UK ISP Voneus Acquires Wireless Infrastructure Company Sky-Way
Another week, another acquisition for rural wireless broadband ISP Voneus. This time around the alternative network provider has gobbled up Herefordshire-based wireless infrastructure installation company Sky-Way for an undisclosed sum, which could improve their provision times and support.
Sky-Way is already approved by both the Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) and the Welsh Government to install broadband infrastructure (usually a mix of Satellite or fixed wireless setups for third-party ISPs). Unsurprisingly they’ve also been a Voneus partner since 2016 and so integrating the business should be simple enough.
Today’s deal follows the recent acquisition of several rivals (e.g. SugarNet, Cotswold Wireless and Lde Smart Alarms), which is helping to expand Voneus’ service and capabilities. All of this is being fuelled by last year’s significant funding injection of £5.3 million into the business.
Steve Leighton, CEO of Voneus, said:
“Sky-Way has built a great reputation installing broadband infrastructure in places that the traditional networks don’t reach. The company has been an invaluable partner to us over the last two years, so we are delighted to welcome the Sky-Way team to Voneus permanently.
This addition significantly bolsters our engineering capabilities which means shorter waiting times for villages eager to gain access to our broadband services, while the additional manpower will provide even better support coverage for our existing customers.”
Gareth Burgess, Sky-Way’s Founder, added:
“We have first-hand experience of working alongside Voneus; our common goal – to provide reliable, fast internet services to places that have traditionally been considered ‘off grid’ – means the two companies are a great fit.”
Voneus’ fixed wireless broadband network, which can deliver unlimited symmetric speeds of up to 50Mbps to residential customers, is currently available to 50 rural communities across the UK. The network spans parts of Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Cheshire, Devon, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Somerset, South Wales, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Northamptonshire and Wiltshire.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on Twitter, Google+, Facebook and Linkedin.
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Didn’t Skyway do all Airband’s Installs? Wonder how that will pan out now with all their BDUK contract commitments… or do voneus have eyes on Airband next?
Airband are probably too big for Voneus to grab. Not sure about how much Sky-Way were involved with them though.
Depends how big Voneus cash pile is… they are spending fast v what is airband worth? Big network paid for by BDUK but not many customers = no revenue
Pretty sure Skyways did bulk of their work – they were certainly around North Devon & Dartmoor a year+ ago
They need active paying customers. The £5M loan needs to be paid at some point…