Wireless and FTTP Broadband ISP Airband Grows UK Engineer Team

Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) and full fibre FTTP ISP Airband has announced that they’ve recruited additional engineers and extended their fleet to cope with increased demand as it deploys “high speed broadband” deeper into rural Shropshire, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, Devon and Somerset.

Over the past few years the provider has secured several state aid supported Broadband Delivery UK contracts (here, here and here) and they’ve managed to gain an investment boost of £16 million (here), which has in turn enabled them to scale-up their operations (e.g. recently doubling their staff) and move into a new office (here).

The provider is currently aiming to cover a further 50,000 premises across England and Wales by 2021.

Peter Mathers, AB’s Operations Director, told ISPreview.co.uk:

“Increasing our engineering teams and fleet is vitally important because we want to get out to our customers and get installations done as quickly as possible.

The new fleet has been designed to meet all highways regulations as Airband deploys its fibre down the roads and lanes of rural Britain. The new fleet marks a new chapter in Airband’s delivery of fibre high speed broadband to our customers, whilst ensuring our engineers work safely and in full compliance with highways regulations.

People in Shropshire, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, Devon and Somerset can expect to see these new vans and our Airband engineers out and about and know that they’re busy installing homes and businesses with superfast broadband in their communities.

Airband’s existing contracts with local councils call for us to deliver superfast broadband connectivity to at least 35,000 rural homes and businesses over the next two years, and we expect this to grow this significantly as people in rural communities realise they can now enjoy the same services as people in the big towns and cities.

Meanwhile, we are steaming ahead on our new superfast fibre broadband deployment to rural communities in Herefordshire as part of the Fastershire project. The first properties that we’ve connected using fibre broadband are in the Tedstone Wafre / Saltmarsh area and they go live in May 2019. The whole roll-out in the Marches is extensive and all clusters are scheduled to be finished by the end of 2020.

In many communities, we are using the existing public infrastructure – the poles and ducts etc that are already in place – which is great because it makes the whole process a lot quicker and importantly it minimises disruption to the community. So, look out for our new fleet and our engineers as we bring superfast broadband to your area and contact us so we can plan to then install at your home or premise.”

You can see a picture from some of Airband’s new engineers below, alongside their newly extended fleet of vans at their Worcestershire base.