ISPs Telcom and Pinacl Join Forces to Bid on UK Full Fibre Contracts

UK ISPs Telcom Group and Pinacl Solutions have today announced that they’ve entered into an exclusive partnership, which will see the pair working together to bid on the government’s Local Full Fibre Network (LFFN) contracts and to launch a new Gigabit fibre optic “hypercity” in Newport and Bristol.

The news comes a few short months after Telcom revealed that their first “hypercity” would be in Manchester, where they were able to harness a 160km long Dark Fibre network (aka – The Loop) from Gamma in order to deliver multi-Gigabit broadband and Ethernet data speeds to potentially hundreds of businesses (here)

By the sounds of it they now plan to deliver something similar to Newport (Wales) and Bristol, although both already have a growing amount of multi-Gigabit capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) going into the ground via Openreach, Cityfibre and Hyperoptic.

On top of that the pairing has an eye toward jointly bidding on some of the contracts under the Government’s new £190m Local Full Fibre Network (LFFN) programme, which was setup to help stimulate commercial investment in “gigabit capable” broadband (details). Telcom have also recruited Sean Anstee to head up the Infrastructure Division of the group.

Shaun Gibson, Telcom Group CEO said:

“The creation of Telcom Group, our new infrastructure division and the Partnership with Pinacl enables us to expand in the market and stimulate competition not yet seen in the telecoms sector. We are delighted to welcome Sean to the Telcom family and are excited to realise our vision of ubiquitous access to affordable ultrafast internet. It is our belief that the internet is a utility, a basic human right, that when readily available is a catalyst for economic growth, technological innovation and empowerment with life changing impact.”

Rob Bardwell, Pinacl Solutions (UK) MD, said:

“Having worked with Telcom for some time, we are delighted to formalise the relationship through this partnership. Both companies have skills and solutions which naturally complement each other, allowing the positioning of us to win nationwide fibre infrastructure projects and by offerings a unique blend of skills and experience, unmatched in the current market.”

We note that Sean Anstee use to be the Leader of Trafford Council and Vice Chairman of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority with portfolio responsibility for Skills, Employment and a Digital City Region.