Imagine draws down more cash to keep its rural expansion going

Sean Bolger of Imagine. Photo: Robbie Reynolds

Adrian Weckler Twitter Email

March 25 2021 02:30 AM

Imagine has drawn down a further €4m of the €120m in cash investment agreed with Canadian investor Brookfield Asset Management as it continues its rural broadband expansion.

Recently published accounts show that the wireless broadband firm hadturnover of €20.1m in 2019. But despite a gross profit on normal activities of €9.6m, it recorded a total financial loss of €25.7m for the year, up from €13m in 2018.

The operator’s joint director, Brian O’Donoghue, said that growth during the pandemic had been strong. He said that the firm’s wireless broadband was seeing average data usage of 400 gigabytes, slightly above the national broadband average.

Imagine is building fixed wireless broadband connections in rural areas that do not have access to alternative high speed internet options.

In 2018, the Canadian investment firm Brookfield Asset Management took a 31pc economic interest in Imagine in a deal that Imagine said valued it at €200m.

The Canadian company has effective control of the Irish group, with a 55pc voting interest in Imagine.

According to recent figures from Ireland’s telecoms regulator, there are 61,400 fixed wireless broadband connections in Ireland, up 10,000 on the year before.

The majority of that growth is understood to be from Imagine, which is the only Irish company significantly investing in non-cellular wireless broadband.

However, the company’s main market is in areas where the National Broadband Plan is due to introduce ultra high speed fibre broadband at taxpayer-subsidised prices in the next one to four years.

Imagine was one of a number of telecoms firms awarded space on the State's wireless 3.6Ghz spectrum in 2017, which paved the way for the arrival of high speed 5G and wireless networks.

“The group has continued to invest in the LTE/5G project giving the group a strong strategic position for the future by providing an essential element of Ireland’s future broadband infrastructure,” said the annual report.

“The group continues to pursue its plan to deploy a national broadband network in Ireland.”