Energis Communications Limited, briefly Telecom Electric, or more usually just Energis, was a 'technology driven communications company' based in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

and

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

. The company was once a constituent of the

FTSE 100 Index The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, also called the FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the "Footsie" , is a share index of the 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange with (in principle) the highest marke ...

, but subsequently went into

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal ** Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an administrative officer, admini ...

, and then became a subsidiary of Cable & Wireless, in turn acquired by

Vodafone Vodafone Group plc () is a British multinational telecommunications company. Its registered office and global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It predominantly operates services in Asia, Africa, Europe, and Oceania. , Vod ...

History

The company was formed in July 1991, as Telecom Electric by way of a demerger from the

National Grid Company National Grid plc is a British multinational electricity and gas utility company headquartered in London, England. Its principal activities are in the United Kingdom, where it owns and operates electricity and natural gas transmission networks ...

. Its national

optical fibre An optical fiber, or optical fibre in Commonwealth English, is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass (silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair. Optical fibers are used most often as a means t ...

network was partially deployed via the overhead power transmission network of the grid. The company was first listed on the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...

, and the

NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...

, in October 1997. Energis acquired a number of companies in the United Kingdom and Europe, including

Planet Online Planet Online was a UK business-to-business Internet Service Provider. Based in Leeds, it was started by local businessman and multi-millionaire Peter Wilkinson and Paul Sykes in July 1995. Managed from a purpose-built NOC in Leeds, Planet's ne ...

, ISION AG and others. At one point its

Market capitalization Market capitalization, sometimes referred to as market cap, is the total value of a publicly traded company's outstanding common shares owned by stockholders. Market capitalization is equal to the market price per common share multiplied by ...

was over £10 billion making it one of the largest companies by market capital. However, in the process the company over extended itself with borrowings to fund these acquisitions. Planet Online, by then a subsidiary of Energis, worked with its new parent to help Dixons launch the

Freeserve Freeserve was a British Internet service provider, which was founded in 1998. At its height, the company became a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index, before merging into the Wanadoo group in 2000. It then became a subsidiary of France Telecom ...

ISP. Energis provided the telephony services and

provided the

e-mail Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic (digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" meant ...

Internet access Internet access is the ability of individuals and organizations to connect to the Internet using computer terminals, computers, and other devices; and to access services such as email and the World Wide Web. Internet access is sold by Interne ...

etc. Energis plc was placed in

in July 2002, with its operations in the United Kingdom immediately being transferred to ''Energis Communications Ltd'', a wholly owned subsidiary of a new holding company owned by the banks, and known as ''Chelys''.

Archie Norman Archibald John Norman (born 1 May 1954) is a British businessman and politician. He is the only person to have been chairman of an FTSE 100 company and a Member of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons (MP) at the same ti ...

was hired as chairman to revive the business. In November 2002 the Ision parts of the energis group were sold onto

NDO NDO Limited was an Internet Service Provider (ISP) in the United Kingdom. Originally established in 1995, originating from NetDirect which was one of the first ISPs in the UK. History Founded as NetDirect Internet Ltd in November 1995 by Andr ...

with the remainder, mostly made up of Planet Online continued as''Energis Communications Ltd'' until August 2005. Cable & Wireless then made an offer to acquire the company for £594 million. The bid was accepted by a binding majority of Energis debt holders, and the company became part of ''Cable & Wireless'' on 11 November 2005.

Operations

In its final form, Energis provided a number of services based around its core platforms of ISP, transmission, IP networking (Energis had a Nortel SDH network with Internet access provided via

Cisco routers Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, ...

using

MPLS Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) is a routing technique in telecommunications networks that directs data from one node to the next based on labels rather than network addresses. Whereas network addresses identify endpoints the labels identif ...

technology), contact centre solutions and voice (traditional switched telephony). Energis provided services to a number of businesses, a few of the more interesting were: * Provided Fujitsu Services with a broad outsource for the

Post Office Ltd gd, Oifis a' Phuist kw, Sodhva an Post ga, An Post Ríoga , logo = Post Office Logo.svg , type = State-owned private company limited by shares , genre = , predecessor = General Post Office , foundation = 1987 , founder = , location_cit ...

branch and central network services. * Provided the BBC with its distribution network for

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

and

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a tr ...

programmes. * Provided service to support

The AA AA Limited, trading as The AA (formerly The Automobile Association), is a British motoring association. Founded in 1905, it provides vehicle insurance, driving lessons, breakdown cover, loans, motoring advice, road maps and other services. Th ...

and RAC helpline numbers. * Provided Trinity Mirror with an ATM based network for its editorial to printing process. * Provided network services to support the

Wanadoo Wanadoo was the Internet service provider division of Orange S.A. It operated in France, Spain, the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Senegal, Mauritius, Madagascar, Lebanon and Jordan. It ceased to operate as ...

United Kingdom

Internet Service Provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise priva ...

offering.

Senior management

Energis was led by a number of

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especiall ...

s during its existence. * Mar 1993 – Dec 1995: David Dey * Dec 1995 – Aug 2001: Mike Grabiner * Aug 2001 – Jul 2002: David Wickham * Jul 2002 – November 2005:

John Pluthero John Pluthero (born 1964) is a British businessman. Born in Chelmsford, Essex, in 1964, Pluthero was educated at Colchester Royal Grammar School and graduated with a First in Economics from the London School of Economics. On graduating he joined ...

References

{{Authority control Defunct telecommunications companies of the United Kingdom Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange Companies based in Reading, Berkshire British companies established in 1991 British companies disestablished in 2005 Telecommunications companies established in 1991 Telecommunications companies disestablished in 2005 1991 establishments in England 2005 disestablishments in England