Nexfibre Acquisition of Netomnia: Market Implications

According to the Financial Times, Telefonica and Liberty Global, the owners of Virgin Media O2, are closing in on a £2bn takeover of Netomnia, the UK’s fourth largest broadband network, with the company to be merged into Nexfibre. In this brief analysis, we look at the competitive and consumer implications of the acquisition.

The deal would create an FTTP footprint of 9.3M premises. (Netomnia’s footprint now includes brsk, following the recent merger).

Table 1. Footprint Analysis (Dec 2025). Source: Point Topic.

Network	Premises	Postcodes
Virgin Media O2 fibre*	7,078,883	294,640
Netomnia	2,904,597	74,770
Overlap	708,536	28,593
Combined Footprint	9,274,944	398,402

*including their RFOG, XGSPON and Nexfibre premises

The combined entity would add 2.2M incremental premises to Virgin Media's FTTP footprint, representing a 31% expansion after accounting for overlap of 709K premises.

Following the merger, only 12K premises (1.9% of ‘high-competition’ areas) would drop below the 3+ operator threshold. The modest reduction is due to the fact that other FTTP providers (especially BT, Sky, TalkTalk, some altnets) maintain strong presence in the overlap areas. Most of the affected premises would still have access to 2 FTTP providers, preserving some consumer choice.

Table 2. Competition Impact Assessment. Source: Point Topic.

Metric	Premises Before Merger	Premises After Merger	Change
High Competition Areas (3+ operators)	646,294	634,243	-12,051
% Reduction in Competition	-	-	-1.86%

Network overlap between the two entities (VMO2/ Nexfibre and Netomnia) is concentrated in specific regions. Over one-third of all overlap occurs in the North West (258,812 premises), making this the primary region of competitive concern. West Midlands, Wales, and East Midlands together account for 29.6% of overlap. South East (1.9%) and South West (2.54%) see minimal overlap, suggesting VMO2/Nexfibre’s FTTP and Netomnia’s networks largely target different areas in the South.

Table 3. Regional Concentration Analysis. Source: Point Topic.

Region	Overlap Premises	% of Total Overlap	Postcodes
North West	258,812	36.53%	11,080
West Midlands	75,793	10.70%	2,915
Wales	75,693	10.68%	2,923
East Midlands	58,196	8.21%	2,142
Northern Ireland	54,243	7.66%	1,879
North East	52,720	7.44%	2,104
Other Regions	132,079	18.78%	6,550

Regulatory & Market Implications

The acquisition has a strategic rationale for the parties involved. It would enable Virgin Media O2/ Nexfibre to expand their FTTP footprint while avoiding expensive overbuild. VMO2 has been investing in upgrading its existing HFC network with full fibre, and the deal would be an important step in becoming a strong competitor to Openreach.  

For Netomnia it would be an exit strategy in areas facing incumbent FTTP competition. More broadly, it would reduce capital waste from parallel network builds.

If the competition authorities decided to scrutinise the deal, they would potentially note the North West-specific concerns, where the network overlap is 37% and the deal would reduce competition for the largest number of households. However, they might take into account the relatively modest impact on the nationwide competition and strategic efficiency gains from eliminating overbuild.

At the same time, the pricing for consumers would likely go up, if Virgin Media O2 / Nexfibre switched Netomnia’s subscribers to their broadband tariffs, with VMO2 prices normally increased every April.

Table 4. Entry-Level Broadband Pricing Comparison (Feb 2026). Source: operator websites.

Operator	Plan Name	Monthly Price	Download Speed	Upload Speed
Nexfibre/Virgin Media O2	M250 Full Fibre Broadband	£29.32*	264 Mbps	25 Mbps
Netomnia (You Fibre)	You 200	£24.99	200 Mbps	200 Mbps

*Average, taking into account price increases every April.

Would you like to gain valuable commercial insights to support your UK telecoms strategy in minutes, not weeks?

We conducted most of the above analysis by using Point Topic’s Query Agent that has access to our postcode level UK broadband data. You can try it free of charge here.