Wireless Broadband UK ISP Airband Secure £16m Funding Boost

Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) ISP Airband has today secured an additional investment of £16 million through the National Digital Infrastructure Fund (NDIF), which will be used to help expand their rural superfast and ultrafast broadband network to pass an additional 50,000 premises in England and Wales by 2021.

The NDIF is a commercial fund that is supported by the UK Government’s £400m Digital Infrastructure Investment Fund (DIIF). The latter of which was originally touted as only being focused on supporting alternative “full fibre” (FTTP/H) broadband networks, which seems to have been stretched a bit by today’s announcement.

Where laying full fibre networks in the most isolated rural areas can be challenging, Airband aims to build networks with an “economically-efficient blend of fibre and fixed wireless assets to overcome the traditional hurdle to deploying ultrafast connectivity to these areas.”

This hybrid solution (aka – RuralOptic) is supported by Airband’s large existing mast network, which currently claims to offer “ultrafast connectivity” to over 20,000 premises, including private homes, local authorities, SMEs, charities and emergency services (some of these are part of state aid supported Broadband Delivery UK contracts, such as in Devon, Somerset and Shropshire).

Today’s £16 million announcement adds that the ISP now “aims to pass an additional” 50,000 premises by 2021 and this is on top of the £25 million in existing contractual BDUK subsidies, which as above has been used to support its recent network deployment across parts of England and Wales.

Redmond Peel, MD of Airband Community Internet Ltd, said:

“We have been expanding our Fixed Wireless Access network so that thousands of rural homes and businesses in some of the hardest to reach areas in Devon, Shropshire, Wales and the Midlands gain the opportunity to connect with broadband speeds of up to 30Mbps.

This additional investment will mean that we can reach thousands more, and continue to develop our hybrid fibre network infrastructure, RuralOptic, which has recently completed a successful trial period. This blend of technologies is vital for connecting isolated communities, and we’re really proud to be able to provide superfast broadband for thousands of people who would not get it otherwise.”

Robert Jenrick, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, said:

“Today’s investment shows how we are delivering better broadband. As we increasingly live our lives online, it is vital our digital connections can support this. We want to see full fibre broadband rolled out across the UK as quickly as possible and to support a competitive private sector in delivering that objective.”

We note that NDIF is being managed by the infrastructure specialist, Amber Infrastructure Group (Amber). As part of today’s deal the NDIF has also acquired a “substantial minority shareholding” in Airband. We expect that today’s investment will not only fuel Airband’s existing roll-out, but also give them the flexibility to bid on future deployment contracts.