Investors in Diversity
Clarke Telecom Achieves Investors in Diversity Silver
“Our Silver Status is more than an award — it reflects our people, our culture, and our commitment to continuous progress, purposeful inclusion, and empowering every voice.”
Rachael Stanner, Clarke Telecom Head of HR
We are proud to announce that the National Centre for Diversity has awarded Clarke Telecom Investors in Diversity Silver status. This award is a significant milestone in our commitment to embedding Fairness, Respect, Equality, Diversity, Inclusion, and Engagement (FREDIE) throughout every aspect of our business.
It’s more than meeting a standard; it recognises our people’s dedication and voices, acknowledges the deep cultural evolution within Clarke Telecom, and highlights the collective power of individuals when supported to thrive.
A Journey Led by People,
Powered by Culture
Our FREDIE journey began with honest conversations and continued with commitment, and we’ve now reached an exciting new chapter.
From creating our cross-functional FREDIE Forum to introducing unconscious bias training, new inclusive recruitment practices, and expanding our employee assistance and wellbeing programmes, communications and support, we’ve shaped every decision and action with the belief that everyone should feel safe, recognised, and supported.
When interviewed by the National Centre for Diversity, some employee statements included:
“The inclusive culture at Clarke Telecom makes me proud to work here.”
“The Women in Leadership programme is changing my perception of what’s possible.”
“The support and training here give me what I need to stay current on these matters.”
“Improvements are visible, and the company are serious about valuing employees.”
Additionally, some of our partner organisations stated:
“From the many campaigns, collateral, and updates to employees, partners, and clients we’ve been involved in, it’s immediately evident how important diversity and FREDIE are to the company and individuals. (External Stakeholder Survey)
“Clarke Telecom has guided us through every process of working with them, as well as cultural expectations.” (External Stakeholder – Procurement Focus Group)
“This doesn’t feel like box-ticking. There is a real interest in value and underlying beliefs.” (Focus Group Colleague working in partnership)
More Than Metrics - Real Change, Real Impact
We’ve embedded the FREDIE principles into team meetings, training, performance reviews, recruitment, and leadership behaviour.
Our culture review was rigorous. The assessment included 217 internal survey responses, focus groups, interviews, and reviews of our systems, processes, and behaviours. But the real impact? The difference we’re making:
A newly implemented Mental Health First Aider Hub, with 24 MHFAs proactively engaged with our workforce.
Colleagues from all backgrounds engage in inclusive celebrations, such as Eid and Lunar New Year.
Flexible working policies evolving to support carers, religious observance, and neurodiversity.
A stronger, fairer recruitment process that welcomes talent from non-traditional telecom backgrounds.
And we’ve seen real outcomes: reduced attrition, improved belonging, and a growing sense of shared purpose. A diverse workforce also brings new thinking, skills, and value to colleagues and customers.
Why Silver Matters - For Our People, Our Clients, and Our Future
Achieving Investors in Diversity Silver allows us to pause and reflect, not just on the progress made, but on what this means for our future.
It shows our people, clients, partners, and the communities where we enhance connectivity that we are a company grounded in integrity and care. A business that understands diversity is not a checkbox but a strength.
It gives our current and future colleagues confidence that we are a place where they can grow, contribute, and be themselves.
It tells the industry that we’re not just building a connected UK through our infrastructure—we’re building a workplace where people can connect, collaborate, and thrive.
Ian Marshall, Managing Director at Clarke Telecom, commented,
“We should all take pride in this award. Diversity’s not some buzzword; it’s just good sense. Different perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences help us make better calls, and if we aren’t moving forward on this front, we will fall behind as a company. This recognition and accreditation are a great sign of our continued evolution and relevance in our market.”
Continuing Our Investors in Diversity Journey
Every Clarke Telecom team member should be proud of this milestone, but it’s also a moment to build upon. Our next steps include:
- Ensuring we align our company values with FREDIE principles.
- Developing a 3-year EDI strategy that’s visible, actionable, and measurable.
