stuff, data and industry information that people aren’t that aware of. I want to tell people what INCA’s been doing and help the altnets by making that voice louder. My role is about change and progression.
I was in the military, in the Royal Signal. I followed my dad into the army and spent 12 years there; posted out to Northern Ireland and then Cyprus; I earned a BTEC in Electrical Engineering and then they asked me to design a cable television system. It was the mid-90s, Sky was just starting up and it occurred to me perhaps there’s something on the outside I should be doing. I got out of the army and joined CableCell. My foreman of signals from Northern Ireland saw my application and said oh I know him. That’s how I got in. The work developed into approaching local town councils designing and installing CCTV. We built this network, worked out how to monetise it for the clients; we did all sorts including front door cameras, so people could change the channel to see the front door. Then we developed a system for getting live pictures off trains, even in tunnels, so as the train went along, it handed over to different radios along the track. We deployed that on the Docklands Light Railway and as far as I know, it’s still in operation. How did Wildanet get started? In 2016, after running away to the seaside briefly to run a newsagent in Plymouth, my friend Ian Galbert, who I’d worked with at NTL called me and said, the Internet’s rubbish in Cornwall, isn’t it. He encouraged me to develop a broadband network there. We picked this village which was down the valley with trees the other side, making life as hard as possible, and we employed the the logic that if you can do it here, we can do it anywhere.
How is that going to affect you?
Digital inclusion is the big one. And one of the advantages the altnets have is that that’s where they started. Most of us started those businesses to get good internet into places that didn’t have it. We’re champions around stopping the digital divide; there was a lot of altruism in amongst the drive to succeed in business.
May 2025 Volume 47 No.2
59
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