Walker Morris advise Global Connectivity plc on £75m investment

Delivered via its Shropshire based internet service provider brand SWS Broadband, RBBS initially provided broadband through fixed wireless access technology in the county. Since the establishment of the UK government’s Project Gigabit scheme, which subsidises broadband roll-out in rural areas, it has now started to deploy full fibre.

RBBS’ vision is to create a high-quality, contiguous network initially covering approximately 100,000 remote premises in small towns in Shropshire and Wales where full fibre connectivity is currently unavailable. RBBS’ target deployment areas are some of the least densely populated in the UK and sit entirely in Ofcom’s Area 3, which includes rural locations where the first provider to connect each premise is eligible for subsidies. Many of these areas represent an attractive investment opportunity that has been left out of the deployment plans of full fibre operators focused on larger urban areas.

A team, led by Infrastructure & Energy partner Tim Jackson-Smith and Corporate Partner John Hamer, advised RBBS. Charlotte Bontoft, Matthew Dickinson and Eleanor Hunt supported them.

Tim Jackson-Smith, said:

“It was great to be able to support RBBS on the next leg of its journey to provide high quality, full fibre broadband to rural areas in the UK. This is the third deal we have been involved with for RBBS and further strengthens our experience, and that of our dedicated multi discipline Infrastructure & Energy Team, in the broadband space, which we believe is set to see significant deal activity over the short term.”

Christopher New, CEO of RBBS, said:

“With Tiger Infrastructure’s investment, RBBS is well-positioned to help communities in Shropshire and Wales solve the immediate and growing requirement for reliable, gigabit-capable connectivity. It was good to know that we had the team at Walker Morris alongside us in this deal and, as ever, they provided us with great support and advice throughout.”