{"id":43882,"date":"2026-04-08T00:01:32","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T23:01:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/?p=43882"},"modified":"2026-04-08T16:28:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T15:28:19","slug":"wessex-internet-interview-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/04\/wessex-internet-interview-2026.html","title":{"rendered":"CEO of Broadband ISP Wessex Internet Talks UK Competition and Consolidation"},"content":{"rendered":"

The CEO and founder of alternative UK rural broadband provider Wessex Internet<\/a>, Hector Gibson Fleming, has today spoken to ISPreview about how they turned their family business – funded out of their own pockets for the first 7 years – into what it is today and how they’re navigating the many challenges of today’s full fibre market (consolidation, competition and rising costs etc.).<\/p>\n

We think it’s fair to say that Wessex Internet<\/a> is a familiar name around these parts and has long focused upon serving a rural niche in Southern England. In fact, the company has technically been around since 2010, when Hector’s father, the late James Gibson Fleming MBE, first established the business after building a Fixed Wireless Access<\/strong> (FWA) network to bring better broadband to his farm, before taking that idea to a wider audience.<\/p>\n

NOTE:<\/strong> Wessex Internet<\/a> is backed by Aberdeen Group plc<\/strong> and in late 2023 secured \u00a335m of extra funding (here<\/a>), then \u00a350m from the NWF in June 2025 (here<\/a>). The provider\u2019s Project Gigabit contracts include \u2013 North Dorset (Lot 14.01 \u2013 7,100 premises, \u00a36m state aid), New Forest (Lot 27.01 \u2013 10,500 premises, \u00a314m), South Wiltshire (Lot 30 \u2013 14,500 premises, \u00a318.8m), Dorset and South Somerset (Lot 14 \u2013 21,400 premises, \u00a333.5m).<\/div>\n

“With prohibitive upfront costs quoted by a mainstream provider it was impossible to connect our home and farm office to broadband therefore he created a solution using innovative wireless technology to fix our telecoms challenge. Realising this wasn\u2019t an isolated issue, he grew the wireless solution farm-to-farm in the local area over the next 5 years, before transforming the business into a rural focussed full fibre broadband provider<\/em>,” said Hector.<\/p>\n

In the 15 years since 2010, they’ve installed nearly 8,000km of fibre cable and employ over 350 staff \u2013 the majority of whom live locally and so “really understand the importance of the broadband service we provide, as well as the challenges of rural network build<\/em>“, added Hector.<\/p>\n

Today the provider, which also holds several publicly subsidised Project Gigabit<\/strong> build contracts (valued at \u00a372m to deliver full fibre [FTTP<\/a>] across over 53,000 properties by 2029), covers 50,000 premises (Oct 2025) across rural parts of Dorset, Hampshire, Wiltshire and Somerset (inc. 16,000 customers \u2013 Mar 2026). But existing deployment plans aim to expand this to 137,000 premises (here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Suffice to say that Wessex Internet, which is now predominantly focused on building Fibre-to-the-Premises<\/strong> (FTTP<\/a>) infrastructure and also maintains a significant wireless network, is far from being a major provider in terms of premises passed. But their geographic reach is fairly significant (mainly covering a huge area of Dorset and Somerset) and their accounts often seem to be heathier than many other altnets (here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

On the flip side, the provider is far from being the cheapest of ISPs (reflective of their remote rural focus as such builds are much more expensive) and they’re facing an increasing threat from overbuild by rivals (primarily Openreach<\/a>). According to data supplied to ISPreview by Thinkbroadband<\/a> at the end of 2025, some 17% of Wessex Internet’s full fibre network has been overbuilt by gigabit-capable broadband rivals. Despite this, the ISP maintains a good level of take-up (“exceeding 30% overall and 50% in our most established networks<\/em>“).<\/p>\n

The position that Wessex Internet occupies in the market thus makes them an interesting subject for our latest interview.<\/p>\n

The Wessex Internet Interview<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Q1. Firstly, can you offer an updated summary on Wessex Internet’s current network coverage (premises passed), customer take-up and total level of funding\/investment?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hector said:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019re highly focussed on building a dense rural network to reach some of the most remote and rural communities across Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire and Wiltshire.<\/p>\n

We have connected over 16,000 customers and passed over 50,000 properties \u2013 a take up of over 30%, which is unheard of given we are in the middle of our rollout phase. This shows strength in our business model that prioritises a rural network build.<\/p>\n

We were awarded the first Building Digital UK<\/a> (BDUK) Project Gigabit contract in 2022, and subsequently have been awarded 3 more contracts, totalling \u00a372 million, and last year we obtained \u00a350 million in funding from the National Wealth Fund (NWF). In particular we are incredibly proud to have recently completed our first contract, North Dorset (Lot 14.01) which was finished on time and within budget.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Q2. I thought I’d start off by noting your latest annual accounts to the end of 2024, which seemed to be a bit healthier and more stable than those of some other alternative networks we\u2019ve seen. Most other altnets have been much more heavily impacted by issues of high interest rates, rising build costs and competition. As a result, quite a few of those providers have had to stop their deployments and focus more on commercialisation.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some of this may be down to the fact that Wessex Internet has higher prices for some of their broadband packages than rivals (e.g. \u00a379 per month for 900Mbps + \u00a349 activation), which is no doubt partly a reflection of your rural focus. Some of it may also be down to the decent level of take-up you’ve reached at over 30% and rising.<\/strong><\/p>\n