- Continuing to enhance the accessibility of training and communication for all teams — from office teams to sites.
Rachael commented,
“As we progress, I want to personally thank every colleague, contributor and partner who has shaped this journey. Your voices, your actions, and your accountability made this possible.”
Let’s wear our Silver badge with pride. Let’s keep raising the bar. Let’s keep listening, learning, and leading — together.
To discover more about working at Clarke Telecom and joining our team, visit our careers section here
SmallCells World Summit 2025
Clarke Connect is Proud to Sponsor the Small Cells World Summit 2025
Powering the Future of Small Cells and Digital Connectivity
As the UK’s leading installer of small cells, Clarke Connect proudly sponsors the Small Cells World Summit 2025 (SCWS25), the industry’s most influential global event focused on small cells, digital infrastructure, and next-generation connectivity. Small Cells World Summit 2025 takes place 3-4 June at Pullman St Pancras, London and you can find out more by exploring smallcells.world
With over 3,000 small cells and wireless nodes deployed to date (and rapidly rising), we’re proud to support SCWS25 and excited to contribute to the conversations shaping the future of the UK’s advanced wireless infrastructure.
Explore below to discover how small cell technology is playing a vital role in connectivity, and learn about our expertise and solutions.
Why Small Cells Matter More Than Ever
As mobile network operators (MNOs), local authorities, neutral hosts and system integrators seek to improve mobile coverage, capacity and latency, small cells have emerged as a critical technology enabler. Small cells are the fundamental building blocks of a smarter, more responsive, more connected society in a digital world that is continually evolving. And from the early days of small cell and wireless node rollouts, we’ve been enabling advanced wireless developments and continue to support and manage future deployments – from 5G to DAS through to LoRaWan and NB-IoT.
These low-powered, short-range nodes combined with the knowledge and management of Clarke Connect’s experienced people are delivering:
5G readiness and network densification
Enhanced mobile user experience
Indoor and outdoor connectivity in hard-to-reach areas
Private network deployment across enterprise and industry, ensuring robustness and security
Scalable solutions for smart cities, transport hubs, traffic-dense entertainment venues and business critical operations
Enabling Next-Generation Wireless Infrastructure
Clarke Connect is the advanced infrastructure arm of Clarke Telecom—one of the UK’s most established and trusted cellular infrastructure partners, with over 37,000 macro sites delivered.
We’ve carried that reputation and rigour into the world of small cells, making us a natural partner for public and private sector clients looking for a proven, experienced, and agile delivery team.
We’ve built our reputation and success through knowledge, trusted experience, and end-to-end delivery, and understand that small cells don’t just improve connectivity; they unlock new ecosystems for innovation, automation, and economic productivity.
From Design to Deployment
Building for Real-World Networks
Unmatched Experience: Over 3,000 small cells and wireless nodes deployed to date (both Indoor and Outdoor)
Full Turnkey Capability: From feasibility, site acquisition, design and build through to commissioning, integration, project management and maintenance
UK-Wide Deployment: From dense cityscapes to suburban networks and enterprise parks
Sector-Spanning Credibility: Trusted by MNOs, local authorities, neutral hosts, system integrators and OEMs
In-House Expertise: Electrical works, civils, RF design, project management and survey - all under one roof
Our deployments are designed with interoperability in mind, supporting the evolution toward Open RAN models and vendor-agnostic infrastructure.
We’re a principal designer and contractor of small cell networks. More than a supplier, we’re a strategic partner aligned with your vision and ready to accelerate your connectivity goals.
While small cells are the heart of our SCWS25 presence, our expertise spans much further:
- Private 5G Networks for industrial, logistics, transport, and commercial environments
- Advanced wireless edge solutions and fibre-to-wireless convergence
- Neutral host infrastructure aligned with the UK’s ambition for shared, scalable connectivity models
- Power infrastructure and fibre network backhaul connectivity
- Edge Compute infrastructure, including colocation and cloud services
- Smart infrastructure integration, including IoT enablement, sensor networks, AI/ML camera data analytics and futureproof data layering
From supporting the Shared Rural Network initiative to rolling out complex urban small cell deployments, our track record places us at the forefront of the UK’s connectivity ambitions.
