Over the past 10 years, Echo has been known by many names and we’ve had offices of many shapes and sizes…*cough, a car garage, cough*
Like many businesses we’ve evolved, adapted, and rebuilt more than once. Through every change, one thing has remained the same and that is our commitment to providing great technology and first-class service, so our customers can focus on achieving great, great things!
Settle in, grab a cuppa, this is the story of Echo.
2015 – Taking the Leap
In 2015, Echo began with a leap of faith. After leaving a job in IT, our founder went self-employed as a one-man contractor. There was no grand plan just yet, only a belief in hard work, technical skills, and a healthy dose of blind faith. Later that year, Jordan joined as an apprentice, working on a day-rate basis. It was a two-man band, supported by a battered but very well loved £1,000 van. The battery had to be taken out every night, charged at home, and reinstalled at 5am to get to the next job. Somehow that didn’t put Jordan off and he is still here today.
Early 2016 – Growth, Risk, and Belief
In early 2016, a major opportunity arrived: a six-person project rolling out Wi Fi access points across all Lidl sites in the South West. Four engineers were brought in last minute, with Jordan and our founder making up the rest of the team. It was a financial risk at the time, but it paid off. More projects followed, and soon the team built to six people, full time.
On 11th February 2016, RI Networks was officially formed, trading as a registered company. The team grew quickly to 10 engineers.
The business model shifted toward commercial work towards the end of 2016, and RI Networks was rebranded as Rainbow Networks.
2017–2019 – Building Momentum
In March 2017, Rainbow Networks left the garage behind (thankfully) and moved into a small box office in Avonmouth. The location made sense, with most work along the M5 corridor. At this stage, the team had grown to 15 engineers.
Later that year, the business moved again, this time to Station Road Workshops, followed by a larger unit in early 2018.
By then, Rainbow had:
- 18 engineers
- Shaun joining as operations (and still with us today)
- A part-time admin team member
In early 2019, another move followed, into a larger office with more space to support the growing team and workload.
2020 – The Hardest Test
By early 2020, the business was thriving.
Rainbow had 27 engineers, a full project pipeline, and everything appeared to be on track, until it wasn’t. Lockdown hit. Pretty much overnight, all work disappeared. Our engineers were at home, office staff furloughed, and it felt like all momentum was completely lost. It became clear that relying solely on project work wasn’t sustainable and a new direction was needed.
During lockdown, our founder reached out to long-time allies, and former rivals (that is a different story…)Protel, who had established recurring revenue through lines and calls contracts. A big decision was made, during peak lockdown, Rainbow acquired Protel and moved into their new offices. Neither business had work at the time, but the long-term model made sense. It was one of the riskiest decisions made, but it was also one of the most important.
2022–2023 – Restructuring for Strength
Rainbow and Protel initially traded separately while teams and processes aligned. In 2022, the businesses merged under one name: Rainbow.
In late 2023, the company split again, this time strategically, into:
- Rainbow Communications
- Protel Data Services
This allowed each business to focus deeply on refining processes, service delivery, and expertise.
Late 2025 – Echo Is Born
In late 2025, following the acquisition of a large IT and cyber security customer database, Echo was born!!
The teams came back together under one unified brand. This time we were stronger, more experienced, and more focused than ever.
As of today, Echo is:
- A multi million pound organisation
- 12 office staff
- 42 field engineers
- Delivering IT, connectivity, cyber security, and smart technology solutions
And we’re only just getting started!
The One Thing That Never Changed
Over a decade, names have changed. Offices have moved. Teams have grown. The market has shifted. We survived lockdown. Acquisitions were made. But our core belief has never ever wavered: If you put the right technology in place, and support it properly, you remove limitations and allow people and businesses to focus on what they do best. That’s what we mean when we say: Where technology inspires progress. To our customers, partners, and the people who have been part of this journey, thank you. The best is yet to come.