UKFast in the Community

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Taking our corporate social responsibility seriously

Through charity events, grass roots sport sposorship and school days out, UKFast is actively working in the wider community to make a difference in people's lives. We promote the ethos that businesses have a responsibility to the community. Below we've highlighted just a few of the events we've been involved with over the years.

Raising money for charity

In 2008, 2007 and 2006 UKFast supported the Breast Cancer Campaign to help reach a target of £2.1m. We raised over £500 for the campaign. Find out more about UKFast Wear it Pink here.

The UKFast outreach program

UKFast's Outreach Programme visits schools and other institutions in the Greater Manchester area giving presentations for pupils at GCSE level and above about opportunities and careers in the Internet.

Network director Neil Lathwood and communications director Jonathan Bowers talk to students on all technical aspects of building a network and raise awareness of the increasing importance of the Internet in everyday life.

If you'd like UKFast to visit your school please contact Jonathan Bowers by email or call 0870 421 1585.

Our Youth Sports scheme works through our association with the Sale Sharks. Not only does our sponsorship of the club contribute to their grassroots rugby training camps, but we offer youth teams across the country the chance to come and meet the Sharks and watch them play.

The youth sports initiative is hugely important to us. Working in an industry that has encouraged a reduction in active exercise amongst young people, we work hard to promote the benefits of sports for fitness and wellbeing. Our associations with the Sale Sharks and the Airwaves-Ducati superbikes teams help us to deliver this message to children of school age.

Our 2005 scheme brought the Widness Under 9's Rugby team to Edgeley park to meet Charlie Hodgson and his team mates and enjoy an awards ceremony with Sharky (the club mascot). Young Jack Andrews was the team member who won our competition and received a signed Sharks jersey.

GSCE data centre away day

In December 2007, UKFast hosted an away day for GSCE students. Thirty children visited the MaNOC data centre to learn all about how the internet works.

UKFast staff exhibited the generators that power the centre and the servers housed there. The pupils had access to a standard area of the facility in a move which allowed them to learn and observe, but was fully in line with stringent security measures to protect the hardware.

Neil Lathwood, Network Director of UKFast, explained how the building is powered and showed off its high tech features, including the under floor air conditioning and the fire suppression system. The day was a positive experience for everyone involved.

Our policy

In all dealings with customers, employees, stakeholders, partners, suppliers and the local community, UKFast adheres to a set of core values. These specific aspirations and commitments guide every thing we do:

• Professional - A successful company is one that acts with integrity and delivers on all that they promise in a transparent, truthful and accurate way. This is the UKFast way to do business.
• Supportive - We want UKFast to be the nations first choice for IT support, which means dealing with all customers promptly, knowledgeably and courteously. Relationships that are based on mutual trust will help us best anticipate and meet the changing requirements of our customers'.
• Innovative - We aim to operate at the cutting-edge of the IT industry in order to deliver solutions that serve the communication needs of tomorrow.
• Dynamic - To best service our clients in an extremely fast-paced industry we aim to continually evolve our service offering in-line with rapid market developments
• Passionate - At UKFast we are passionate about our customers. Every aspect of our business is designed to understand their business requirements and to build lasting relationships.

UKFast believes in the power of economic growth to deliver a more just and inclusive society, which is why we are a member of both ISPA and RIPE, to ensure best practice procedures in Internet sector and encourage the development of communications network in all areas of the UK and in Europe. Currently, we invest 25 per cent of all annual profits into the further development of the network.

UKFast 2008 Internet Awards

The UKFast Internet Awards give us an opportunity to celebrate the diversity of our online Network. UKFast presents awards to business across it's network, rewarding the best web designs, functionality, community sites and Internet innovations amongst other things.

With thousands of online businesses to choose from, the awards aim to promote competition and achievement across the various sectors.

The awards and the publicity around them help to build the profiles of winning companies and open up avenues of communication between UKFast's many clients presenting networking opportunities of a different kind.

For more information on the UKFast Internet Awards you can see our winners page from the 2008 awards.