Full Fibre ISP Wildanet Opens New Westbourne HQ in Cornwall

Rural broadband ISP Wildanet, which is investing £50m to rollout a new gigabit speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) and fixed wireless (FWA) network across parts of Cornwall and Devon in South West England (here), has this week opened its new Westbourne House headquarters in Liskeard (Cornwall).

The operator, which is backed by the Gresham House British Strategic Investment Infrastructure Fund (BSIF), is already deploying across various locations, such as Liskeard, Dobwalls, Torpoint, Callington, Launceston, Wadebridge, Bude and Pensilva. On top of that, their builds in Devon has seen them expand into Totnes and neighbouring Dartington.

Naturally, all this work means they need more space to grow, hence the opening of a new HQ in Cornwall. Westbourne House can now accommodate around 80 Wildanet staff from a total workforce of more than 130. The Grade II listed landmark building, which was previously quite dilapidated, has had to be fully restored and updated (internally) before it could be properly used.

Wildanet took on the lease of Westbourne House – Built in 1816 for solicitor N.W. Penrose – from owners Cornwall Council in November 2021 and immediately set about the restoration of the redundant 20-room building, peeling back layers of its Edwardian, Victorian and Georgian history.

Helen Wylde, Wildanet Chief Executive, added:

“We are thrilled to bring this much-loved landmark back into use and have been overwhelmed by the positive response from local people. Being at the heart of the communities we serve is very important to Wildanet and revitalising this historic building is testament to that.

Wildanet is dedicated to delivering our business objectives within the context of our ESG strategy (Environmental, Sustainability and Governance), therefore finding a building that we could ‘reuse’ rather than building from scratch was very important to us.

It also gives us the space to grow as a business and continue to invest in the training and development of our people as we expand our network across Cornwall and the South West. Ninety-one percent of our colleagues come from Cornwall and Devon, and we are passionate about local talent and helping people to be the best they can be.”

Customers of the new service can expect to pay from £39.95 per month (currently discounted to £19) to receive a 200Mbps (100Mbps upload) package on a 24-month term, which rises to £59.99 if you want their top 900Mbps (400Mbps upload) package. Wildanet is currently offering free connection to all customers who sign-up to one of their fibre or Fixed Wireless Access services (normally priced at £15 for their fibre service and £99 for their fixed wireless access service).