L-R: Richard Reis, David Winfield, Steve Cooper, Simon Poole and John Irvine
Several new key appointments have been announced at Wightfibre. The exciting Gigabit Island project is now underway – a project that will provide gigabit, full-fibre, future-proof broadband to more than 50,000 homes and businesses across the Isle of Wight.
Island-born construction industry veteran Steve Cooper has joined WightFibre as the Director who is responsible for over seeing the build of the new network across the Island. Steve has worked in construction for over 25 years in infrastructure development roles at Amey, Skanska and Sir Robert McAlpine.
Lastly, Richard Reis is joining WightFibre as Business Development Director working with new property developments, private landlords and housing associations to ensure all their homes on the Island have the chance 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.
“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”. – Wightfibre CEO, John Irvine
WightFibre has been the first company in the UK to receive money from the government’s new Digital Infrastructure Investment Fund, which was launched by HM Treasury last July.
Further to the announcement of new appointments, WightFibre has announced that one of the first areas on the Island to receive the new full-fibre, Gigabit broadband service will be Gurnard Pines. The pilot project will showcase WightFibre’s new network technology and processes to ensure a smooth upgrade for customers.
As well as Gurnard Pines, the Staplers area of Newport will be the first new WightFibre area. This will see the laying of fibre optic cable to around 400 homes during April and May this year. WightFibre is working very 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 and the project is expected to create around new 20 permanent jobs at WightFibre and up to 120 temporary jobs during the building of the new network. Details of current vacancies – across sales, customer service, network engineering and field engineering can be found on the WightFibre website.
If you are interested in receiving the new gigabit broadband services, then you can register your interest at www.wightfibre.com/gigabitisland.
