Rural UK Full Fibre ISP Airband Reportedly Seeking New Funding
Alternative network provider Airband, which aims to cover 600,000 UK premises in rural areas via a mix of their wireless (FWA) and full fibre (FTTP) broadband networks by the end of 2025, has reportedly appointed restructuring firms AlixPartners and Houlihan Lokey to help find additional funding amid difficult conditions.
The operator, which is supported by Aberdeen Standard Investments (ASI) and in 2021 secured a £100m debt package from an international banking consortium (HSBC, Lloyds, Nord LB and Sabadell), claims to have already passed 200,000 homes. But we don’t know the technology split of that figure, while another recent press release confusingly put the figure at “over 160,000 premises” (here) – we did query this but received no reply.
Airband are also known to have secured a number of state-aid supported rollout contracts, such as via the Connecting Devon and Somerset (CDS) and Connecting Shropshire programmes in England. In addition, the provider recently announced the appointment of Ian Fishwick to be both their new Chairman and a Non-Executive Director.
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However, according to a report on SkyNews today, Airband is said to require a “substantial injection of new capital” and has allegedly been working on financing options for several weeks. Such news, if confirmed, would not come as a huge surprise in the current climate, which has seen many AltNets face pressures from rising costs, aggressive competition from rivals (e.g. overbuild) and the need to secure a viable level of take-up by consumers. Not to mention the need to continue delivering on their build targets.
At the same time, it’s not uncommon for situations like this to increase the risk of a slowdown in the pace of build and thus a possible rise in the potential for job losses, which may occur if a provider feels it needs to re-focus on generating take-up. Consolidation is also another option, albeit usually not the first port of call on the list of things to try. At the time of writing, Airband has not commented on Sky’s report.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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They’ve been running price promotions continuously for months now. I suspect they are desperate to get their take-up rate up – they’ve spent a lot of public money on builds, but if our local experience is typical, it’s only around 30% or so for FTTP, even though 4G/Starlink are the only alternatives.
3rd (at least) CDS BDUK phase 2 disaster incoming in 3…. 2…. 1….
I would love to help them out and sign up, really would, but so far the seemingly terribly mis-managed project to get FTTP rolled out to my home has hit delay after delay. Initial sign up date was March 2022 with the latest (third) push back estimating Sept-Dec.
Claims of issues with third parties and local push back on telegraph poles being to blame and currently at 3km worth of fibre into a 6km rollout. We’ll see, I guess but if you’re struggling with funding, surely a laser focus on project rollouts to get that revenue in would be a priority?
Is there any precedent for what happens if an altnet goes under? Is another company (e.g. Openreach) typically appointed to take over the infrastructure, or are we in uncharted waters?