Dale shares this latest news from Wightfibre. Ed
WightFibre has identified the first areas on the Island to receive the new full-fibre, Gigabit broadband service.
Gurnard Pines, in WightFibre’s existing network area, will be the first on the Island to be upgraded to the new full-fibre broadband. The pilot project will prove WightFibre’s new network technology and processes to ensure a smooth upgrade process for customers.
Pilot area
The Staplers area of Newport will be the first new WightFibre area. This pilot area will see the laying of fibre optic cable to approximately 400 homes during April and May. WightFibre is working closely with Island Roads to minimise or eliminate any possible disruption to traffic in the area.
The full rollout of the new Gigabit Island broadband network will commence during the summer.
Four new key appointments
WightFibre has also announced several new key appointments as its Gigabit Island project gets underway. The project will provide gigabit, full-fibre, future-proof broadband to over 50,000 homes and businesses across the Island.
Simon Poole joins WightFibre as Operations Director responsible for all customer facing operations in the company – sales, customer service and field engineering. Simon joins WightFibre from SSE Telecom and brings a wealth of telecoms experience including time in the Royal Navy.
Steve Cooper was born and grew up on the Isle of Wight, joining Wightfibre as Director responsible for the build of the new network across the Island. Steve is a construction industry veteran having worked over the past 25 years in infrastructure development roles at Skanska, Sir Robert McAlpine and Amey.
David Winfield joins as Programme Director for the construction programme. David is highly experienced within the telecoms industry working most recently at EE and O2 in Programme Director roles. Dave has lived on the Island for over 15 years.
Richard Reis joins as Business Development Director working with new property developments, private landlords and housing associations to ensure all their properties on the Island have the opportunity to be included in the roll out of the Gigabit Island project. Richard has lived on the Island for 15 years and has extensive experience within the technology sector.
WightFibre’s chief executive officer, John Irvine, comments:
“The WightFibre Gigabit Island project is a major undertaking which requires some very specialist knowledge – knowledge of the latest civil engineering cable laying technology and of current fibre-optic networking technologies – essential in order to truly future-proof our network. We have been really fortunate to find much of this knowledge and expertise right here on the Island”.
20 new permanent jobs
Aside from the key appointments announced today, the project is expected to create around new 20 permanent jobs at WightFibre and up to 120 temporary jobs during the build phase of the new network.
