Up to now, abrdn has allocated over £200 million to the improvement of Airband’s offering. Airband currently reaches around 315,000 premises, and it has over 230,000 premises that are “Ready For Service” (can be connected), in seven counties in the West of England, including Devon, Somerset, Oxfordshire, Cheshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire, & Wales. Airband has connected over 19,000 customers on their network so far. Which, for the area’s they cover, is a great success. Let’s not forget, the South-West of England can sometimes be somewhat forgotten when it comes to superfast broadband, and Airband has come to the rescue!
Fibrenews HQ is situated in Devon, and some of our employees are fortunate enough to use Airband’s broadband solution! Our founder is a prime example. Jonny was left with limited options at his home until Airband came along. Having to put up with a poor ADSL2+ connection (being somewhat rural), he now benefits from superfast broadband! To put this perfect irony into perspective, Fibrenews was being built in 2023, from home, on a broadband connection that couldn’t exceed more than 20Mbps! How funny.
Airband seems to do best in these types of locations, and with the added investment, more and more locals will be thrilled to see them expand!
Ian Fishwick, Chair of Airband said:
“Airband has built one of the largest rural altnets in the UK and provided service to many remote areas where we are now the only provider of Gigabit connectivity. As we all move to hybrid working, the shift in society depends on high-speed connectivity. For decades, young families have left rural areas to seek work. By giving families a chance to work from home in rural areas, we hope we contribute to a huge long-term shift in the prosperity of village life. The ongoing support of both abrdn and our banks allows us to concentrate on growing our customer base as quickly as possible.”
Dominic Helmsley, Head of abrdn Infrastructure said:
“Over the past three years, we have worked alongside and supported Airband in expanding their network across rural parts of West England. Despite numerous industrial headwinds, Airband has proven its ability to deliver network deployment in challenging and highly defensive rural areas of the country, and our sustained financial commitment to the business reflects our dedication to supporting the reduction of the digital divide across the UK as the business continues to focus on attracting customers.”
