Airband Contracted to Rollout FTTP Broadband in East Cheshire

The Cheshire East Council in England has awarded a new publicly funded contract, worth about £4.5 million, to UK ISP Airband in order to help extend gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband to a further 4,100+ homes and businesses in some of the hardest to reach (e.g. rural) areas.

At present more than 95% of premises in Cheshire East should be able to order “superfast broadband” speeds (30Mbps+) and a big chunk of that is thanks to the state aid supported Connecting Cheshire programme (Cheshire East, Cheshire West and Chester, Halton and Warrington) with Openreach (BT), which has helped to extend the availability of FTTC and some FTTP services.

According to the last Open Market Review (OMR), which concluded in April 2020, some 28,000 premises across the whole of Cheshire are still in need of better broadband connectivity. The good news is that today’s new contract win by Airband, for East Cheshire, should help to take a bite out of that.

Roughly half of the funding for this new contract, which was signed at the end of 2020, comes from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) via the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG), while the other half appears to reflect investment that has been returned by BT thanks to gainshare in earlier contracts (i.e. money returned as a result of high take-up in upgraded areas).

Redmond Peel, Founder and Director of Airband, said:

“We are excited to have won this contract. Our focus has always been on expanding and simplifying digital access for rural communities. With access to high-quality broadband fast becoming a human right, we can’t wait to get started building the network that will give residents of rural and hard-to-reach areas of Cheshire the connectivity they deserve.”

Councillor Nick Mannion, Cheshire East Council’s, said:

“The fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) deal with Airband comes at a key time during the pandemic, to provide optimum connectivity to homeworkers and businesses across Cheshire East. The innovative methods to connect hard-to-reach and rural areas will certainly boost work productivity and streaming family entertainment services during national lockdown and beyond. Swifter internet services will help limit many of the frustrations people are facing now, juggling home and work life. It is crucial that everyone has sufficient internet at all hours to suit diverse working patterns and household needs.”

The development comes a few short months after Airband revealed that they planned to deploy their ultrafast Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network to cover over 500,000 UK premises by the end of 2025 (here), which occurred after Aberdeen Standard Investments (ASI) acquired a majority stake in the company. Last month also saw them scoop up another contract win in Devon (here).

Customers of Airband typically pay from £38 per month on a 12-month term for an unlimited 40Mbps (10Mbps upload) package and that goes up to £47 per month for their top 250Mbps (75Mbps upload) tier. A one-off installation charge of £99 is usually applicable. The provider does a mix of Government-funded projects and has a growing number of demand-led fibre broadband projects too.