Infrastructure deal to fund growth of rural broadband supplier

Wireless broadband supplier Airband has secured £16m investment to expand its network to a further 50,000 businesses and homes by 2021.

The Worcester-based company has received the funding from the National Digital Infrastructure Fund (NDIF), which has taken a “substantial minority shareholding” in Airband.

The NDIF is a commercial fund operated by Amber Infrastructure Group and supported by the Government’s £400m Digital Infrastructure Investment Fund.

Airband currently offers fast connectivity to more than 20,000 premises, across an area from North Wales to Devon. It builds networks with a blend of fibre and fixed wireless provision where there are problems laying full fibre networks in the more isolated areas of the UK.

Airband’s managing director Redmond Peel said: “Providing better infrastructure and connectivity to rural areas of the UK is at the heart of the government’s plan for growth – and is crucial in the post-Brexit economy.

Gareth Burge of Thursfields

“This £16m investment means that we are able to play a key role in creating this better infrastructure – providing more robust rural broadband and faster options for people in hard-to-reach areas, and helping to smash the UK’s so-called ‘digital divide’.”

Airband was advised by Thursfields Solicitors, led by director Gareth Burge. NDIF was advised by Shoosmiths in Birmingham.

Khalid Naqib, senior investment director at Amber Infrastructure, said: “In structuring a flexible loan facility to fund fibre and wireless network expansion, NDIF is helping overcome the funding gap to rolling out cheaper, faster digital connectivity and in doing so, commercialising a real alternative to rival existing broadband infrastructure.”