Wispa Limited Launch ALLc to Offer Broadband Talent Pool of BT Critics

Wispa Limited, an outspoken group of consultants who believe Wales (UK) deserves better broadband, has today launched a new UK focused talent pool (ALLc) that has been designed to help “customers” (councils, private companies, community groups etc.) find the skills and information they need to build better rural networks.

The press release lists a number of individuals, including some of BT’s staunchest critics, as being amongst its ranks. For example, two of B4RN’s board members (Chris Conder and Martyn Dews) have joined ALLc, as has Ian Grant, Jack Schofield (The Guardian – AskJack), John Popham and rural broadband ISP AB Internet (amongst others).

Richard Brown, COO of Wispa Limited, explained:

“We’ve been talking about superfast broadband for years. But so far delivery is being stifled, in part by funding availability, but also in part due to customers not knowing how to easily access the skills they need to make it happen.

We really need as many people as possible, across the UK, in the talent pool so that every potential customer requirement can be met. I want every single council, government department, private company, community group etc to get their requirements registered on the site so that we can start matching talent to need.”

Unfortunately Wispa isn’t too specific about its other members, preferring instead to generalise about “a contractor who is on the steering group to use BDUK money” and “someone who is currently working for BDUK as an external contractor” or even “someone working in the ITC department at a regional council“.

ALLc claims that it’s “determined not to chat about solutions, or simply write another paper” and will instead focus on delivering the UKs future digital requirements, although this does usually require some paper work.

In any case we like the idea of bringing talented individuals together in order to help advise others, although Wales itself has already picked BT to do the job but there will still be pockets that the operator cannot reach and this might be where ALLc finds its niche.