Carlisle’s Solway Communications has been acquired by a national company.
London-headquartered Voneus has taken on the north Cumbria telecommunications network of Solway Communications.
It said it intended to develop and extend the Solway network and service and customers have been assured they will be unaffected by the deal.
Solway Communications was founded from Carlisle by Antony Cross and Nicholas Kittoe in 2011 to meet, mainly by wireless, the telecommunication needs of businesses and homes across the Solway Plain.
It has since expanded to cover customers from Brampton to Maryport and from Gretna to Southwaite.
In 2016, Solway founded Grain Connect Limited to create fibre optic networks in new and existing residential developments.
Grain has raised substantial funding and continues to grow rapidly as a national broadband provider, building fibre-optic networks from the North of Scotland to England’s South Coast.
Mr Kittoe said: “We are proud to have built and grown a business that has genuinely improved the lives of people and businesses in our region.
“We are pleased that a growing business like Voneus will take over Solway Communications, and would like to reassure all customers that fast, reliable connections, with high levels of customer service, will continue.”
Ilan Scorah, strategy director of Voneus, said “We are really pleased to complete this acquisition. It provides us with a great opportunity to extend our coverage in Cumbria from our initial acquisition of LonsdaleNet in the Penrith area.”