You can explore more shared knowledge insight by visiting our ‘Give Me 5’ interview series by clicking the following links:
Shaping the Future by Working Together
By sponsoring the Small Cells World Summit 2025, we reaffirm our commitment to shaping a future in which high-quality, high-capacity connectivity is accessible, scalable, and sustainable.
We believe in an infrastructure-first approach, where collaboration, experience, and innovation converge to solve real-world problems. And we’re doing all this with sustainability and the environment driving every decision.
As digital connectivity expands, so does the responsibility to deliver it sustainably. Our continued focus is on low-impact, energy-efficient deployment practices that align with our clients’ ESG goals and the UK’s broader Net Zero ambitions.
From compact equipment footprints and smart power usage to minimising disruption in dense urban spaces with innovative thinking, we’re ensuring we play a pivotal role in small cell infrastructure, enhancing connectivity for work, people, and spaces.
With deep experience in local authority collaboration, landlord liaison, and planning compliance, we navigate the regulatory and policy landscape to streamline delivery and reduce delays, ensuring your projects stay on track.
Let's Partner on Your Small Cell Developments
Whether you’re an MNO exploring densification, a local council investing in smart infrastructure, or a neutral host aiming to roll out your next project, we’re here to help.
info@clarke-connect.com
clarke-connect.com
Let’s build a smarter, better-connected future — together.
Give Me 5 - Edge Compute: Why the Future is Closer Than You Think
Edge Compute
Why the Future is Closer Than You Think
As organisations across the UK accelerate their digital transformation, the role of data centres, and the shift to Edge computing, has never been more critical. In this edition of Give Me 5, we talk with Chris Newall, Sales & Strategy Director at Clarke Connect, to explore what’s powering the demand for smarter infrastructure at the edge, the challenges businesses face, and why the future of edge compute may be much closer than you think.
#1
Where Your Data Lives
Thanks for joining us, Chris, to discuss a fascinating subject: data centres and the Edge. Let's start with the basics, what are data centres?
Chris: Thanks. I’m delighted to have the opportunity to delve into what I feel is an extremely exciting landscape. Data centre basics are a great starting point because while many of us interact with data centres daily—often without realising it—few people understand how central they’ve become to our lives, society, and businesses.
Put simply, a data centre is where the cloud lives. Behind every click, stream, or swipe is a physical building packed with high-performance servers, networking equipment, and storage systems powering the digital experiences we rely on. Data and information management runs through data centres, from online banking to your favourite social media apps, streaming platforms, and workplace tools like Microsoft 365 or Salesforce.
If you stop to think about it, we have all experienced a shift and transformation in how we consume content. We’ve moved from a downloading and owning model to streaming and subscribing. For providers, that’s created more flexibility, scalability, and recurring revenue models, but behind the scenes, it’s driven an explosion in demand for data centre infrastructure.
But it goes far beyond content. For business organisations, data centres enable daily operations hosting ERP systems, customer databases, supply chains, secure communications, and virtual desktops. They’re the backbone of businesses’ data management, workflows, and real-time decision-making. With the increasing volume, variety, and velocity of data, having the proper infrastructure in place is not just an IT consideration—it’s a commercial priority.
What’s essential to understand is that data centres are not just about storage anymore. Today’s data centres also power enormous volumes of real-time analytics, AI workloads, and latency-sensitive applications. That introduces new challenges, energy demand, cooling requirements, data sovereignty considerations, and new delivery models, meaning massive, centralised data centres no longer provide the complete answer.
So, while it may sound technical, understanding what a data centre is, and how the industry is evolving, is becoming essential for organisations planning their digital future. At Clarke Connect, we’re helping our clients navigate the market hype and think beyond the buzzwords, to ultimately assess and plan infrastructure strategies capable of delivering a seamless flow of secure and accessible data not just for today but for what’s coming next.
