Sure has acquired Airtel and is in the process of transitioning its business, merging the two companies’ staff, customers and infrastructure.
CEO Alastair Beak said the new network would provide better coverage for all of its mobile customers both in the home and outdoors.
‘In the vast majority of cases, they’re two separate networks so there are two separate sets of masts. So the coverage will improve while at the same time the absolute number of masts will decrease by 30%.’
The company is building a new 5G network over the coming months, too, but Mr Beak said that even people who remained on 4G will notice an improvement in their mobile data speeds.
‘If you’ve had any delays in accessing services, those are going to completely go because there’ll be an almost unlimited capacity on the network. We’re going to get four to five times the amount of capacity than we have today.’
Airtel mobile customers will not need to do anything in order to benefit from the changes which Mr Beak said were intended to be seamless. While Airtel did not provide a landline or a fibre broadband service, its customers will now be able to benefit by purchasing a package deal through Sure which will include a landline, fixed fibre broadband and mobile services, which Mr Beak said could save them more than £200 a year.
‘Our plan is that by the end of this year, every single household and business will have access to fibre. So in 2026 all of Sure’s customers – and by that I mean Airtel’s customers as well – will then have not only access to world class fibre, but also access to world class 5G and 4G mobile as well.’
Pricing for mobile and data services was different between Airtel and Sure, but Mr Beak said that the company had committed to keeping the existing Airtel packages for the next three years.
The Airtel shop in the High Street is now closed but Mr Beak said of the half-a-dozen or so staff, those who wished to continue with Sure had filled existing vacancies or had vacancies created for them.
‘There’s been a slight reduction in the overall number of roles that we have across both islands but I think that’s slightly inevitable when you bring two companies together, but it’s a minimal impact,’ he said.
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