ontel Celebrates 10 Years in Business
As ontel celebrates its 10th birthday, we’re taking the opportunity to look back over the past decade. From our beginnings as a one man band with a vision to simplify business telecoms, to becoming a trusted provider supporting organisations of all sizes across the UK. Join us for this whistle-stop tour through ontel’s journey including all the milestones… and occasional mishaps!
2003
The story of ontel’s conception starts with its sister company OnIT. Founded in 2003 by partners Simon and Iain, and based in Chesham, OnIT has been providing IT support services across the UK for over 20 years.
2015
Becoming increasingly frustrated with the poor service OnIT was receiving from its telecoms provider, Simon decided to set up his own company, in a bid to do things differently. With an extensive background in IT and networking, he had all the expertise to make the jump to the world of telecoms. And with that, ontel was born.
2016
Over the next year, Simon developed the business organically through contacts he had made at OnIT and word of mouth. In this first year, the business won its first big client – a London based transport provider – and its first Bristol client.
2017
A year later, Adrian joined the business as technical consultant to manage system builds and provide frontline support to clients. This in turn, launched the Bristol branch.
2017 cont.
With the team coming together, the company needed somewhere to call home so we took on our first dedicated office space for the newly formed Bristol branch in a shared building in Staple Hill. All didn’t quite go to plan, however, when we arrived one morning to find the ceiling had collapsed! Once fixed up, we took the opportunity to make the space our own by commissioning a bespoke mural to reflect our growing identity.
2018
With the help of Adrian’s graphic design experience, the company underwent a rebrand with new logos, branded clothing and the launch of a website.
2019
As the business grew, we turned our attention to developing our internal systems. One of our biggest milestones was building the ontel softswitch – our very own SIP platform. We also launched a multi-tenant system, giving us far greater control, and the ability to manage our services more efficiently as the client base was growing.
2020
After 3 years in Staple Hill, we were looking to expand and at the beginning of 2020 we secured a new, larger office on Wells Road in Bristol. We soon set about ‘ontelifying’ the space with lots of orange!
Before
After
2020 - Lockdown
Shortly after moving into the new office, the first Covid lockdown hit. As businesses adjusted to home working, our services were in high demand and this ended up being a busy period for us. Many businesses took the opportunity to upgrade to cloud based systems to support remote working. And headset sales went through the roof!
2020 cont.
By this point, we were ready to shift our focus to actively bringing in new business. To help with this, we brought on a new team member dedicated to managing sales.
2021
To further expand our service provision, we launched our first cloud managed network controller which allowed us to offer managed network services alongside telephony and internet, giving customers a greater level of support.
2022
By this point, we had built a strong foundation with our core services and began looking for new ways to add value for our clients. This led to the introduction of mobile SIMs, allowing us to offer a full business comms package.
2023
Jenni joined the team as Account Manager to support our continued sales and marketing activities and manage our existing client base.
2023 cont.
After 3 years in our Bristol office, it was time for a quick refresh of the frontage. Staying true to our vintage theme – a nod to old-school customer service – we gave the window a facelift in keeping with our website imagery.
2024
In 2024 we took part in our first sponsorship opportunity for a local rugby club that was in need of new kit for the upcoming season. With the help of our wonderful neighbours at Imperial Sports, we provided St Bernadette’s RFC with a brand new kit for their junior teams.
2025
This year we were asked to come up with a solution to deliver temporary internet to production companies. The solution needed to be mobile, yet powerful enough to support the demands of a busy on-site team. The result was our mobile broadband solution, combining Starlink, 5G routers and a managed network to provide fast, reliable, and portable connectivity. The response to this new service has been incredibly positive, and we’ve since seen growing interest from other sectors too.
What's next?
That brings us to the present day where we’re busy with more of the same – installing phone systems, setting up internet and network services, supporting clients remotely and in person, and continuing to develop as a business. We’ve seen our fair share of changes over the last 10 years, both within the business and across the wider industry. And while we can’t predict what’s to come, with a decade under our belt, we’re confident we can keep doing what we do best: providing reliable, down to earth service and smart telecoms solutions that help businesses stay connected, now and in the future.
To learn more about what we do, or to discuss a telecoms challenge you’re having, get in touch with our friendly team.
