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A new report has claimed that the Aberdeen Group backed alternative network (altnet) provider Airband, which recently put itself up for sale and has built a mix of gigabit broadband networks across rural parts of England and North Wales, has agreed to hand control of the business to its lenders.
Airband has previously stated that their broadband 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 wireless (Ready for Service). The company has also recently expanded FTTP into off-net areas by partnering with Openreach (here) and have a total of 30,000 customers.
However, the ISP has only recently gone through a period of restructuring, which resulted in more jobs losses and adjusted the company’s focus toward commercialising their existing broadband network instead of building new infrastructure. The outcome reflected many of the same pressures as other altnets have been facing over the past few years (e.g. high interest rates, rising build costs and strong competition).