The French-based company joins Sky, ADTRAN and Vodafone to become the 86th member of the altnet cooperative
London, UK, June 7, 2018: Axione, a world leader in telecommunications infrastructure, has become the latest alternative network provider (altnet) to join the Independent Networks Cooperative Association (INCA) as it looks to expand into the UK market.
Axione, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bouygues Group with an annual turnover in excess of €32 billion, is a wholesale access operator of Fibre-to-the-Premise (FTTP) networks. Its portfolio of services includes the design, build and operation of networks and wholesale activities to small, medium and national operators.
As a member of INCA, Axione intends to utilise existing infrastructure to expand its projects across the UK and take advantage of opportunities to design, build and operate Wholesale Access Networks across the country with central and local government, local full fibre networks and private network operators.
“Axione is delighted to join INCA as a Tier 1 member,” said Jeremy Sheehan, Director of Business Development for UK & Ireland at Axione. “As we enter the UK telecommunications market as an alternative network provider, we feel that joining INCA will be imperative to our success, with INCA playing an instrumental role in the development of the altnet market while supporting the UK government in its ambition to deliver full-fibre networks for all.
“Its success in delivering the Building Gigabit Britain report in 2016, for example, and the government’s adoption of many of its tabled recommendations has placed INCA at the heart of the altnet community and as a member of INCA we hope to further these developments.”
To date, Axione’s main activity has been in France – where it has competitively won more than 20 Public Initiative Networks and designed, built and now operates a network with more than 20,000km of fibre, with 2.3 million homes passed. Across this network, Axione provides wholesale access to more than 150 Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Its network coverage is in continuous development, with a further 800,000 homes passed already contracted to be designed and built across France.
The company is also continually expanding internationally, including in Ireland and the UK. In the former, Axione successfully deployed a pilot project for SIRO, a joint venture between ESB and Vodafone in Ireland, and has now delivered its Phase 1 commitment to create a network for 50,000 homes passed. In Scotland, it has been selected as one of three remaining bidders for the Digital Scotland Reaching 100 project.
“We are pleased to welcome Axione to the UK and to INCA,” said INCA’s CEO Malcolm Corbett. “We look forward to working closely with Axione as it contributes to building the UK’s future digital infrastructure. Axione’s decision to enter the UK market is a testament to the hard work and effort of altnet providers and shows that the impact of the government’s shift in stance is already having an effect in welcoming new competition into the UK space.”
INCA – the membership of which includes Vodafone, Sky and City Fibre – brings together altnets which support, plan, build and operate sustainable, independent and interconnected networks that advance the economic and social development of the communities they serve.
To find out more about becoming an INCA member, please visit: https://www.inca.coop/membership.