Warrington-based full fibre provider ITS Technology Group has acquired dark fibre specialist NextGenAccess Ltd.
The deal adds 455km of dark fibre across Greater London, Newport, and South Essex to complement ITS’ existing full fibre footprint which is on track to pass 25 per cent (c.500,000) of UK business premises by the end of this year. Alongside ITS’ strong organic growth and positive EBITDA position, the acquisition kickstarts its ‘build and buy’ strategy following its second round Aviva Investors infrastructure funding which secured a further £100m in April this year.
ITS designs, builds and operates wholesale full fibre networks known as ‘Faster Britain’ in the marketplace. It has built a substantial partner offering which includes an industry-leading self-service search, quote and order portal and APIs giving access to gigabit-capable full fibre solutions to any business across the country.
The additional footprint provided by the acquisition of NextGenAccess, coupled with the highly experienced senior management team and staff, and the significant enhancement to the portfolio of dark fibre services, further enriches what ITS can offer to its channel partners and their customers.
The acquisition will also allow ITS to grow its presence in the data centre connectivity marketplace, further developing NextGenAccess’ impressive proposition. As a provider of ‘trunk’ connectivity, NextGenAccess has high levels of trust alongside high standards of delivery in this space, which is seen as a key growth area for ITS.
Daren Baythorpe, CEO of ITS Technology Group, said: “NextGenAccess is an extremely capable and exciting business with a very talented team that I am delighted to welcome onboard. There are significant synergies between our two businesses. In addition to the fibre assets in the ground and portfolio of solutions, the experience that this team will bring to ITS will allow us to substantially bolster our dark fibre credentials. This will allow us to deepen our relationships with carriers, telecom operators, service providers, and resellers. This will also further accelerate our full fibre rollout and reach as we play our part in creating a Gigabit Britain.”
