100 new jobs created to support growth plans

Employee numbers to increase by more than 100% year on year as specialist provider scales up business

Blandford based employer Wessex Internet is creating more than 100 new roles in the next 12 months, as it plans to accelerate the roll out of its ultrafast full fibre broadband network to homes and businesses across Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire.

The specialist internet provider will continue to focus on rural communities, but as well as building to villages and hamlets, it will be expanding its reach to include rural market towns, such as Blandford Forum and Sturminster Newton. As a result, it is creating a new town planning and delivery team to complement its rural network build operations.

The new job vacancies are predominantly in fibre planning, network engineering, civils and construction for both its town and rural network build teams, as well as a number of office-based roles to support the company’s significant growth. Whilst most of the roles are Dorset based there are also some construction team vacancies based in Sparkford, Somerset.

The recruitment drive follows Wessex Internet’s rapid growth during the past year – it employed 61 people in August 2020, and now employs over 110, with this number now set to increase to 200 employees within the next 6 months.

It has significantly boosted its sales, marketing and network planning functions in the last 12 months and strengthened its management team with key hires in finance and strategy. Shortlisted in the Rural Business Awards 2021, the company continues to gain recognition for innovation in the South West.

With just 18% of UK homes currently having full fibre broadband access; the government has set a target of 85% of UK homes to have gigabit broadband by 2025. Wessex Internet is accelerating its build to bring this vital infrastructure to local communities as quickly as possible. This includes work on two major public funded projects:

• A 3-year programme to bring full-fibre broadband to over 3,600 rural homes and businesses in South Somerset, awarded by Connecting Devon and Somerset (CDS).

• A contract to deliver full fibre to community buildings from Blandford to Sherborne in Dorset by March 2022, awarded by Dorset Council and Dorset LEP.

Hector Gibson Fleming, Managing Director, Wessex Internet said: “This is a period of exciting growth for our company. Having won two large publicly funded contracts to roll out ultrafast broadband to rural areas in the space of four months, now is the time to further strengthen our construction teams to accelerate our roll out. We’re also excited to set up a new town planning and build team and develop this capability in-house. This will be a vital addition to our company, as we extend our network to local market towns."