THE man behind plans to bring wireless 4G has moved to reassure the residents of North Swindon who are calling for a fibre optic solution instead.

Will Harnden, the chief marketing officer of UK Broadband, says he believes in the long-term fibre optic is the best option for North Swindon and his company will provide it when it becomes economically viable.

However, he says the wireless solution is currently the best option as it will mean residents can have access to superfast broadband by summer next year, far earlier than any fibre optic provider can come to town.

Last year, the Swindon Borough Council signed a deal with UK broadband to bring superfast broadband to around 20,000 homes in the borough currently without, mainly focused on rural areas and North Swindon.

Many residents in North Swindon have opposed the move, believing fibre optic to be the better solution.

Will said: “I have a very simple message for the people of North Swindon. I agree that in the long term they will need fibre. Fibre will cost somewhere north of £7.5 million to install so we need the commitment that is a commercial entity and it will also take a lot of time.

“My proposal is that we have first build wireless from Q2 next year and then once we hit a take-up rate of between 40 and 50 per cent it becomes economic to build fibre so we will remove the wireless equipment to replace it with fibre because that is a justifiable business.

“That way people will have everything they need rather than having to wait.”

Another concern of those in North Swindon is the high number of buildings will block any signal and therefore significantly reduce download speeds, something Will denies.

He said: “Having buildings in the way is not an issue in the same way it is not an issue with mobile phones. Wireless signals will bend, they will go around things.

“We have radio planning tools and we have designed it in such a way to take into account tall buildings, hills and all the other things that are in the way. The network will be built accordingly.”

Despite the voices against the move, there have been lots of people in support of the programme from those living in rural areas.

Will said: “We are bringing to Swindon connectivity and broadband to the 20,000 households that currently don’t have it from other suppliers.

“After the installation of our kit around the first half of next year, customers will be able to get broadband and Netflix, iplayer, and all the things they don’t get today in the villages and North Swindon.

“Fibre optic requires digging up streets which takes months and months whereas we are aiming to be up in quarter two of 2016, so we are talking six months as opposed to a year.”