Alternative network operator and ISP Quickline, which is deploying gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) and 5G powered fixed wireless access (FWA) broadband networks across rural and semi-rural parts of the North East and Midlands of England, has today appointed three experienced executives to support its growth.
Just to recap. Quickline is currently being supported by funding of c.£500m from Northleaf Capital Partners, as well as c.£296.4m of public subsidy from Project Gigabit (here, here and here), some £225m in term loans and debt guarantees from the UK Infrastructure Bank (UKIB) and a £25m term loan from NatWest.
The provider’s original ambition was to cover around 500,000 premises in rural and semi-rural areas across Northern England and beyond with “ultrafast broadband” – via both FTTP and wireless technologies – “by 2025” (here). Some 200,000 of those rural premises were due to be tackled by their wireless network, with the rest coming from FTTP.
However, since then they’ve secured £296.4m worth of public funding via Project Gigabit, which will bring full fibre broadband with public funding to almost 170,000 premises in mostly rural areas, which rises to 360,000 when you include the provider’s complementary commercial build.
In order to support this, the provider has today appointed three new experienced executives. Firstly, Julian Burton takes up the newly created position of Chief Revenue Officer (CRO). Julian has previously held senior commercial and sales roles at companies such as Digicel, O2, Tesco, CPW, and Vodafone.
In addition, experienced solicitor Julia Dettmar, who previously worked at Cable & Wireless and Vodafone UK, has been appointed into the role of General Counsel and Company Secretary. Finally, Dan Hague has been appointed as Project Gigabit Delivery Director – before this he held senior positions at GoFibre, Hyperoptic, Cityfibre and Openreach.
Sean Royce, CEO at Quickline, said:
“As we continue to scale up the business it is imperative that we have the right team in place to lead the way through our next chapter of growth. These appointments of highly experienced executives, which were made ahead of our Project Gigabit wins, position us well for the future. I am delighted to have Julian, Julia and Dan on board to help steer Quickline through the next exciting part of our journey.”