Draft:Grain Connect

Grain Connect Limited

Company type	Private
Industry	Telecommunications Mass media
Founded	July 19, 2016 (2016-07-19) in Carlisle, UK
Headquarters	Carlisle , Cumbria
Area served	United Kingdom
Key people	Sean Williams, Director. Richard Cameron, CEO.
Products	Internet Services VoIP
Website	www.grainconnect.com

Grain Connect Ltd (commonly known as Grain Connect, trading as Grain or Grain broadband) is a British telecommunications company, providing internet access and VoIP telephone services to business and consumers in the United Kingdom.

Headquartered in Carlisle, England, Grain was founded in 2016 as a joint venture between telecommunications company Solway Communications Limited and Pinnacle Group Limited.

It is considered one of the UK’s “altnets” (alternative network provider), in reference to being an alternative to Openreach. As an altnet internet service provider (ISP), Grain owns and operates an independent Point-to-Point (PTP), Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) infrastructure. Although most of the network is now urban focussed, Grain continues to connect new build developments UK-wide.

As of Q3 2024, Grain had a total of approximately 30,000 connected customers and has over 230,000 connectable premises on its network. It competes primarily with Virgin Media, Sky, BT (EE) and TalkTalk in the areas it services.

History

Company names:

• FIBRE UN LIMITED – 19 Jul 2016 – 12 Jan 2017
• GRAIN CONNECT LIMITED – 12 Jan 2017 – Current

Grain Connect Limited’s origins date back to 2013, when telecommunications company Solway Communications trialled supplying Full Fibre broadband to Story Homes' Crindledyke development in Carlisle, England.

Following the success of the trial, Grain was incorporated with Companies House on 19 Jul 2016 as ‘FIBRE UN LIMITED’, as a joint venture between Solway Communications and Pinnacle Group. The headquarters were set-up in Carlisle.

Grain was launched in response to market demand for gigabit enabled consumer broadband, with the UK average download speed at the time of inception being only 15Mbps – ranking the UK in 20th place for broadband speeds, globally.

Following a name change to ‘Grain Connect Limited’ in 2017, Grain launched its first new build development project, Countesswells in Aberdeen.

In 2019, Grain secured a £10 million investment from Albion Capital, a UK-based venture capital firm specializing in technology and healthcare.

In 2020, Grain expanded its focus from connecting new build developments to rolling out Full Fibre broadband services in towns and cities across the UK, starting with Carlisle.

After a successful year-long trial, Grain embarked on a larger urban expansion, targeting 12 areas primarily in the North of England, including Carlisle, Barrow, Blackburn, Accrington, Scarborough, Leicester, Grimsby, Hartlepool, Bradford, Oldham, Manchester, and Newcastle. From a small start-up, Grain experienced rapid organic growth when it received a further £75 million investment from Equitix, an international investor and fund manager in infrastructure projects.

By 2022, Grain reached a significant milestone by connecting 100 new build developments to its network. It also secured a new agreement with Nord Bank, which provided an initial £40 million facility to further accelerate the national network rollout.

Network

Grain uses Point-to-Point (PTP), Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) infrastructure, across the UK and by Q2 2024, the company had connected in excess of 30,000 customers.

Services

Residential Broadband

Grain offers broadband services to residential, business and landlord customers using their own independent network. Customer premises connect to the network using a dedicated FTTP (Fibre to the Premises) internet connection.

Business Broadband

Grain provides services to high street businesses and landlords. For larger businesses, particularly those in business parks, Grain also provides Dedicated Internet Access (DIA) which provides a dedicated internet connection similar to the traditional leased line.

Coverage

Urban areas

Accrington, Barrow, Birmingham, Blackburn, Blackpool, Blyth, Bolton, Bradford, Brighton, Burnley, Cambridge, Cardiff, Carlisle, Castleford, Cleethorpes, Durham, Gateshead, Gillingham, Grimsby, Halifax, Hartlepool, Hull, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, Luton, Manchester, Middlesbrough, Newcastle, Newport, Nottingham, North Shields, Oldham, Preston, Reading, Scarborough, Seaham, South Shields, St Helens, Sunderland, Thornaby, Tonypandy, Tynemouth, Wallsend, Warrington, Watford, Whitley Bay, Widnes, Wolverhampton.

New build areas

Aberdeen, Alnwick, Auchterarder, Aylesbury, Bedworth, Bicester, Birkenhead, Birmingham, Blackburn, Bolton, Brampton, Brighouse, Bristol, Broxburn, Buxton, Calne, Cambridge, Carlisle, Chesterfield, Chippenham, Chorley, Cirencester, Cockermouth, Colchester, Croydon, Cumbria, Darlington, Dumfries, Durham, Dursley, East Kilbride, Edinburgh, Ellesmere Port, Falkirk, Forest Town, Glasgow, Gloucester, Haverhill, Highbridge, Kendal, Kilmarnock, Lancaster, Leeds, Leicester, Littlehampton, London, Longniddry, Lower Stondon, Lowton, Lutterworth, Manchester, Melton Mowbray, Nelson, North Shields, Northampton, Nottingham, Oxford, Paisley, Penrith, Perth, Preston, Prestonpans, Reading, Seaford, Shefford, Shotts, St Andrews, Stockton-on-Tees, Stoke-on-Trent, Swindon, Telford, Thirsk, Tranent, Ulverston, Wadebridge, Walsall, Warrington, West Malling, Weston-Super-Mare, Whitchurch, Whitley Bay, Wigan, Worcester, Workington, Worksop, Yarm, York.

Operations

The Grain Connect Limited headquarters are based in Carlisle, Cumbria in England. In response to rapid growth in their office-based team, Grain upgraded to another, larger office premises in Kingstown, Carlisle in Nov 2021.

Corporate affairs

Senior management

Company Director, Sean Williams, was appointed in February 2019.

Grain’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Richard Cameron, was appointed in April 2021.

Controversies

Following protests against the installation of Telegraph poles which began in Kingston-Upon-Hull Grain announced that they would not be installing any telegraph poles in their network. The use of telegraph poles had become a controversial feature of network rollouts with a backlash from residents over the installation of telegraph poles using permitted development rights. Government Minister Chris Bryant has told companies he would not hesitate to change the regulations or bring in legislative options to ensure "community concerns" are taken into account when deploying infrastructure.