Founded in 2009, Airband is an independent internet service provider bringing high speed broadband to homes, business and industry in rural and hard-to-reach areas

Airband’s primary mission is to ensure nobody suffers from a digital divide, connecting people, whatever their location. Through connectivity we are enabling rural customers to experience the “digital-life" benefits urban users have historically enjoyed. In practice this means transformative broadband speeds: in most areas that we serve we have been able to improve available download speeds by 20 times or more. The availability of Airband is seen by many residents as a huge benefit to homes and businesses, and also the local rural economy. Home working, local businesses and retail – both pre and post the pandemic – have seen demand for internet access increase.

To help further our mission, we’re always looking for meaningful partnerships. All our partnerships are designed to help rural communities improve services, and return tangible-community benefits across all our network areas. Examples from the past year include:

• The Community Foundation, a Telford-based not-for-profit organisation with proven expertise in grant-giving, particularly to grassroots level community groups in rural parts of the country. Airband’s funding of the foundation has helped it recruit, employ, and train a business development officer who has proved crucial to its endeavours.
• In Devon, we have partnered with Mole Valley Farmers. Its membership and walk in customer base have access to exclusive discounts with Airband, but the real value in the partnership is the opportunity for us to help educate the largely overlooked and underserved agricultural sector on the options available to them, and what the benefits of ’going digital’ could be.

The key to ensuring our communities are on-board is community consultation. This means clearly articulated plans and two-way engagement and dialogue with local communities as early as possible. We host events in local pubs and village halls, or where required (such as during lockdown) hosting online meetings and webinars. Rather than fall back on code powers and legal rights, with impersonal written notifications of new telegraph poles or roadworks, we take the opportunity to enthuse and excite communities about how the deployment will benefit them while remaining sympathetic and adaptive to their concerns. Challenging rural landscapes, such as rivers, narrow highways, and complex land ownership arrangements are where we excel and forms part of our mission to go where other providers can’t or won’t.

To find out more and check availability visit:
https://www.airband.co.uk/

or email mark.sealey@airband.co.uk