#2
Data Centres Dominate Headlines
Data centres have certainly been in the news a lot lately, Chris. What's behind that?
Chris: That’s very true. Data centres are attracting a great deal of attention right now, and rightly so. They’ve become critical infrastructure in a world where digital isn’t just a channel, it’s the foundation of how organisations operate.
While the general public sees the impact and benefits of streaming services or cloud-based apps, the way organisations now want to utilise them, to transform service delivery, improve resilience, and securely handle increasing volumes of data, is additionally driving the boom in data centre growth.
Think about healthcare, finance, energy, local government, and transport sectors, the list is fairly endless. Each sector isn’t just adopting digital tools, they’re becoming data-led ecosystems. For hospitals, fast, secure access to patient records and diagnostics is fundamental. Financial institutions are analysing real-time data to monitor transactions and mitigate fraud. Local authorities are modernising services for citizens, and transport and energy networks are leveraging IoT and automation to improve operations. To underpin all of this, in the best way possible, there needs to be robust, flexible, and scalable, data centre infrastructure.
Throughout the UK, a rapid digital shift has been fuelled by major improvements in always-on Gigabit connectivity, from fibre broadband to 5G (our Clarke Telecom division is actively supporting these deployments), and the rise of cloud-native applications. What used to be managed on-site is now increasingly handled through secure cloud environments accessed via data centres. That shift has triggered a major expansion in data centre construction and capacity.
But it’s not just about scale. The emergence of AI and machine learning creates a new layer of demand. AI models require enormous computing power and specialised hardware, which consume vast amounts of energy and generate heat that must be carefully managed. As a result, power availability, cooling capacity, and environmental impact have become strategic concerns, hence why data centres are making headlines. They’re not just quietly running in the background anymore, they’re front and centre in dialogue and conversations around energy infrastructure, environmental responsibility, digital sovereignty, and economic growth.
At Clarke Connect, we’re working closely with industry leaders and key stakeholders to help them navigate this shift, from understanding the role data centres play in the UK’s digital strategy to assisting organisations to build the right architecture for resilience, compliance, and future growth.
#3
Bigger Isn't Always Better
Should we assume bigger is better? What is Edge computing, and why do you need compute power there?
Chris: It’s a great question and one that reflects a common assumption. Large-scale data centres, often referred to as hyper-scale facilities, offer significant efficiencies through economies of scale. They can handle vast volumes of data, support millions of users, and host countless services in a centralised environment.
However, as digital demand grows and evolves, bigger doesn’t always mean better for every use case.
These hyper-scale centres take years to plan and build. Increasingly, the timely availability of sufficient power and land in a single location is becoming a constraint. Add to that the growing volumes of real-time data being generated at the Edge from IoT devices, CCTV networks, sensors, autonomous systems, and digital healthcare platforms, and you start to see the limits of a purely centralised model.
Now, this is where Edge computing comes in.
At its core, Edge computing means placing compute power and storage closer to where data is generated and needed, rather than relying on a central facility hundreds of miles away. For many businesses, this has become essential. Real-time applications whether in automated manufacturing, health diagnostics, transport or environmental monitoring, or energy grid control, can’t afford the latency of sending data offsite, processing it, and waiting for it to come back. Milliseconds matter.
There are other benefits, too. Processing at the Edge helps reduce bandwidth costs, speeds up deployment in areas with limited infrastructure, and unlocks access to locations with suitable power and space availability — often when a hyperscale build isn’t feasible.
Data sovereignty is another growing concern. With stricter regulations and increased geopolitical sensitivity, organisations across sectors are placing greater emphasis on where their data is stored — and who controls it.
There’s also a growing commercial consideration. The cost of using hyperscalers like AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud can rise significantly as data volumes scale, prompting many organisations to rethink their long-term cloud strategies and adopt a hybrid approach that combines public cloud, private infrastructure, and Edge computing.
We see Edge computing not as a replacement for traditional data centres, but as a complementary evolution. It enables businesses to design smarter, faster, more resilient digital environments that meet today’s demands, and tomorrow’s ambitions.