However, few altnets are completely immune to the challenges of this market and I wondered if you can share a bit more about how Wessex Internet is doing better, financially, and able to continue building, when others are now struggling?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hector said:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Our unique background, as a company that was born out of frustration and necessity rather than a concept justified by a \u2018financial model\u2019, continues to keep us focussed on serving rural communities and building a network that is not just for now, but also built for the long term.<\/p>\n

We are certainty not immune to the inflation challenges faced by the industry, but we recognise ourselves as a niche operator who focuses heavily on our operational execution and customer experience within that niche. We still have to remain disciplined, and like the rest of the industry some costs are outside our control, but we believe this focus gives us a fundamentally viable model.<\/p>\n

Wessex Internet has always been a family run business, and our network build was funded by my family for the first 7 years and so we\u2019ve always needed to have a strong focus on cashflow and business sanity. This has helped us focus on a reasonable, long-term price for our product from the start.<\/p>\n

Since we have won four Project Gigabit contracts, we have been able to roll out to more properties, faster. The grant funding supports our roll out where the build would be commercially unviable without it. However, it certainly doesn\u2019t cover all build costs, therefore we continue to invest significantly in our network expansion.<\/p>\n

Critically, the funding doesn\u2019t change the sheer volume of work required per property in rural areas and as a result, we will always be a smaller player in the broadband market with lower scale, as a result we have to carefully consider how we spread our cost base as we grow.<\/p>\n

We believe our success is the result of many factors including a focus on rural build, strong engagement with local communities, working closely with landowners and a focus on the customer service experience that we provide using local staff who understand the challenges of rural life and really buy in to our purpose, mission and values.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Please flick over to Page 2 in order to finish reading the full interview.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Q3. Speaking of pricing, we note that one of the challenges Wessex Internet may be facing is the rising level of competitive overbuild by rival networks, primarily the incumbent player of Openreach<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

How much of a problem is this and what sort of approaches are you taking now, or considering for the future, in order to counter it (e.g. consideration of cheaper pricing in the future, faster build, marketing strategies etc.)?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hector said:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Our network is concentrated on rural communities and so we\u2019ve historically seen less overbuild than others often face in larger towns and cities.<\/p>\n

Openreach<\/a> are the most likely competitor in our area given their existing footprint and the existing fibre footprint from FTTC<\/a> programs. However, this doesn\u2019t make them immune from the challenges of old and fragmented rural PIA and the costs of overlaying fibre in their direct buried network. Our build methods lend us to being able to deliver new networks in those areas effectively and as a result we still believe our footprint is differentiated from even Openreach in our area.<\/p>\n

Overbuild shouldn\u2019t be ignored, but we believe our reliable product with excellent service from a friendly local team is a differentiator even where we do have overbuild. We know these core requirements resonate with many of our customers who have previously felt let down by the service they\u2019ve received from incumbents.<\/p>\n

We are confident in our pricing, and it is something that we will always review to ensure that customers pay a fair and competitive price for their broadband. The reasons why customers switch to Wessex Internet (reliability, great product and customer service) remain at the core of our business model and we will always prioritise the customer experience.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Q4. I guess we can\u2019t talk about the current climate without touching on the tricky question of consolidation. Does Wessex Internet now see itself more as being an attractive prospect for being consolidated by a bigger fish, or are you likely to focus on remaining independent while potentially raising fresh investment as interest rates come down \u2013 perhaps even doing a little consolidation of your own?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hector said:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Wessex Internet is a strong, independent local business with roots firmly in the Dorset countryside. Being in an expansion phase with funded plans to complete our projects we feel less pressure or reason to consolidate than others might.<\/p>\n

We’ve seen an acceleration of consolidation activity in the industry recently which I think is a good thing for rationalising the sector and creating fewer, stronger businesses. For many alt nets, scale is key in their plans and consolidation is the right next move, especially where pressure is placed on the business to reduce costs and commercialise a stable network footprint. It will be interesting to see how current deals play out and start to steer the industry over the coming 18 months.<\/p>\n

Our independence allows us to keep our current focus on building a high-quality network in difficult, remote areas.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Q5. By the time people read this, it’s possible that Ofcom<\/a> may have published their latest Telecoms Access Review 2026 (TAR), which will look to make changes that “promote competition and investment<\/em>” in gigabit broadband and business connectivity. As such, I wonder what your thoughts are on the regulator’s draft proposals from March 2025, particularly what you think they got right and where you think it could be improved?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hector said:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

We welcome the support and ambition of Ofcom<\/a> in the TAR 2026 especially with regards to maintaining the current regulatory framework to support the industry investment in gigabit capable broadband and reducing the digital divide. We\u2019re also supportive of Ofcom<\/a>\u2019s recognition that switching off copper will be surrounded with challenges, and in many rural communities, it could have the biggest impact \u2013 therefore managing the transition is vital.<\/p>\n

