Wireless Broadband ISP Quickline Gobbles Part of Rural Rival AB Internet

Consolidation is the order of the day. Fixed wireless ISP Quickline, which operates a growing 50Mbps capable network around parts of Lincolnshire, Yorkshire and the Pennines of England, has gobbled up part of rival wireless provider AB Internet for an undisclosed sum.

Both providers took part in the publicly funded Broadband Delivery UK Market Test Pilots (MTP), which saw AB Internet deploy a 50Mbps network to cover 1,600 rural premises in Monmouthshire (Wales) and Quickline do something similar for North Lincolnshire in East England (here and here). AB has also won various other state aid supported broadband contracts for niche areas (here).

On top of that a recent submission to Ofcom (here) revealed that Quickline hopes to expand their network coverage around the “M62/A1 corridor,” potentially taking in additional parts of Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Rutland and Birmingham, as well as acquiring new sites in East and North Yorkshire.

Suffice to say that consolidation is one way to boost that effort and so Quickline has acquired part of AB Internet’s “network and customer base in Newark, Boston and Peterborough,” although AB Internet still has plenty of other network infrastructure in different parts of the UK (Scotland, Wales, Lincolnshire etc.).

Steve Jagger, MD of Quickline Communications, said:

“We will be celebrating 10 years in business this year and I am delighted that we can also celebrate being the biggest wireless provider in the UK. Our strategy has remained the same throughout these ten years, to utilise state-of-the-art technology, acquire other businesses and invest in the areas that want and need an alternative to traditional telecoms.”

The unique way in which Quickline’s network is structured allows us to diversify into products and services that other providers cannot offer, with interconnects into the leading UK national network service providers Quickline delivers fibre, fixed line, Managed Internet Access and Point to Point private circuits using a combination of technologies.”

Quickline states that the new deal reinforces their claim to being the “largest [fixed] wireless broadband company in the UK” (excluding 3G/4G Mobile Broadband operators’ of course), with a coverage area of 10,000+ square kilometres from Cumbria to South Lincolnshire.