Airband Community Internet achieves strong growth in spite of challenges

Airband Community Internet has published its latest financial results for the year ended 2023, revealing the altnet ISP had rapid growth and strong investment to significantly extend its reach.

The company saw an increase in annual revenues to December 2023 of 41 percent to £4.87m driven mainly by the growth in customer base.

It also spent a further £72m on network build, taking the cumulative total network spend to £207m.

Operating loss also increased, however, at £(37m) compared to nearly £(21m) for the previous 12 months, driven by an increase investment in staff to drive the growth of the business.

In 2023, the commercial strategy adopted an approach to engage rural communities, and Airband’s growth in 2023 was achieved in spite of the challenges faced by the industry, which saw a significant upsurge in demand for both fibre and manpower.

Following a strategic review in February 2024, Airband started a restructuring of the business to focus on commercialising the existing network, reduce overall operating costs.

During this rapid growth phase, investor and shareholder support helped provide financial and industry expertise, with a further £30m convertible loan followed by another £22m in August, allowing internal infrastructure development for a strong platform to enable this.

Kashif Rahman, Director at Airband, commented: “In May 2024, the company completed a restructuring to fully transition from the network build phase into commercialisation, which saw employees reduce from 485 to 235, to ensure a customer-focussed operating model.

“The path to becoming a self-sustaining business is well defined, and we are confident that additional strategic funding will be secured.”