Internet company making the right connections and bucking the trend

blackmorevaleJanuary 1, 20210 Comment0

Wessex Internet, an independent broadband provider based in Shroton, is bucking the trend of economic woes and surging ahead amid the pandemic.

The company started 2020 with 44 employees, and now it employs 72 team members with another 15 new roles in the pipeline. All departments in the business have expanded including sales, marketing, customer service, civils and engineering. While this growth was anticipated as part of its business plan, the company says it has been “very lucky”.

With the demands of working from home and home-schooling through lockdown, if anything, the company has seen an increase in demand for fast, reliable internet connections during the covid crisis. Wessex Internet recruits from the local area where possible, providing rewarding careers right here in north Dorset. And where the Wessex Internet team go off-road, using mole-ploughs and directional drills to cross farmland and fields to install fibre broadband, they are always looking to recruit machinery drivers and people from a farming background to join its growing installation team.

Infrastructure Director Ludo Skinner said: “It’s really important that our civils and installs teams really understand the rural environment and the land we are crossing, so we can build trust with landowners and minimise damage. We’re always keen to hear from farmers local to the area that are interested in joining the crew.”

IN A FIELD OF THEIR OWN: Wessex Internet takes the installation of fibre ‘off road’ across fields and farmland

Managing director Hector Gibson Fleming said: “We’re passionate about the importance of connectivity so local businesses can grow, create jobs and support the local economy. We’re excited that our own growth is creating new opportunities and are keen to recruit people from the local community.”

The beginning

Wessex Internet started in 2010 when co-founder James Gibson Fleming struggled to get a good internet connection his farm in Shroton. After being quoted £120k by BT to install a fibre connection to the farm’s offices, he found his own fixed-point wireless solution instead. He was able to get a line-of-sight connection to a friend’s property in Shaftesbury. Neighbours were keen to get a connection too and he realised that there was a need for better connectivity throughout the local area.

Since then, Wessex Internet have been providing reliable superfast broadband to remote rural communities through wireless technology and rolling out full-fibre networks. Working with local communities to identify areas with a poor connection, Wessex Internet applied for government funding from the £200m Rural Gigabit Connectivity (RGC) programme so that customers have no installation costs to pay.

In the last three years the company, now led by managing director Hector Gibson Fleming and infrastructure director Ludo Skinner, has invested heavily, and serves some 4,000 customers.

Will Hudson from Wessex Internet installs a full fibre connection to a customer’s house

Mr Fleming said: “We believe that the countryside should be the first to benefit from new technologies, not the last. Access to world-class broadband is essential to sustaining and growing our communities. We want people to be able to live, work and build successful businesses and careers right here in the countryside, not have to move away to towns and cities.”