Broadband network Voneus put UK staff on redundancy notice after Airband deal

Macquarie-backed rural broadband provider Voneus, which has built a mix of full fibre (FTTP) and fixed wireless (FWA) networks across remote rural parts of Wales and England, are understood to be preparing to cut a significant portion of jobs following the recent acquisition of struggling altnet Airband.

Just to recap. At the end of August Voneus announced that they’d acquired the “assets and customers” of struggling alternative network provider Airband Community Internet Limited from administration for just £4.6m (former investor Aberdeen Group lost most of what they put into the acquired business). The deal was backed by Tiger Infrastructure Partners, Macquarie Capital, and the Israel Infrastructure Fund.

The new owner promptly made clear that the “enlarged business will benefit from increased scale, enhanced operational efficiencies and the ability to leverage Voneus’ proven experience in integrating and operating broadband networks in rural areas.” The CEO of Voneus, Christopher Traggio, similarly added that it represented a “significant opportunity to accelerate our mission of connecting hard-to-reach communities“.

As part of that deal a total of 135 Airband employees were transferred (TUPE) to Voneus, which at the time of their most recent (March 2025) accounts was itself already home to 275 employees. Voneus has experienced a few of its own job cuts since March last year and a recent business reorganisation, which involved the renegotiation of an existing £70m loan facility, so that figure of 275 has likely shrunk a bit since then.

However, it’s not unusual for such consolidation deals to be followed by some job cuts, so it didn’t come as a huge surprise when we began hearing from multiple sources that Voneus were preparing to put all of their staff (including those recently acquired from Airband) on notice of potential redundancy. Some of those sources indicated that the company may only be seeking to retain c.200 staff, which would suggest that over 100 could be cut.

The altnet has today confirmed to ISPreview that they’ve set out their proposed “organisational changes” following the Airband deal, which are said to form part of Voneus’ integration plans and will aim to “create a sustainable integrated operating model for the combined business while continuing to deliver high-quality broadband services to customers“. But they also confirmed that this would mean a “number of roles may no longer be required” and had commenced a collective consultation process.

A Voneus spokesperson told ISPreview:

“Our priority throughout the Airband acquisition process has been to secure continuity of service for customers and a seamless transition to Voneus. The changes announced today will support the successful integration of the Airband business and establish a sustainable operating model for the future.

We remain focused on delivering excellent customer service while supporting affected colleagues throughout the consultation process.”

Despite the venerable desire toward creating a sustainable operating model for the future, the reality is that Voneus’ newly enlarged network continues to face many challenges as a sub-scale operator. The company sits in a wider market that faces extreme pressures from rising build costs, strong competition and interest rates that have remained stubbornly high.

Voneus will no doubt be spending the next year or so dealing with the usual post-merger challenges, such as the aforementioned organisational changes and the often costly, as well as complex, difficulty of integrating two different physical networks. But we doubt this will be the last consolidation deal involving the company.