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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“.