Wireless Broadband Provider Dyfed Telecom Hit by Winding Up Petition
Kidwelly-based wireless broadband provider and supplier Dyfed Telecom Limited, which over the past few years has helped to connect various premises in rural Wales to broadband using a mix of mobile (EE powered 4G/5G), satellite (Starlink) and WiFi based solutions, has suffered a blow after HMRC filed a winding-up petition against the business.
For those who may be unfamiliar with this process, a Winding Up Petition (WUP) is a legal action that is usually taken by a creditor or creditors, which in this case appears to be the UK tax authority – HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), against a company that owes them money. Such petitions are an expensive approach and so are usually only considered as a last resort (e.g. when all other approaches to settle a debt have failed).
According to The Gazette, the petition was presented to the High Court of Justice (Chancery Division) on 21st January 2025 by the Commissioners for HMRC. The case itself is expected to be heard at the Royal Courts of Justice in London on 5th March at 10:30am.
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At the time of writing, it’s not clear what caused the situation, although it’s possible they could have been put under strain by the Welsh Government’s (WG) August 2024 suspension of the long-running Access Broadband Cymru (ABC) grant scheme (here). This offered funding to help rural homes get a faster broadband service installed in areas of slow connectivity, which is something that Dyfed Telecom did use.
The company’s most recent annual accounts, which cover the year to 30th September 2023 (published 1st Dec 2023) stated that the company had net liabilities of £28.5k (2021: £137.6k) and was continuing to “explore funding options to allow it to continue to meet its ongoing liabilities, including HMRC, and has the continued support of its directors and certain financial institutions“. But under the section for “Creditors: amounts falling due within one year“, there was a total of £1.193m listed. Sadly, these accounts are now quite old, and so we don’t know what the situation is today.
ISPreview has attempted to contact Dyfed Telecom in the hope of securing a comment, and we will report back once or if that arrives.
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.
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This is not actually as clear as the Gazette makes out, Dyfed have 4 office addresses, the Dyfed Telecom website states it’s formed of two companies, only the “Head Office” address has been served notice.
That’s not quite how it works. An ‘address’ is not served notice – a company is. The company is Dyfed Telecom Ltd, a legal entity whose registered office is as per Companies House. Although they have different addresses, it’s the same company trading… like Tesco PLC which has one registered address but several thousand other addresses too.
The ‘other company’ is Dyfed CCTV, which is a brand, but not a separate legal entity according to its website.
Presumably they owe HMRC Money. It may or may not result i the company being wound up
Yes it was because of a very historic HMRC debt. This isn’t a reflection of how the company has been run or operated the past 3 years. Fortunately a buyer has been found and everything is carrying on as normal.
Where did you hear about the buyer, Joe? Not seen anything yet.
It looks like it was the Welsh Government’s grants pause that tipped it over the edge. I heard they were doing 100-150 new customers a month just on the rural broadband side. They were very good at what they did, and their entire infrastructure was built around rural broadband. Quite shameful from the Welsh Government to remove such a successful and necessary scheme with just 1 week’s notice. Apparently the scheme is returning, but what an awful way to treat a local success story that evidently puts customers first.