Greg Mesch, the tenacious founder and CEO of CityFibre, is a relative newcomer to the UK channel but he is already the instigator of a pure fibre infrastructure revolution and has chosen the UK's primary cities for his battleground.
A credible alternative infrastructure presence that provides choice and stimulates the disengagement of service providers from the UK's monolithic incumbents is an industry imperative, claims Mesch, the architect of CityFibre's project to provide such a stimulus. His strategic mission to create a true alternative has already justified CityFibre's headline investments and acquisitions, and Mesch is now expressing his priorities for high growth in partnership with resellers.
"For too long the UK telecoms landscape has been dominated by a single national infrastructure provider," said Mesch. "To compete with the rest of the world we need to ensure that there is choice and competition in the market. That's what we're doing. We are not just about providing like-for-like products over our independent network, but Gigabit as standard."
So who is Greg Mesch? He seems a man determined to redefine Britain's connected future and is busy mapping a route to reach the summit of his ambition. It could be argued that to become a real challenger to the likes of BT would be too high a mountain to climb, but the evidence of Mesch's progress and strategic advances so far, and his previous career achievements, suggest otherwise.
Mesch started out as a telecoms engineer and entrepreneur and has a strong background in the building of high growth fibre optic telecoms companies. He became Chief Operating Officer for ESAT Telecom in Ireland (which IPO'd on NASDAQ and was subsequently purchased by BT for over 1 billion euro). Mesch was also founder and Chief Operating Officer of Versatel Telecom which built one of the largest fibre-based infrastructures in the Dutch and German markets. Versatel also listed on NASDAQ and the Dutch AEX exchange and was purchased by Tele2 and Apax for over $1.5 billion.
In 2009 Mesch became Non-Executive Director of EU Networks before founding CityFibre in 2011 with Mark Collins through the acquisition of several established fibre optic businesses. Despite his glittering backstory, Mesch counts his biggest achievement as taking CityFibre from a fledgling IPO to its new position as the largest wholesale infrastructure provider after BT Openreach, in just two years.
CityFibre listed on the AIM market of the LSE in January 2014 raising £16.5 million and gained access to long-term funding opportunities. The company then raised a further £30 million following an over-subscribed private placing, taking the total equity raised to £46.5 million. In December 2015 CityFibre acquired KCOM's national fibre assets (excluding Hull and East Yorkshire) for £90 million and secured financing of £180 million, increasing its footprint to 36 cities and enabling CityFibre to target a total of 50 cities by 2020, reaching 20 per cent of the UK market.
"With the growth in data rising exponentially, pure fibre is the only truly future-proof infrastructure that can support it"
"We are a builder of Gigabit Cities, constructing modern pure fibre infrastructure in cities to serve CPs, SIs, local authorities, data centres and mobile operators," explained Mesch. "Our networks enable partners to use them in any way they wish, whether that's providing entry level active products or taking them on a journey to consume dark fibre and build their own on-net networks."
CityFibre's Gigabit City campaign kicked off with York and Peterborough, followed by Coventry, Kirklees, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and now Bristol. "These projects proved our model of city-wide wholesale fibre infrastructure and gave our investors the confidence to support us further in the acquisition of KCOM's national networks, helping us to reach scale and create a meaningful, national alternative infrastructure for the UK," stated Mesch.
Other developments of significance that underscore the strength of CityFibre's business model include the formation of a joint venture company in 2014 with Sky and TalkTalk to deploy a new Fibre-to-the-Home network in the City of York. Soon afterwards CityFibre signed the UK's first dark fibre-to-the-tower deal, a national framework with EE, Three and MBNL. And in October 2015 CityFibre sealed a Master Services Agreement with Vodafone.
The KCOM acquisition gave CityFibre an additional 1,100 km of metro network and 1,100km of long distance network, allowing it to connect to peering points in London and data centres across the UK. This masterstroke of an acquisition and subsequent funding shines as a signal victory for Mesch's rolling campaign convoy across the UK's infrastructure territory.
"We found it hard to offer partners the scale they need to transact at volume," he commented. "But with the acquisition of KCOM's national network assets we overcame that barrier and are much more relevant to our partners. By 2019 we aim to be the network infrastructure of choice in all of our local markets and have hundreds of CP partners transacting across our growing network, delivering state-of-the-art services to end users across the country."
That the reseller community will respond positively to Mesch's mission is already clear, evident in the high interest shown by existing and potential partners. "We are building awareness of CityFibre as an alternative for CPs," noted Mesch. "We're already working with tier 1 providers, local authorities, emergency services, mobile network operators and multiple business CPs, but the more CPs who come on board as partners the faster we can grow for the benefit of all. Building a very different connected future for Britain isn't just about us building network, it's about our partners making use of it.
"For a long time UK CPs, data centres and MNOs have been calling for a true, national alternative to BT. It's this demand that underpins our business model. Every major announcement we make and every press headline we get triggers a fresh wave of interest from potential new partners. Our job now is to convert this heightened interest, onboard new partners and give all of them a voice over what comes next. We believe that working in true partnership with no hidden agenda is what will keep our partners with us and make the UK communications industry great."
CityFibre now employs 105 staff and generates revenue growth of 115 per cent year-over-year. The company's turnover of £2 million at IPO now stands at over £36 million and rising. "We're rapidly expanding and have some of the best brains in the industry," added Mesch. "That said, we are still a small, close-knit group and our culture reflects that dynamic. None of us are here to be just like everyone else. 'Alternative' to us isn't just about our network, it's about everyone having the personal freedom to be fresh, creative, and even disruptive when we need to be. Because of that, absolutely no voice goes unheard. Everyone who works at CityFibre is passionate, energetic, driven and very busy."
Their joint priority is to exert a telling influence over the future of Britain's connected future by expanding CityFibre's pure fibre network footprint and increasing the addressable market for partners. "We are targeting major metro footprints and will open up our infrastructure to a broad range of CPs to maximise its use," added Mesch.
"With the growth in data rising exponentially, pure fibre is the only truly future-proof infrastructure that can support it. We need to plan for tomorrow. We're also investing heavily in state-of-the-art platforms to make sure our partners can do business with us easily and access all of the information they need. Building on these developments and evolving our systems to be truly world class is next on our list. We're agile, independent and here to stay."•
Just a minute with Greg Mesch...
Tell us something about yourself we don’t know: I’m a heli-skier
What do you fear the most? Poor health
Name three ideal dinner guests: Steve Jobs, James Dyson, Neil Armstrong
Role model: Jack Welch, former Chairman and CEO of General Electric
One example of something you have overcome: Being the youngest of five brothers
Your greatest strength and what could you improve on? I never give up: That can be a strength and a weakness
What possession could you not live without? My skis
How do you relax when not working? Cycling and skiing
Name one thing you couldn’t do without in your job: Coffee