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Optimity: Shaking up telecoms with weather-resistant rooftop antennae
2 min read
03 March 2016
Trained as an architect, Anthony Impey originally founded his company Optimity in 2003 as a telecoms and IT reseller. But since moving into supplying telecoms in 2013, this pioneering tech player has shaken up the broadband market and made it onto the list of the Everline Future 50 2016.
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Name: Optimity
Industry/sector: Communications
Date founded: 2003
Founders: Anthony Impey
Location: London
The inspiration for Optimity’s unique connectivity offering came when a client moved into a new building at short notice and needed high-speed connectivity within two weeks. With major telecom operators unable to help, Impey and his team tried installing an antenna on the building’s roof to allow it to share a fibre optic connection with another firm.
Optimity’s pioneering wireless technology quickly followed, and the company’s engineers can now install ultra-fast broadband in ten working days, knocking months of the lead-time competitors give for installing fibre optic.
As well as competing on speed, the Optimity offering is also more resilient to bad weather than other wireless technologies, can be moved when the client changes premises, and is substantially cheaper than fibre optic lines with the same speed.
The innovative technology has allowed Optimity to rank alongside major players like BT, Virgin Media and TalkTalk in the Superconnected Cities League Table for London in 2015. Impey was also invited in 2015 to sit on the mayor’s Connectivity Advisory Board to help shape the future of the broadband network in London.
Not surprisingly, take up has been enthusiastic, and in under three years Optimity’s business user base has grown to over 1,000 without any debt being taken on or equity given away.
Now, with the business model shown to be viable, the next step for the owner of the UK’s 4th fastest network (according to speedtest.com) is to seek scale-up funding.
Impey is aiming for £50m growth within five years, and wants to take on the major operators with his 53-strong team. With the team currently in talks with Camden council about providing ultra-high speed connections to businesses across the borough, 2016 has got off to a good start for Optimity, and these aims seem well within its founder’s reach.