Alternative UK Rural Broadband Network Voneus Acquires Airband UPDATE

Sources have informed ISPreview that the alternative broadband network and retail ISP Voneus, which is backed by Macquarie and has deployed a mix of full fibre (FTTP) and fixed wireless (FWA) internet networks across various remote rural parts of Wales and England, have allegedly acquired the Aberdeen Group backed altnet Airband.

Just to recap. Voneus was last year hit by some redundancies and a slowdown in their network build (here), primarily due to the same sort of pressures as other digital network building have been facing (i.e. rising build costs, competition and high interest rates etc.). Back in 2024 they also withdrew (here) from the Project Gigabit broadband roll-out contract for Mid West Shropshire, which was later picked up by Openreach (here).

According to the company’s latest annual accounts to the end of March 2025, Voneus delivered a 43% increase in turnover to £6.33m and their employee count grew to 275 (2024: 238), but they also suffered a loss before tax of £38m (2024: £36.6m) and their net assets were worth £136.18m.

However, at the end of 2025 Voneus managed to strengthen their position for “long-term growth” with a business reorganisation, which at the time was said to have secured their funding through to 2030 and would support greater commercialisation efforts to drive take-up. This involved the renegotiation of an existing £70m loan facility with banking partners.

What’s happened between Voneus and Airband?

The latest development today, according to our sources, is that Voneus have reached an agreement to acquire or merge with Airband. The latter is a similar altnet that recently put itself up for sale after experiencing the same sort of challenges and has built a mix of gigabit broadband networks across rural parts of England and North Wales.

Airband’s most recent annual accounts revealed that revenues to the end of 2024 had increased by 37% to £6,667,000 and their total staffing count had fallen from 451 to 285. The company’s operating loss increased to £47.23m (2023: £37.06m) and they reported total assets of £179.81m and total liabilities of -£224.92m. But the results also predicted achieving EBITDA positivity by 2028 (i.e. earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation).

Airband has previously stated that their broadband network currently spans a total of “more than 440,000 premises in over 200 communities across 7 counties“ (here), which we were told breaks down as being 175,000 premises via “fibre” (FTTP) and 265,000 premises via wireless (Ready for Service). The company has also recently expanded FTTP into off-net areas by partnering with Openreach (here) and have a total of 30,000 customers.

Earlier this week we reported that the Aberdeen Group, which have previously put over £200m into the business, had handed control of Airband to its lenders (here), which seems to have paved the way for today’s development.

UPDATE 11:53pm

Voneus has just confirmed to us the completion of their acquisition of the “assets and customers” of Airband Community Internet Limited from administration. The transaction brings Voneus’ coverage to a total of 170,000 ready-for-service gigabit premises across full fibre (FTTP) and gigabit-capable wireless technologies and grows their customer base to 60,000.

Financial details of the deal were not disclosed, although the deal is said to have been backed by Tiger Infrastructure Partners, Macquarie Capital, and Israel Infrastructure Fund.”The enlarged business will benefit from increased scale, enhanced operational efficiencies and the ability to leverage Voneus’ proven experience in integrating and operating broadband networks in rural areas,” said the announcement.

Christopher Traggio, CEO of Voneus, said:

“We are pleased to welcome Airband into the Voneus family. Its focus on serving rural communities aligns closely with our own and our two networks are complementary in terms of their geographical scope. The acquisition represents a significant opportunity to accelerate our mission of connecting hard-to-reach communities.”

Voneus said they were now “well-positioned” to continue to enhance service delivery, support future investment and deliver long-term growth. We should point out that the rural focus of both networks means that the geographic size of their combined network is a lot physically larger than the premises figures may suggest.

Voneus said they remain committed to working closely with customers, partners, suppliers and local communities throughout the integration process. This will be important because customers, particularly those on the Airband side, will no doubt be keen to know how their service and packages might potentially change in the future.

A number of other reports have indicated that Voneus may have paid less than £10m for the business, although without being able to see the financial details of this agreement it’s difficult to put that into the correct context. But it appears as if the Aberdeen Group may struggle to get back much of the c.£200m they put into Airband.