ISP Airband Make Ultrafast Broadband Progress in Shropshire

Fixed wireless and UK full fibre (FTTP) ISP Airband has made progress on their £11.2m Connecting Shropshire contract, which has so far expanded the reach of “superfast broadband” (30Mbps+) connectivity to 10,500 premises in the county and they now aim to deploy “ultrafast” (100Mbps) speeds to a further 2,200 premises.

Overall the original contract required Airband to reach an additional 14,000+ premises with superfast broadband by 2020 (here), although the project’s website was updated last year to state that “Connecting Shropshire is working with Airband to deliver superfast broadband to over 12,000 homes & businesses in Shropshire by 2020/21.”

Assuming all goes to plan then some 98% of Shropshire could have access to superfast broadband (currently around 94%) by the end of all current contracts that are expected to complete in 2021, which includes Openreach’s (BT) on-going fibre deployments and of course any commercial schemes.

Funding Split of the £11.2m Contract
Airband – £1.4m
Shropshire County Council – £2.24m
Building Digital UK – £5.29m
Marches LEP – £2.27m

The latest area to benefit from Airband’s new fibre optic broadband network deployment is the rural village of Neenton, which previously suffered from sub-2Mbps download speeds but can now access 100Mbps.

Dave Lloyd, Head of Projects at Airband, said:

“Bringing ultrafast to Neenton represents everything that Airband is about – we are transforming connectivity for people and communities who deserve better. It’s so rewarding to be able to provide such a vast improvement in broadband speeds and the reaction and appreciation from the villagers here has been incredible.

We have already started planning and surveying for the remaining clusters. And when we build our ultrafast networks, we use existing infrastructure wherever possible (such as existing poles and underground ducts), which means we can set up an ultrafast fibre network very rapidly.

Once we start building a network in an area, the process from ordering to installation should take just a few weeks.”

Airband’s fibre broadband roll-out in Shropshire includes premises in the following parish and town council areas: Astley Abbotts, Barrow, Bicton, Hodnet, Llanfair Waterdine, Market Drayton, Pimhill, Prees, Sheriffhales and Tong. All clusters are expected to be live by early 2021.

Locals typically have to pay from £38 per month for the provider’s 40Mbps (10Mbps upload) unlimited fibre tier (plus £99 to £250 one-off for installation) on a 12 month contract, which rises to £47 for their top 100Mbps (25Mbps upload) service.

The ISP is also being supported by an earlier investment of £16m via the National Digital Infrastructure Fund (here) – plus another £25m if you include all of their state aid / BDUK contracts – and hopes to bring superfast broadband to a further 50,000 premises across the whole of England and Wales by 2021.