WORCESTER-based wireless broadband specialist, Airband was shortlisted for the highly regarded Internet Service Providers Association 2017 awards.

The awards follow the shake-up of the broadband industry by Ofcom’s Connected Nations Report in December 2016, which slammed major suppliers including BT.

Since then Airband, along with other smaller independent suppliers, has been steadily building up its presence with a string of key projects across rural Devon, the South West and Wales.

Airband specialises in delivering better broadband connections for hard-to-reach and rural areas and bridging the gap between the digital ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’.

The firm's work on a £4.6m scheme in Dartmoor and Exmoor national park and a series of £multi-million schemes across the South West earmarked its place as a finalist in the awards.

Airband recently won the tender for the Superfast Cymru Infill Project contract from the Welsh government to supply business premises in Cardiff, Newport and Swansea.

Initially, the firm is contracted to provide high speed broadband to 2,000 businesses as part of an estimated £19m expansion to the original Superfast Cymru scheme.

“Poor broadband and low speed problems are just as real for many out-of-town industrial parks, as they are for rural farms and businesses,” said Airband founder and director Redmond Peel.

“In these areas, traditional fibre broadband deals are often slower and more restrictive - but it’s possible to bypass the fibre system and end up with some of the UK’s fastest broadband speeds,” he said.