Dark fibre wholesaler Nexthop expands management team

Sydney-based dark fibre and IP transit wholesaler Nexthop has expanded its management team following increased demand for its services.

The company appointed former Hills Ltd general manager for IT products Djeffri Setiawan as its new head of channels and alliances, former Vocus wholesale account manager Brad Hunt as national fibre operations manager, and long-time technical manager of the Internet Association of Australia Joe Wooller as chief technology officer.

Nexthop co-founder Michael Lim said demand for access to the company’s fibre platform had exceeded internal projections, with Nexthop signing more business than initally anticipated.

“This has created some fulfilment challenges, but the new team has hit the ground running and is rapidly improving activation lead times,” Lim said.

Based in Sydney, Nexthop provides wholesale dark fibre and IP connectivity services across Australia using its own network infrastructure. It includes a dark fibre footprint in the Sydney,
Brisbane, and Perth CBDs with more rollouts to other cities ongoing.

Setiawan joined Nexthop in April after five years at IT distributor Hills Ltd, holding a number of management roles there. In his new role as channel chief, Setiawan is tasked to build Nexthop’s presence in the channel.

Hunt, who joined in September 2019, is managing the national fibre network. Wooller, who joined in May 2019, is managing platform architecture, including global IP backbone.

“These new appointments bring a tremendous amount of experience, knowledge and goodwill to Nexthop,” Lim said. “We see huge potential in our platform, and this dream-team will be instrumental to our plans to further develop the business.

“We are continuing to expand the network to service our existing client base, and plan to build further to match demand from our wholesale channel partners.”