Rural UK ISP Airband Expands Full Fibre Broadband Reach via Openreach UPDATE

Rural broadband provider Airband, which has deployed its own Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) and Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) based networks to cover various parts of Wales and South West England, appears to have become the latest alternative network (altnet) to expand beyond their existing reach by adopting Openreach’s full fibre lines for off-net areas.

Just to recap. The altnet’s current broadband network spans “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. The provider also expects to end 2025 with 30,000 customers.

However, over the past few months, we’ve seen a number of altnets and their associated broadband ISPs moving to expand their reach outside on-net areas by hooking up with arch rival Openreach (BT). Some of the biggest examples of this have come from Hyperoptic (here) and Netomnia (here).

Such developments can help manage situations where existing customers may move (house) outside of the altnets existing network area, although it can also generally be used to boost retail take-up. The latest example of this trend, as first spotted by one of ISPreview’s readers today (credits to SaltyW123), appears to be Airband.

Consumers who visit the website and input an address that exists outside of Airband’s current network coverage are now being given a summary of FTTP packages from Openreach. Prices range from £30.50 per month for 160Mbps and rise up to £39.50 for their top 1000Mbps package (discounted price). All packages include a 12-month term, £50 Amazon gift card, free installation and Nokia Wi-Fi 6 router.

We don’t currently know precisely when this change was first introduced, although we have asked Airband to comment and will update when they respond.

UPDATE 3:12pm

We’ve had a response from Airband.

A Spokesperson for Airband told ISPreview:

“Airband is continuing to broaden its range of broadband solutions to give homes and businesses more choice and flexibility. Alongside our fibre (FTTP) and fixed wireless access (FWA) networks, we now also offer SoGEA and 4G broadband services.

These additions mean we can connect more communities, faster — ensuring customers in rural and hard-to-reach areas have reliable, high-speed internet. Our mission has always been to close the digital divide, and expanding our portfolio ensures we can deliver the right solution for every customer, wherever they live.

We’re pleased to have switched over 500 customers within the first 100 days of this initiative, and expect our share of this market to increase rapidly over the coming months.”

We should point out that SOGEA typically refers to Openreach’s FTTC (VDSL2) technology, although FTTP is also live. But Airband have stressed that these are very recent additions, and they’re still figuring some of it out.