A commitment to challenge the status quo lies at the heart of CityFibre's strategy, and building a culture of challenge will ensure long-term success, according to Group Chief Operating Officer Simon Holden.
In his Comms Vision (2-4 November, Gleneagles Hotel) fireside interview Holden reasserted the pioneering altnet's foundational mindset. "CityFibre has grown with a challenger ethos and always with a vision that we are building a network for four big verticals - consumer, businesses, public sector and mobile," he explained.
Holden made the point that in the last three years CityFibre has hyper-scaled the business, currently building in 77 locations across the UK from Inverness to Plymouth.
"We are deploying a huge amount of capital to roll out full fibre, driving scale and accelerating in this industry," he said. "We will see 2.5 million homes passed by the end of this year."
A key objective is to build the most advanced digital infrastructure in the world, and do it efficiently to be price competitive, which is a must for any challenger.
"That's driven by an efficient roll out and an efficient service," added Holden. "And having a network that is always up. This is work in progress but we have taken early life failures for businesses down to zero over the past three months."
CityFibre continues to build the systems and processes that it needs to fulfil its lofty ambitions, and is in a strong position ahead of a likely recession that could impact investment in the fibre sector.
"The market isn't closed for funding and financing, but it will become more expensive," added Holden. "We're going through a classic economic cycle – markets have become significantly more selective over the past six months."
Happily fully funded, CityFibre recently underwent a strategic rebrand that correlates with increased demand.
"Having a strong visible presence where we build out our network is key," he explained. "Awareness is important for customers where we dig. Visually, we say there is a change coming and it puts us in a position to help partners sell more."
CityFibre's presence is also strongly felt in organisational culture with people across all levels of the business experiencing the company's personal and family welfare priorities.
"If you get your people and culture right and focus on customers good things follow - you'll be able to do the things you want to do over the long-term."