ALTNETS
Net gains
Altnets are bringing faster broadband to customers and resellers can make a healthy margin from selling it – not something that has happened for many years – which means now is the time for resellers to get involved in it.
a new area for everyone to get excited about.” Previously, if you were a reseller, you bought your broadband from one of about 10 ISPs, which provide broadband on a wholesale basis where you buy it at price x and sell it at price y, Jonny notes. But altnets have different wholesalers spread across the country, and they can provide full-fibre connections at a faster speed, but for a cheaper cost price. Some alt-nets are also offering financial incentives to resellers to sign customers up to their service, he adds. “That’s got the resellers interested,” he says. “If a reseller can get money up front just for signing a customer up on a better product, with better support on a better price, it is a win-win – that’s why I talk about margin being returned to connectivity. While a reseller might only get £5-10 per month for broadband, suddenly it is £30 per month plus a kickback. If that goes into larger quantities, it can be lucrative again for them.” Jonny adds that many altnet providers are now looking to a wholesale model for sales as they seek to increase the amount of connections they have and recoup the investment they have made in recent years. “They have laid the fibre in the ground but sign-ups from public and businesses hasn’t happened as they hoped, so they are opening it up to resellers, who know how to sell to existing and new companies and can get the
In recent years, billions of pounds have been invested by a variety of firms into alternative networks (altnets), which upgrade the UK’s infrastructure and bring superfast broadband to homes and businesses across the country, replacing old copper networks with full fibre. While this can solve age-old connection speed problems for businesses of all sizes, it also presents opportunities for resellers, who can bring back some margin to their broadband sales by selling it to them, as telecoms consultant Jonny Rae explains. “Now there are more than 100 altnets across the country, and some will allow you to resell their full fibre broadband connection for a fraction of the price than you’d get from traditional ISPs,” he says. Jonny, who presents a telecoms podcast that has pushed the opportunities arising from altnets, says that resellers can sometimes become stuck in their ways – continuing to push what has traditionally worked – and this means they can miss out on new opportunities that alt-nets present to sell FTTP (fibre to the premises) broadband packages to customers. Returning margin to connectivity “With altnets there is an opportunity to regain margin in connectivity and provide better support,” says Jonny. “When altnets came along it opened up
Jonny Rae telecoms consutlant/ podcaster
Altnets have different wholesalers “
spread across the country, and they can provide full- fibre connections at a faster speed, but for a cheaper cost price.
”
dialledin.buzzsprout.com
CONTINUED
16
Powered by FlippingBook