Rural ISP Wessex Internet Tops 5000 Broadband Customers
Broadband ISP Wessex Internet, which is currently rolling out a new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across parts of South and South West England (Dorset, Wiltshire and Somerset), has revealed that they’re now home to 5,000 customers, including one who just got free broadband for life.
We should point out that some of those customers will be catered for via the provider’s older Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) network, rather than just their latest full fibre technology. Sadly, Wessex Internet hasn’t said how their customers are split, or indeed how many premises both networks cover.
Nevertheless, the provider’s 5000th customer, David Lester (aged 66), will surely be pleased because the ISP just gave him a “free service for life” to help celebrate the achievement. David lives in the rural village of Tytherington (Wiltshire).
The whole company got together for a team photograph to mark the occasion, followed by cake. Each of their 140 employees was presented with a limited-edition green water bottle in the distinctive colour of the Wessex Internet brand.
Hector Gibson Fleming, Wessex Internet CEO, said:
“I would like to congratulate David for sharing this momentous occasion with us. This is a significant milestone not only for Wessex Internet, but also to all our current and future customers in hard-to-reach areas. More importantly for every single one of our 140 employees whose enthusiasm, professionalism and can-do attitude have made this achievement possible.
I am proud to lead such a fantastic team who’ve been with us on our journey so far, and in the future as we continue to grow.”
Prices typically start at £29 per month for a 100Mbps (15Mbps upload) tier on a 12-month term, but this only comes with a 100GB data allowance (£44 for unlimited), and you’ll have to pay £49 (one-off) for activation. By comparison, their top unlimited usage package will give you 900Mbps (300Mbps upload) for £84 per month, which is pricey by today’s standards.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook and Linkedin.
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With 5,000 customers even allowing for a revenue of, say, £50 a calendar month (which is probably optimistic) it means their 140 employees represent revenue of under £21,500 each. It’s hard for altnets to compete against the behemoths of Openreach, VM02 and others. I am surprised at how little consolidation there has been so far – surely time is now ripe with squeezed real incomes
Out of interest, how do you calculate those numbers?
The nerd in me thinks 5000 x £50pm = £250k per month. But I guess they will only be receiving a partial income from the £50pm?
it’s all about scale –
If they double in size the you’d be talking £45k per employeee.
Then when the network is built they lose 50% of the employee base so then it becomes £90k per employee
Then they double in size again and suddenly it’s £180k per employee with only 20,000 customers
etc etc…. the funds that are backing all these altnets have a 5-10 year time horizon, it would be dumb to pull the plug before they’ve had a chance to get to scale / finish rollouts..
Rerun your slide rule after removing VAT from that £50.
It wasn’t meant to be a precise calculation… more an illustration. These companies are in start up phase – most are well funded to operate for years as they build up scale. Some will go under and get bought by others – this is capitalism.
> Out of interest, how do you calculate those numbers?
>
> The nerd in me thinks 5000 x £50pm = £250k per month.
You’re correct. Then note that £250k x 12 is £3m per year. Divided by 140 employees, that’s £21,428 per employee per year.
The point is: this is a company that’s clearly burning money.
That was my point. The figures were intended only as an illustration, not a deep dive. In reality they are far worse. Wessex Internet are largely gap filling in areas Openreach isn’t running a commercial build, aided by Devon and Somerset public money. There will inevitably be a rush to consolidation as the present business plans aren’t, in any way, sustainable and there will be winners and losers.