Metronet revenues double with Northern focus

PIONEERING wireless telecoms company Metronet is flying high with a new focus on its Northern heartland.

Some 18 months ago the Manchester company, which offers high speed wireless Internet connectivity via radio waves to corporate users, was looking at a 10 city roll-out plan funded by a £10m investment.

But the business, headed by American IT executive Elliott Mueller, who has previiously worked for Unisys and Cisco, decided not to go down this route, and instead to concentrate on profitable growth in Manchester, Liverpool and most recently Leeds.

Results for the year to the end of March have revealed a jump in turnover from £1.3m in 2008 to £2m, while the business remained profitable despite continued investment in  extending its network of rooftop Point of Presence masts.

Mr Mueller said today: “We are pleased with progress, we are growing and profitable. We’ve found no short-term requirement to raise new money and we feel there is a lot of scope for expansion in Manchester Liverpool and Leeds, while we also now offer coverage in Birchwood, Warrington and Bolton.

“We have also recently opened a data centre – which has been driven by customer demand.”

He said the success of Metronet is exceptional sevice and value for money, and that it is proving to offer a high quality cost effective alternative to traditional leased line circuits.

As well as a business to business telecoms and IT service, which is used by law firm Pannone, student accomodation specialist Opal Property and the Trafford Centre, among others, Metronet also has several public sector clients.

It provides Manchester City Council and Trafford Council with real-time closed-circuit TV streaming used for surveillance.