Building a better network strategy for regional broadband operators.

Hi, this is James Page at the Inca Conference 2023 in Birmingham. We've come over to talk to IQGeo and I'm really pleased to be talking to John Tarleton. John, thanks for coming and talking to us. John Tarleton Good afternoon. Good to meet you. John Tarleton Absolute pleasure to be talking to you. Why don't we start with a little bit of an overview about IQGeo and what you do? John Tarleton Yeah, no, absolutely. So IQGeo, we're a British company and we're based in Cambridge. And fundamentally, what we do is we help telecoms companies to build better networks. And what we mean by that is we're a software provider. That software is map-based or geospatial, as you can perhaps see on the screen here. And what it enables companies to do is have one environment for everything they do, from the very early stages of planning and design, through construction support, and then through into operations. John Tarleton And one of the things that we think we do very well is mobility. So we're able to allow altnets to take their data into the field, work completely disconnected, so to be able to mark up the records, make changes, and then be able to submit that back and automatically re-synchronise. John Tarleton So ultimately, at the end of the day, you've got the best possible record of your networks as they've been built. John Tarleton And why is that important to altnets? Surely they know where everything is already done. Why do they need this? John Tarleton Well, there's quite a range of reasons why that's so important. I mean, one of the key things is that they're often going through these different stages. And a good example might be the use of the OpenReach PIA data. John Tarleton So one of the things with PIA is that you often need to go out into the field to verify and check that what it says is there is actually there, and that you can use it. John Tarleton Or you might need to go on and do some further work like rodding and roping, that kind of thing. John Tarleton So our software allows you to go out, check that, validate your designs, walk your designs, and then do exactly the same kind of thing when you go into the construction piece, John Tarleton Because then you've got the evidencing. You've then got the ability to take photographs, to be able to record exactly what's been built, and it might be a contract to doing it. John Tarleton And then that all in a digital process goes into the software to be able to have that complete as-built record. John Tarleton And that's important for a number of reasons. One of them is, of course, that with the changing climate in investor relations and all that sort of thing going on at the moment, there is this change in emphasis from homes passed to homes connected, and also the ultimate value of the entire asset base. So it's really, really important to do that as slickly as possible and have the maximum value for the company derived from it at the end. John Tarleton And is it particularly important at the moment for people to really understand the value of that asset base when we continually hear in this market that consolidation is coming and that maybe there's going to be buyouts and plenty of movement? That must be more important than ever. John Tarleton There is movement. There is consolidation going on. There's things like that happening. And yes, it is more important than ever. But I think one of the key things has been that many of the companies have got their own records, but they're not all in one place. John Tarleton So if you're able to consolidate them, bring them together, or even better when you're at the early stages of planning, as I said, all the way through to operations, being able to do that in a very digital way and a very comprehensive way allows you to have that evaluation of the company asset base by default, in effect. So yes, it's very important and probably even more so nowadays. Yes. John Tarleton Fantastic. Well, thank you for taking us through that. I hope you're getting plenty of interest from Orknes coming over to talk to you. I hope maybe we get even more coming to find you after they see this video. So thank you very much for taking the time to come and talk to us. John Tarleton I certainly hope so and I look forward to it. Thank you very much. Thank you.