Arqiva, the UK’s largest independent towers company and communications infrastructure group, says the UK continues to demand a mix of digital media.
The company has announced a 10.3% increase in revenues for its first financial quarter to September 30, 2016. The £230.2 million was accompanied by an 11.9% rise in EBITDA to £109.9 million.
Its owners including Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Macquarie European Infrastructure Fund are reputed to be looking for a buyer.
Simon Beresford-Wylie CEO, said: “It is clear that the UK population continues to demand a mix of media delivery services – Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT), cable, satellite and internet – as TV and radio consumption habits evolve with advances in technology. We at Arqiva are more convinced than ever that fast download speeds for some people some of the time is not good enough for networks which are to support a true digital economy. What is needed are networks which deliver high upload speeds and ultrafast download speeds to everyone at all times, securely and reliably.”
Arqiva recently sold its Wi-Fi business to Virgin Media. Its focusing on growing its small cells and Distributed Antennae Systems (DAS) solutions for indoor and outdoor communication.
Arqiva had completed 4,150 4G upgrades and is looking at a further 3,800 upgrades to be completed in the next 15 months.
Arqiva has been developing its outdoor small cells proposition using low power base station to provide street level network capacity to MNOs, particularly in dense urban areas. Trials are underway in Hammersmith and Fulham.
