Rural broadband ISP Airband, which has deployed a full fibre (FTTP) and wireless (FWA) broadband network that covers parts of Wales and South West England, recently published their latest accounts to the end of 2023 and revealed a sharp fall in employees (from 485 to 235) and the urgent need for new funding by 1st February 2025.
The operator recently stated that their broadband network now spans “more than 440,000 premises in over 200 communities across 7 counties“ (here), which we’re told breaks down as being 175,000 premises via “fibre” (FTTP) and 265,000 premises via wireless (FWA) – all Ready for Service (RFS).
However, the company has also had a rough couple of years, which saw recent restructuring impact their pace of build and result in redundancies as they shifted their focus toward growing take-up via greater commercialisation of their existing network (here). One of the other fallouts from this was the recent move to scale-back their deployment contract with the Connecting Devon and Somerset (CDS) programme (here).
Airband’s latest accounts show that the operator has now spent a total of £207m on their network build to-date (up by £72m in 2023 alone) and is at risk of running out of funding. “The revised funding requirements of the business exceeds the current available facilities and new funding will be required by 1st February 2025,” said the results.
Despite the problems, the company’s Directors said they remain confident that “further strategic funding will be secured to allow the Group and Company to continue in operation for at least until 1st November 2025“.
Summary of Key Airband Figures to Dec 2023
➤ Revenues of £4.857m (up 41% this year vs 28% last year)
➤ Operating loss of £37.064m (2022: £20.972m)
➤ Total assets of £181.92m (2022: £151.14m)
➤ Total liabilities of £159.83m (2022: £116.41m)
➤ Shareholder funds of £22.086m (2022: £34.73m)
➤ Closing cash balance of £4.946m (2022: £15.809m)