Quickline, a rural fibre and wireless broadband altnet, has bagged £250m in fresh funding from the UK Infrastructure Bank (UKIB) and NatWest to support its network rollout in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire.
The debt package comprises a £125m term loan and £100m debt guarantee from UKIB along with a £25m term loan from NatWest.
The financing will also unlock additional private investment for four government-subsidised Project Gigabit contracts that Quickline has been awarded this year.
Quickline has won all the Building Digital UK (BDUK) Gigabit contracts for Yorkshire and the majority for Lincolnshire. The contracts are worth a total of £270.4m in public subsidy to build fibre to 168,300 premises, making the altnet the second largest Project Gigabit supplier behind CityFibre.
As part of the programme, the altnet will also expand its commercial fibre deployment to bring the total network coverage to 360,000 homes and businesses.
