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Network operator Netomnia (Brsk, Youfibre), which has so far rolled out their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network to cover 2.56 million UK homes (inc. 341,000 customers), has appointed industry veteran Matthew Skipsey to be its new Managing Director (MD) of wholesale ahead of an expected adoption by more ISPs.
At present Netomnia (Substantial Group), which recently became the first network operator to adopt 50Gbps (50G -PON) broadband technology (here), is aiming to expand the reach of their full fibre network to 3 million premises by the end of 2025 and then 5 million by the end of 2027 (inc. 1 million customers by 2028). The service is currently available across parts of over 90 UK cities and towns.
However, in terms of wholesale, the company has so far tended to remain a bit more vertically integrated by only selling packages to consumers and businesses via ISPs that are a part of the same group (Youfibre and Brsk). But ISPreview are now aware of several third-party retail ISPs that will imminently be joining this network as Netomnia moves to grow their focus on wholesale.
The latest sign of all this stems from the company’s decision to appoint industry veteran Matthew Skipsey to be their new MD of Wholesale. Matthew was previously the Network Strategy Director at All Points Fibre Networks (APFN) and the Co-founder, CTO & Head of Giganet before that. Going back further, he also helped to found Wessex Internet and held various senior positions at M12 Solutions.
Matthew Skipsey said:
“I’m delighted to join Netomnia as Managing Director of Wholesale.
I’ve always respected Netomnia and the wider Substantial Group companies. They continue to achieve some impressive numbers; including a capital-efficient build programme, fastest Alt-Net build and subscriber acquisition rate, powerful network and proudly are the second-largest Alt-Net in the UK. None of this would be possible without the exceptional people behind it.
I’m excited to lead Netomnia’s Wholesale division, which provides open access to Netomnia’s 2.56+ million premises for B2C & B2B full-fibre broadband, Ethernet and dark fibre opportunities. The network is on track to reach 3 million premises by the end of 2025, with plans to scale to 5 million by 2027.
I’d like to thank my ex colleagues at APFN, Fern Fibre, Octopus Investments and those from the original Giganet, M12, and Wessex Internet days as well as key suppliers who have supported me throughout my career in telecoms.
The next chapter will be very exciting and I can’t wait to get started!”
A stronger push into wholesale makes sense for an alternative network operator in Netomnia’s position, although its ability to break into this market may be constrained so long as it also continues to act as a competitor to its own future partners by running its own retail providers alongside them (conflict of interest). On the other hand, the operator’s growing network coverage and blistering speeds will be very attractive to a lot of ISPs.
At this stage we don’t yet know how much flexibility third-party ISPs on this network will have to differentiate their products from that of the existing group providers, but we suspect that the prices and package speeds will initially be similar to those offered by Youfibre and brsk.