Rural UK Broadband ISP Airband Launch 1Gbps Wireless Package

Rural internet provider Airband, which has deployed a full fibre (FTTP) and fixed wireless (FWA) broadband network to cover various parts of Wales and South West England, has today announced that they’ve launched a 1Gbps speed package for those homes and businesses covered by their latest wireless networking technology.

Apparently four of their existing FWA sites have already been upgraded in Shropshire and Wrexham to take advantage of the new “hyperfast 1Gbps wireless broadband” product. The new FWA network technology is said to already cover over 11,000 properties, with a further 30,000 to be enabled before the end of 2025.

Just to put this in context. Airband stated last year that their UK broadband network now spanned “more than 440,000 premises in over 200 communities across 7 counties“ (here), which we were told breaks down as being 175,000 premises via “fibre” (FTTP) and 265,000 premises via wireless (FWA) – all Ready for Service (RFS). The latest update today confirmed the same split of figures (i.e. no change in coverage).

Otherwise, the provider said they’ve been busy testing their new wireless service in Tenbury Wells, close to the brand’s Worcestershire base, with Paul Birkin of The Crow pub being amongst those already benefiting – experiencing speeds of up to 2.3Gbps during the testing phase.

Kash Rahman, Managing Director of Airband, said:

“This is a gamechanger for rural areas that haven’t previously had access to gigabit capable broadband. Residents no longer have to wait for fibre, thanks to our ever-evolving portfolio of services, we can now offer speeds of up to 1Gbps via wireless technologies for the first time ever.”

The provider finished by saying that their FWA offering had been “revolutionising broadband accessibility” by diversifying its service across Devon, Herefordshire, Shropshire and Worcestershire over the last year. The latest speed improvements reflect their move to embrace evolving millimetre wave (mmWave) solutions in the 60GHz band, with the provider saying they’ve “now hit the 1Gbps milestone over a range of several kilometres“.

Residential customers on the FWA side of their network typically pay from £16.50 per month on a 24-month term (£33 thereafter) for download speeds of 40Mbps with an included router and free installation, which goes up to £29 (£58 after 24-months) for their new 1000Mbps tier.