Broadway Partners Pick CEO to Support FTTP Rollout to 250k Premises UPDATE

Network provider Broadway Partners (UK ISP Broadway Broadband), which in 2021 set a bold target to cover 250,000 premises across rural Wales and Scotland with their gigabit broadband (FTTP) network by 2025, has appointed industry veteran Steve Haines to be their new Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

Steve, who replaces company co-founder Michael Armitage in the CEO position (Michael remains on as Chief Development Officer), was formerly CEO of Lightspeed, and an MD in BT Group and Openreach. Overall, he brings some 35 years of experience in fixed and wireless connectivity to the role, which will no doubt come in handy as the company looks to scale-up.

The change in leadership comes after Downing LLP, a London-based sustainable investment manager, announced their intention in October 2021 to invest £145 million into Broadway (here). As part of that, Broadway set an ambitious plan to roll out their gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network to 250,000 homes and businesses by the end of 2025.

Since then, Broadway has become involved in various deployments to rural communities across different parts of Wales and Scotland. But sadly, they haven’t released any solid overall progress updates, which would help us understand whether they’re going fast enough to achieve the aforementioned goal.

Steve Haines, CEO of Broadway Partners, said:

“I am hugely proud to have joined Broadway as its CEO and to be part of a project that will see 250,000 homes and businesses connected. We are dedicated to delivering broadband to some of the remotest parts of the UK, and to ensure that communities are supported throughout the process – from consultation to delivery and final connection.

I joined the business as I firmly believe in what Broadway stands for. I’m proud to be working alongside such an experienced board and leadership team and use my 35 years of experience in this industry.

I am also proud we are investing in local people and their skills, along with new engineering offices, training centres and depot locations in Wales and Scotland, greatly benefitting the local economies and well-being in these areas.

Installing fibre in rural areas and working with communities to help deliver what matters to them is at the heart of what Broadway offers, and we have already seen the impact of what delivering connectivity can do. From allowing families to video call far away loved ones, connecting those to education online and even allowing for simple everyday tasks like online banking and video doctors’ appointment,; we’re excited to be able to focus on delivering connections to those who need it.”

One interesting aside is that today’s announcement references the operator’s coverage target as though it was being set again today, rather than in 2021 when it was first stated: “This investment will … help Broadway to succeed in its ambition to deliver 250,000 connections in the next five years.” Some people may interpret that as delaying the goal to around 2028 (the original 2021 announcement said: “The funding will support Broadway’s aspirations to connect 250,000 homes and businesses by 2025“). We have queried this with Broadway and hope to report back soon.

UPDATE 11th Jan 2023 @ 11:07am

We’ve had a response from Broadway on the changing targets, which does state that their rollout has suffered some delays.

A spokesperson for Broadway told ISPreview.co.uk:

“Broadway did hit delays, as we imagine every business did during the covid-19 pandemic, which had huge repercussions for labour and getting final connections in place. It is something we are aware of and we know that some customers have unfortunately been let down, but we are in a better position now as a business to deliver.

We have a strong and stable platform and the engineering resource in place to ensure we can deliver what we agreed, and also continue to make good on our promises to connect those in rural areas that can often be left behind.”

In that sense, we should take the new coverage target as being for around 2028, rather than 2025.