About SICOM

It’s the groundwork that makes the network.

A new data centre doesn’t open without fibre. A multi-building rollout doesn’t get cheaper without ownership. A 100Gbps link doesn’t go in on time without a surveyor onsite the week you asked. We’re the people who do that work — and the people you can ring when something underground stops behaving.

Why people choose dark fibre

Four things we think dark fibre is for.

These four came out of years of explaining the same thing to IT Directors who’d been quoted three different prices by three different carriers for the same job. They’re the reason most of our customers eventually own the fibre they paid for — instead of renting it back, month after month, from the company that installed it.

Take control

You decide the bandwidth, the route, and the contract length. Not the carrier.

Minimise costs

Ownership fixes the cost over the projected life of the contract. No annual rental creep.

Flex your bandwidth

Lit at 1Gbps today. Lit at 100Gbps next year. Same fibre. Different equipment.

Own your network

Buy the asset, lease the asset, or take an IRU. We’ll structure it the way that works for your balance sheet.

Our story

Fifty years of doing this.

Founded by Steve Ives, run by two directors, built around one model: own your network. The detail’s below.

SICOM was founded by Steve Ives, who has spent more than 50 years in IT infrastructure and networking. Richard Auld joined as Sales and Marketing Director, bringing an MBA and a long run in connectivity sales and commercial leadership.

That’s the company. Two directors. A team of engineers and surveyors behind them. No layer of account managers between you and the people doing the work.

We connect buildings on a different business model — own your network — which has few competitors but does need to be explained and sold. So we explain it. Once you’ve seen the numbers on a multi-year contract, the rest of the conversation gets easier.

We are specialists in data centre connectivity — particularly new sites, where we help the owners get the best connections: bandwidth, resilience, diverse routes, the lot. We have a relentless focus on all aspects of fibre connectivity, including very high bandwidths of 100Gbps and 400Gbps.

Two people. Direct lines.

The people you’ll deal with directly.

Steve Ives

Managing Director

Over 50 years of management experience in IT infrastructure and networking; founded Sicom.

steve@sicom.uk

Richard Auld

Sales & Marketing Director

MBA; commercial leadership across the connectivity sector.

richard@sicom.uk

(There’s a wider engineering and surveying team behind both of them. You’ll meet them on a project.)

Full team

Independence, explained

We work across carriers, not for one.

Most fibre companies sell you their own network. We pick from the carriers that fit your route.

Openreach for the last mile where the duct already exists. National carriers for the high-bandwidth backbone. Adtran kit on the active layer (30% of Openreach FTTP runs on it — 8.6 million premises). Colt, Virgin Media, and the regional altnets when the route demands it.

We’re a Communications Provider with Openreach. We’re partnered with Adtran. We’re independent of all of them.

Our partners

Sustainability

Passive infrastructure, longer asset life.

Dark fibre is, by category, the lower-carbon connectivity choice. It’s passive — no active equipment in the ground, lower power draw across the route, longer asset life than active leased-line kit that gets refreshed every few years. The fibre we put in for Ask4 in 2024 will still be the fibre underneath the network in 2044.

Sustainability

We’ve published a guide on how we think about it.

Download the guide (PDF)

Free Desktop Survey

Postcode and bandwidth. That’s the form.

We come back with a desktop survey, free.

Start a Free Desktop Survey Or download a free guide

0800 861 1440

sales@sicom.uk