Full Fibre ISP Ogi Awards Over £37k to Communities in Wales
Infracapital-backed network builder and ISP Ogi, which is investing £200m on the deployment of a new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network across 150,000 premises in Wales by 2025 (47,500 premises covered by March 2023), has revealed that they’ve awarded £36,750 to community groups within their patch.
The news follows last year’s development, which saw the provider setup a “Cefnogi” local support fund alongside their rollout, which by October 2022 had already contributed over £4,000 toward community groups in Pembrokeshire, Monmouthshire and the Vale of Glamorgan. The funding is typically being used to support everything from community gardens to coffee mornings (i.e. activities that directly benefit their build communities).
Since it started, staff across Ogi have helped clear walking paths with Valeways in the Vale of Glamorgan, provided equipment for emerging grassroots sports teams in Torfaen, Rhondda Cynon Taf and Caerphilly and provided defibrillators and first aid training in Pembrokeshire. Overall, some 200 projects have so far received support, totalling £36,750.
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Community Liaison Officer, Louise Clement, said:
“Giving back to the communities we’re working in is embedded in our company culture. From micro grants to volunteering ours, we’re rolling up our sleeves across south Wales, making the most of the people power we have.
We’re asked to support everything from mental health and wellbeing events to playground projects, community gardens and grassroots sports clubs. Our communities are bursting with activity, and it’s great to be lending a helping hand.”
Customers of the service can expect to pay from £30 per month for an unlimited plan with downloads of 150Mbps (15Mbps upload) and an included wireless router on a 24-month term, which rises to £60 for their top 900Mbps (90Mbps upload) plan. New customers will also get six months FREE broadband and evening and weekend voice calling.
Ogi’s Current Rollout Plan
➤ Bridgend: Caerau, Cwmfelin, Garth, Llangynwyd, Maesteg^, Nantyffyllon, Pencoed^, Porthcawl^
➤ Caerphilly: Blackwood^, Cefn Fforest, Cefn Hengoed, Fleur-de-lis, Hengoed^, Pengam, Ystrad Mynach, Maesycymmer, Pontllanfraith, Tir-y-Berth, Woodfieldside.
➤ Monmouthshire: Abergavenny^, Caerwent, Caldicot^, Chepstow, Crick, Monmouth^, Portskewett, Rogiet, Sudbrook, Undy.
➤ Newport: Langstone, Llanvaches^, Underwood^.
➤ Pembrokeshire: Haverfordwest^, Johnston, Milford Haven^, Neyland^, Pembroke^, Pembroke Dock^.
➤ Rhondda Cynon Taf: Cymmer, Dinas, Llwyncelyn, Mount Pleasant, Porth^, Tonyrefail^*, Tonypandy^*, Trebanog, Trehafod, Ynyshir.
➤ Torfaen: Griffithstown, New Inn, Pantymoile, Penygarn, Pontypool^, Sebastopol, Trosnant, Wainfelin.
➤ Vale of Glamorgan: Dinas Powys^, Llantwit Major^, Rhoose^, St Athan.^Local Network Exchange
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
If it’s free money from the investor’s pocket, then that’s the investor’s call, and against £200m of capex it’s negligible. But having worked for a number of employers who did similar employee volunteering and community sponsorship at some scale and for many years, I can say that was not effective marketing, didn’t increase brand awareness, didn’t change our standing in the public eye, produced no really enduring benefits for the community, and the team spirit after volunteering sessions was good but unchanged on what it was before.
I can’t help feeling that this side of CSR is especially unproductive for all companies other than generating a few pics and lines of text to fill a report or web site, or generate a fell good press release. In that respect it’s been a success for Ogi if that’s all they hoped for, but I’d have thought using Ogi’s core assets and skills (eg free internet for schools, with a sponsoring agreement to market to parents) would have been no more expensive and gotten better outcomes for both company and the beneficiaries. Or there’s other ways companies can support the community – for example undertaking back office tasks that businesses are good at yet are expensive for local charities with a modest number of employees. Those sorts of things could make a real difference, still cost the same, and generate the same amount of feel good press coverage. Obviously requires a fair amount more thought and organisation to do those sorts of things, and perhaps that’s the deal – it’s nice and easy to randomly splash a few bob on community gifts and a few hours of employee time on minimum wage pond or path clearing tasks, and management don’t mind if that’s unproductive, but they do mind having to engage their brains and look for where they can make a real difference.