Rural UK ISP Village Networks Acquires Gigabeam in Hampshire

Buckingham-based Village Networks, which operates a number of Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) and full fibre (FTTP) broadband networks across parts of Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Hertfordshire and the Thames Valley, has announced that they’ve acquired Hampshire’s Viridian Communications, better known as ISP Gigabeam.

Founded in 2002, Village Networks is a small alternative network that has been around in the market for a long time and typically focuses upon serving remote rural communities. Gigabeam has a similar focus, albeit serving communities in different locations across the Winchester area of Hampshire in England.

The financial details of today’s announcement have not been revealed, but it is noted that the two companies have connected – combined – over 2,500 domestic and business premises across the communities they serve. But they also exist in an increasingly competitive environment, where it’s sometimes better to join forces, than to fight alone.

Paul Firth, Village Networks, said:

“The acquisition is an appropriate way to celebrate Village Networks’ 20th anniversary. Both our companies have grown and developed very significantly since their formation as locally-based self-help groups. Today we continue on strong growth trajectories, deploying Gb-capable fixed wireless and fibre networks in four counties. With Gigabeam joining the corporate family, we add know-how, manpower, economies of scale, and extra resilience to the business.

Compared to operators in very remote areas, we work in an increasingly competitive environment, in the face of the big commercial deployments by competitors like BT and Gigaclear. But both businesses score well on customer retention, and maintain growth in scale and profitability – proof that first-class customer service is always a vital differentiator.”

Dudley Rees, Viridian, said:

“Like Village Networks, we’ve built our business on the twin principles of always delivering the fastest possible connectivity, and always providing the best customer support. As part of Village Networks, we’ll be able to continue our growth maintaining those principles, with the ability to offer additional services combined with faster deployments.”

Despite the deal, Gigabeam is expected to continue operating under their own name. Otherwise, both companies are technology-agnostic, positioned simply as rural broadband providers (i.e. wherever FTTP is viable, they deploy it. Where it isn’t, they use FWA technology to give customers what they need).