#4
Challenges of Scaling Edge
What are the challenges in building out Edge computing in the UK?
Chris: Edge computing holds vast potential but rolling it out at scale isn’t without challenges, especially in a landscape as complex and varied as the UK.
First, it’s important to understand that this isn’t about replacing one model with another. For most organisations, we’re looking at a hybrid future where non-time-sensitive, bulk data processing remains in large public cloud or hyper-scale environments while real-time, high-performance workloads shift closer to the source using Edge infrastructure.
That creates a level of architectural complexity. Edge locations need to interoperate with multiple cloud platforms while also integrating IT and OT systems, and that’s not always straightforward, especially when managing distributed environments that demand high levels of security, resilience and governance.
Another factor is variation in use cases. What workloads need to sit at the edge, and in what volume, will depend heavily on the industry and application. A hospital’s edge requirements are very different from those of a logistics provider or smart factory. That variation will shape the number of sites needed, their location, physical size, and power and cooling demands.
Speaking of location, that’s a big piece of the puzzle. Edge sites need to be strategically placed close to end users and operations whether they are near urban centres or industrial zones or in more isolated out-of-town locations. Finding the right site with suitable land, access to reliable power, and good fibre connectivity, mean the ability to negotiate leases, navigate planning considerations and rapidly deliver a complex construction programme become just as important as the technological design considerations.
Then there’s the matter of scale. In the UK, to truly support edge computing across sectors like healthcare, manufacturing, education, energy, and transport, we’ll need to deploy, upgrade, and manage hundreds or eventually even thousands of distributed nodes, and that calls for specialist engineering capability, infrastructure expertise and proven delivery skills to be brought to bear consistently across the UK.
We’re already helping our industry partners and clients to address these challenges, bringing the technical understanding, local knowledge, and deployment expertise needed to make edge computing practical and powerful for their operations.
#5
The Future is at The Edge
It's fantastic to see organisations embracing data technology and Edge Computing, but as we're still in the infancy, what does the future journey in the UK look like?
Chris: Absolutely — and it’s a journey that’s accelerating fast. We’re at a pivotal moment in digital infrastructure, where the convergence of AI, rapidly growing data volumes, and regulatory pressure is reshaping what organisations need from their IT environments.
The shift to Edge computing is already happening, and the rapid rise of generative AI is turbocharging it. Since breakthroughs in foundation model training, like those developed by companies such as DeepSeek, the pace of AI adoption has gone through the roof. But AI workloads are demanding.
A recent Omdia survey showed that three-quarters of organisations are already embedding AI into their operations, and their biggest challenge isn’t software, it’s infrastructure. Power, cooling, and the limitations of legacy data centres are now front-and-centre issues. Many of the UK’s data centres were built for older workloads and can’t readily scale to support what’s coming next.
Edge is becoming the natural home for tomorrow’s applications. A TechUK report estimated that 80% of data will “live and die” at the Edge within five years simply because it’s no longer practical or appropriate to centralise everything. This outlook echoes the view from Nvidia—now the most valuable company on the planet thanks to its AI chips—which anticipates over 82% of AI inferencing migrating to the Edge in the near future.
But it’s not just about performance. There’s a growing strategic and geopolitical reason why organisations are rethinking where they store and process data. The US Cloud Act gives American authorities the right to access data stored in US-owned cloud platforms, even if that data is held overseas. For many UK-based organisations, particularly those in critical sectors, data sovereignty and IP protection are no longer optional—they’re essential and business-critical.
Everything points to the wave of Edge deployments taking place across the UK continuing to gain momentum. Smaller, strategically located sites closer to where data is created and used offer more control, more flexibility, and a faster path to innovation. Crucially, they can be built on more accessible power and space footprints, making them more viable for rapid real-world rollout.
At Clarke Connect, we see this future unfolding now. We’re already supporting organisations in shaping and delivering Edge strategies that meet performance, compliance, and commercial goals. The infrastructure is evolving, and organisations need to act today to safeguard data, operations, and security.
