We believe we are unique as an Internet Services Provider by providing local service and support from our offices in the high streets of small market towns. These are one-stop shops offering professional consultation regarding broadband and computer services. Potential customers can discuss their needs over a cup of coffee.

Our Technical consultants offer the highest standard of support either in our workshops or at the customer's premises. Customers can expect to have any computer-related problem resolved ranging from internal telephone wiring issues to discussing strategies for implementing internet family security. We recognise the importance of ICT to our clients and aim to remove the frustration of dealing with large organisations lacking a local presence.

Rutland Telecom is recognised in industry as being the first Communications Provider in the UK to develop Fibre To The Cabinet combined with fully unbundled copper phone lines to deliver superfast broadband services. This took place in the testbed rural village of Lyddington

Following national publicity, the company is actively involved in feasibility studies with a number of communities and organisations across the UK including Local Authorities, Businesses, Schools and Housing Associations. We have had approaches from over 200 rural communities representing 100,000 residential and business premises looking for improved broadband services. A number of private investors have approached us following exposure of the Lyddington model where investors are enjoying 10% returns on their capital. With the backing of private investment, we plan to deploy further FTTC networks to rural communities where there is clear demand for our services. We have created a class of shares offering 5% fixed dividend over 3 years with a discretionary bonus dividend based on profitability also paid annually. The capital is returned after 3 years.

Dr. David Lewis (Managing Director)
After taking a PhD in entomology from Leicester University, David began a career in education at Nottingham High School teaching biology, where he also coached tennis. His team won the U13 National Schools Tennis Championships. As a middle manager at Uppingham School, he was the first to introduce internet into the classroom in 1997 against the prevailing ethos. He achieved this by entering a 6th form student for a prize based on the fact she achieved a top grade in Psychology A level without him teaching her anything (he used the departmental budget to purchase resources and past papers and told her to teach herself). The prize money was used to pay for the internet connection when the bursar refused to fund the line rental into his classroom. Convinced that pupils did not really need teachers to succeed in exams, he left Uppingham School in 2001 to establish Examboost, the first National financial incentive scheme for examination achievement which aroused considerable media coverage but was mothballed when the company backing it crashed when the dotcom bubble burst. Following a period as an ICT educational consultant in 7 different LEAs, he went on to form a profitable start-up computer services business, Rutland ICT, with no capital investment. Two early contracts were from large failing schools who outsourced the management of their ICT facilities to his company. The company served local home users and small businesses who questioned the poor broadband speeds available from BT in Rutland which led him to explore ways of overcoming the problem. This led to the formation of Rutland Telecom with Mark Melluish and the crusade against BT to exercise rights under legislation to tap into their network and deploy Fibre to the Cabinet technology. He is a Mikrotik Certified Engineer currently working on MPLS and IPv6 network topology. He has worked in Rutland for 19 years where he is Financial Director of another small local business, Edgy Productions, which he started in his back bedroom. This is a school musical production company now turning over £0.25m. He is also a Director of Uppingham First. David lives in Uppingham with his wife Hilary and 3 sons.

David was recently invited by the Welsh Local Government Association to speak at a conference "Closing the Gap: Delivering broadband to rural Europe" held at the Technium, Pembrokeshire. This was part of the European Week of Regions and Cities. He presented a subloop-unbundling case study and explained how this could be replicated in rural Welsh "notspots." He spoke at the EMDA rural broadband summit in Nottingham where he presented further details of the Lyddington subloop unbundling project. He was invited to speak by Ofcom Wales on a panel with Ed Richards, CEO Ofcom and others at the Royal Welsh Showground followed by an interview on BBC Wales. Forthcoming events include broadband conferences in Herefordshire and Penrith and a presentation in Phoenix, Arizona in October. He is an outspoken critic of the incomplete structural separation of BT Openreach and the perceived conflicts of interest within that organisation. His comments have been published in the media internationally and have received widespread support within the industry. Along with Mark Melluish he was instrumental in forcing BT Openreach to release critical data which will help industry deliver Next Generation Access to rural communities and allow elements of the BT monopoly on business broadband to be opened up further to competition.

Rutland Telecom operates within the requirements of Ofcom's Voluntary Code for residential broadband services.