Rural UK Broadband ISP Airband Announce More Changes and Redundancies

Alternative internet provider Airband, which has deployed both a Full Fibre (FTTP) and Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) based broadband network to cover rural parts of England and North Wales, has followed up this week’s departure of its CEO (here) by announcing a new “operating model” and further redundancies to support their “next phase of growth“.

The ISP only recently went through a period of restructuring, which resulted in a fair few jobs losses and adjusted the company’s focus more toward commercialising their existing broadband network (as opposed to new infrastructure build). The situation reflected some of the same pressures as many other network operators have been facing over the past few years (e.g. high interest rates, rising build costs and strong competition).

Despite all that, Airband has today announced that they’re “transitioning towards operational maturity, with a focus on long-term sustainability, enhanced customer experience and efficient delivery.” As part of this “evolution“, the provider said they’re creating a “leaner, more modern and agile, customer-focused organisation“, designed to support future growth and “continued investment in its network” (they specifically call out “ongoing investment” in the rollout of their FWA network).

The catch is that to support all this “some roles at Airband may be impacted” (job losses) and the company is thus preparing to begin a formal consultation process with colleagues in due course, which they said would be “conducted in line with its legal obligations, with a focus on transparency, fairness and meaningful engagement throughout“.

Jarlath Finnegan, Executive Chairman of Airband, said:

“We are entering the next phase of our development as a business. Having built a strong foundation, our focus is now on operational efficiency, delivering for our customers and ensuring long-term sustainability.

These changes are about building a stronger, more efficient organisation that is fit for the future, while remaining absolutely committed to connecting rural communities. We recognise that this is a difficult time for colleagues who may be affected, and we are committed to supporting them through the consultation process.”

The altnet, which has not confirmed how many jobs are for the chop, said the company continues to benefit from the “strong support” of their shareholders. Airband has stated that their network currently spans a total of “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 FWA (Ready for Service). But they’ve also recently expanded FTTP into off-net areas by partnering with Openreach (here) and have a total of 30,000 customers.