Wireless UK ISP BorderLink Broadband Secures £100K Loan

Fixed wireless access ISP BorderLink, which covers part of the eastern Scottish Borders and North Northumberland region with their ultrafast broadband (100Mbps+) capable network, has secured a loan of £100,000 from Business Loans Scotland in order to help them grow three fold over the next 2 years.

The provider, which now employs 20 staff, has come a long way since it first launched in 2017 and today serves around 1,200 live connections (homes and businesses) via 100+ relay stations. Residential packages appear to start from £42 inc. VAT per month for “unlimited usage” (Fair Usage Policy) with download speeds of 20-30Mbps+ (uploads of 5-10Mbps+), although faster plans are available.

Naturally the ISP is keen to expand and in order to do that they’ve successfully managed to demonstrate a commercially viable proposal to Business Loans Scotland (BLS), which is backed by the Scottish Growth Scheme and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The award of £100k is the biggest that BLS can offer.

Alex Cacciamani, MD of Borderlink Broadband, said (Scottish Biz News):

“We are absolutely delighted to secure the loan from BLS as it will allow us to expand and grow the company in the right direction, while also providing a great and much-needed service to the people of Scotland, who have perhaps been left behind by major UK broadband providers. I would absolutely recommend BLS to any start-up or new company looking to grow through capital investments.”

The funding is expected to help double their workforce by the end of 2020 and extend their wireless broadband network into new areas, such as parts of South Lanarkshire and possibly some urban locations. Clearly they’re not expecting the Government’s growing focus on full fibre infrastructure to threaten their business, at least not for a long time (it remains to seen if this strategy works over the longer term).