Peter Welch appointed Chief Financial Officer
Cambridge, UK, 3rd December 2009:
Cambridge Broadband Networks, market leader in the provision of point-to-multipoint (PMP) microwave backhaul solutions to mobile network operators, today announced the appointment of Peter Welch as Chief Financial Officer. Mr Welch’s appointment strengthens the company’s key management team and coincides with strong sales of its Vectastar PMP solutions in the developing markets, and growing opportunity for PMP backhaul in Western Europe and other established markets.
Mr Welch, who joined Cambridge Broadband Networks in October, was previously CFO and head of business operations at AeroMobile, the pioneering in-flight mobile communications provider, where he played a key role in launching and developing the business. His prior telecommunications experience includes time as Director of Commercial Finance at COLT Telecommunications Group plc and Finance Director and General Manager of London Pager.
A range of new contracts with operators such as Gateway and Mobily, new reseller agreements and repeat orders from existing customers have contributed to strong sales growth for Cambridge Broadband Networks and its recognition in the
Sunday Times Tech Track 100, as the one of the UK’s fastest growing companies. That growth is expected to accelerate as the company capitalises on a looming crisis in the availability of mobile backhaul around the world.
Cambridge Broadband Networks’ CEO Graham Peel commented, “Peter joins the team at a very interesting time and his expertise will be invaluable as we exploit the opportunities we now have available. The unprecedented and growing demand for mobile data services means that few operators are now equipped to backhaul the expected data traffic volumes. The legacy solutions are inefficient, capacity constrained and a significant drain on operators’ capital and operational resources. Our Vectastar PMP solutions have already been proven in the developing markets where they operate at the heart of a range of advanced networks but the opportunity is expanding quickly. We are now enhancing the core platform to deliver a ‘zero footprint’, high capacity variant that meets the unique needs of established, Western European operators. In addition, work is expected to start on a Vectastar solution specifically tailored to the US market in the New Year.”
“You don’t have to look too hard to identify the opportunity for Cambridge Broadband Networks”, said the company’s new CFO, Peter Welch, “Ask any operator and they’ll tell you that the iPhone kick-started a massive increase in demand for data services and the obvious need to backhaul the traffic. Sales of all smartphones are now booming, there’s been a dramatic increase in the number of applications and services available – many of which are ‘always on’ – and ‘all you can eat’ data packages are proving very popular. For us that growth represents substantial and ongoing business opportunities in a market now approaching USD $1 billion per annum. Backhaul upgrades are no longer an option, they are a necessity but operators need innovative new approaches that dynamically and intelligently allocate capacity in an environment in which absolute capacity requirements are impossible to predict.”
