Rural broadband specialist Airband has emerged as the best fixed wireless provider in the Think Broadband UK broadband test results for December 2017.
The monthly survey by Think Broadband, which is the UK’s leading broadband analysis website, lists the 60 fastest broadband providers and services.
Hyperoptic’s Gigabit service comes out as the unrivalled superstar in terms of average speed, but only serves the London area. The next fastest is Virgin Media’s 300 Mbps service, which retails at £42 per month for 12 months, but is similarly only available in certain areas.
Smaller players are now coming up into the premier broadband league, including Worcester-based Airband which specialises in providing Superfast broadband to rural and hard-to-reach areas. Airband uses fixed wireless technology to combat the challenges of national parks and difficult terrain where fibre is not commercially viable.
Airband currently has networks spanning Worcestershire, Shropshire, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, Powys, Warwickshire, North and South Wales, Devon and Somerset. Since 2015, Airband has won contracts worth £23 million to deliver superfast broadband access to around 34,000 homes and business.
Red Peel, director of Airband, said he was delighted with the latest Think Broadband results, which revealed that Airband broadband services are currently providing the fastest speeds of all fixed wireless providers.
“Getting Superfast broadband to everyone is a challenge that requires a range of technologies,”
he said.
Peel also noted that Airband’s fixed wireless broadband is substantially better than Satellite and ADSL offerings.
“Going forwards, I think the focus should be not just on rolling out faster services, but also about working out why people with faster options haven’t upgraded,”
he said.
“There is generally a lack of understanding about Superfast broadband and the technologies used to supply it, and many people are existing with older, slower technologies, often not realising that faster and more robust broadband is available,”
“Higher awareness would drive consumer demand and take-up, meaning that local government would give more money to projects like the Superfast broadband programme in Shropshire,”
said Peel.
In July 2017, Airband won the Connecting Shropshire contract and was announced as the delivery partner for the next phase of Shropshire Council’s £11.2m superfast broadband programme. The first phase of the rollout went live in December 2017.
As part of the deal, Airband will be delivering Superfast broadband to over 14,000 homes and businesses in the Shropshire Council area over the next three years.
Airband was also the infill partner for the Welsh Government’s Superfast Cymru project, and is a lead partner on the Connecting Devon & Somerset
“If all providers, government and local councils work together to educate communities this will encourage a higher take-up, that would in turn free up even more money to be spent on improving antiquated services in areas that really need it,”
said Peel.