Irrespective of the success of individual altnet\u2019s themselves, the pressure that they have added in the market over the last decade has delivered enormous value in forcing Openreach to roll out more aggressively and cheaper, with far less government support than was needed under Superfast contracts. This has delivered huge benefits to consumers of Openreach services before you even look at the benefits to customers of altnets. This regulatory stability recognises that enormous market benefit and is a vote of confidence for the stronger players in the sector, both the niche independents and the consolidation winners, and will help them leverage further competitive benefit for consumers and the Government over the next decade.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Q6. One of the hot topics of this industry surrounds the general need to increase the take-up of full fibre networks. Do you think there’s anything the industry could be doing differently to aid this, beyond any of the points that we might have already touched on above in some capacity?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hector said:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve definitely seen altnets up their game over the past year and it\u2019s encouraging to see the progress across the whole sector.<\/p>\n

Our approach to achieving our high levels of take-up, which are over 30% on a network wide basis, including properties delivered last month, is to focus on solid engagement with local communities from the beginning of the build, ensuring we ensure we work with them and understand their concerns, frustrations and any community-wide build \u2018red lines\u2019 before we start.<\/p>\n

This requires an investment in community dialogue but means we aspire to end up with communities that are happy with our build process and are strong advocates of the business before we start installing. This is trickier to do as you scale, and I will put my hands up and say we don\u2019t always get it right. However, in general I think it is a huge part of delivering successful take-up and something others have often overlooked in favour of rollout speed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Q7. As a rural focused provider, you’ll no doubt be familiar with harnessing a lot of different and sometimes quite novel build methods to help expand the reach of your network. In terms of construction, what are the most effective methods you’ve found for rolling out new fibre into such areas and which ones, if any, have caused you more hassle than desirable?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hector said:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, our network build is never without its challenges and deeply rural projects often require entirely bespoke planning from start to finish.<\/p>\n

The key thing that differentiates our build is we don\u2019t use mole ploughs and directional drills as an exception to traditional methods; they are the core of how we work and often the first point of call. This means we can leverage them incredibly flexibly using our in-house teams, keeping our hard dig to a minimum and reducing the impact on the local highways as we build. This gives us less of a hockey stick in costs as we get to the ultra-rural prems which has been a key to delivering our BDUK contracts within budget.<\/p>\n

Our business model has always been driven by rural build and looking right back to the government\u2019s 2017 LFFN program, we connected Cheselbourne Village School as a well-publicised example of their outside-in approach. The school was 14km from the closest point to our network at the time and Wessex Internet have since built out full fibre to virtually every village on that route. It’s a great example of working with farmers and communities to deliver in difficult areas and how an early project pushing our network extent has subsequently been leveraged to deliver enormous benefit to the whole area.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Q8. Staying on the theme of build. Wessex Internet recently generated some positive headlines by becoming one of the first altnets to complete a Government backed contract under the Project Gigabit scheme (here<\/a>) – specifically the \u00a36m publicly funded contract for North Dorset (Lot 14.01), which extended full fibre into 6,490 hard-to-reach premises. You also hold three more contracts like this, which are much bigger and due for completion in the future.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Aside from no doubt being very pleased with the outcome, this was also achieved during a period when much of the industry is under economic significant strain. The current environment has already resulted in a few other altnets dropping out entirely from similar contracts or scaling-back their deployments.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In terms of delivering such complex and challenging contracts, both on-target and on-budget, what advice would you have for other network operators that may currently be in the process of taking on the delivery of such contracts for the government?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hector said:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

My key advice for any company is that you should only bid for BDUK funding because you want the coverage but it would be uncommercial without support, rather than because you want the funding.<\/p>\n

Whilst the funding seems attractive, if the company doesn\u2019t want the coverage, or isn\u2019t geared up to manage the complexity of delivery in that particular geography, then the stringent conditions of the funding will become a distraction and controlling costs is likely to be difficult and painful.<\/p>\n

Our roll outs are not without challenge, and we have always aimed to work openly with BDUK about the risks we face and how we are progressing, this two-way dialogue not only enables us to keep them informed on our operational progress but also allows us to remain flexible to the contract changes driven by the OMR process. Each contract is unique and carries its own unique considerations that you should understand before bidding. We pay very close attention to the geography of the area before we bid, and I think that has enabled us to have a deliberate target area that we know works well for our build methods. We didn\u2019t for instance bid for work across the Somerset Levels as it would require a different network configuration and build processes due to the extensive flooding and ditch networks.<\/p>\n

On an overall basis we are comfortable with our progress and if there is opportunity for suitable further contracts within our region, we would remain a keen bidder.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Q9. Speaking of civil engineering, the government recently kicked off a new consultation on reforming planning rules, which is seeking feedback on whether they should make further changes to the rules and update policy guidance to help \u201caccelerate the deployment<\/em>\u201d of digital infrastructure.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The call for evidence identified several areas where further reforms to planning rules may be necessary to support the government\u2019s nationwide coverage ambitions. These policy areas include:  <\/strong><\/p>\n