Q1 2025 UK ISP and network supplier metrics - a market overview

Watch the detailed quarterly findings presented by our Senior UK Plus Analyst, Veronica Speiser.

In summary

Total Q1 2025 FTTB/H/P, FTTC, DOCSIS 3.1, cable, DSL, FWA and satellite retail and wholesale connections saw a decrease during the quarter and stood at an estimated 28.92m down from 29.01m q-o-q and 29.03m in the previous year.

The fixed broadband market saw -88k net broadband subscriber losses compared to ~4k net additions in Q4 2024, and ~97k Q1 2024, showing the market has firmly reached saturation point.

Openreach passed a total of 4.3m premises in FY25 (ending March 2025), adding ~1.1m in Q1 alone; its total footprint passed 18m premises (including 4.9m in rural areas). It saw a record 529k full fibre net additions bringing its FTTP subscriber base to 6.53m; but its total broadband lines decreased by -243k compared to -208k in Q4.

Independent (or Altnet) providers[1] continued to focus on subscriber take-up, and saw ~169k net additions down slightly from ~196k additions in the previous quarter.
We estimated Altnets total consumer broadband FTTB/H/P subscriber base reached 2.76m up 38% year-on-year, reaching an overall penetration rate of 20%.

Q1 2025 saw a loss in total consumer and business fixed connections to reach 28.92m; DSL connections dropped by 13% totalling 1.66m, FTTC reduced by 4% reaching a total of 11.63m, with FTTB/H/P lines picking up the slack with a 8% increase in uptake totalling 9.86m (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Retail broadband connections by technology, Q1 2024 – Q1 2025

BT’s Consumer division (which includes business) recovered in Q1 with a gain of 4k net additions compared to the previous quarter’s loss of -5k subscribers; its FTTP base added 212k FTTP connections to reach 3.32m of which Consumer 3.20m and Business 0.12m and an increase of 32% year-on-year.

For the other major ISPs, Vodafone again saw strong gains with 61k broadband net additions; Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) had a tough quarter reporting -44k losses, followed by Sky’s estimated decrease of -6k connections, with debt-laden TalkTalk seeing another quarter of significant reductions with an estimated -170k losses.
Retail Business connections reached an estimated 1.87m at the close of the quarter, down slightly from 1.95m in the previous quarter. FTTC connections dropped to ~737k from ~789k in Q4 2024. FTTP connections increased to ~686k from ~663k (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Retail business broadband connections by technology, as of Q1 2025

BT’s Business division seems to be stabilising as it reported a loss of -9k connections bringing its total to 588k; VMO2 also reported a loss in its B2B segment especially in the lower-value areas.
In May, VMO2 announced the creation of a new B2B company, combining VMO2 Business and Daisy Group, with an ownership split of 70% Virgin Media O2 and 30% Daisy Group, with both sides contributing debt into the entity, and is expected to close in H2 2025

Figure 3: Top 5 retail broadband providers and Altnets full fibre connections, Q1 2024 – Q1 2025

We estimate BT’s Consumer segment to have reached just under 18% where Openreach’s footprint was present.
Altnets have started to see solid take-up figures over the past year especially in areas of network maturation (2 years+ presence) and have proved to be a manageable threat to Openreach so far, less so to VMO2 as above. We estimate the total number of Altnet FTTP connections to have reached 2.76m.

Total Q1 2025 FTTB/H/P, FTTC, DOCSIS 3.1, cable, DSL, FWA connections decreased during the quarter and stood at an estimated 28.92m down from 29.01m q-o-q and 29.03m in the previous year.
At the close of the quarter, nearly 20m premises had access to 2 or more FTTP networks, up from 9.1m at end-2024.

Overbuild, aggressive pricing strategies by the Altnets, and an overall weak broadband market have impacted Openreach’s performance, as it saw -243k broadband line losses equating to a 4% reduction in its broadband base.
Openreach will have felt the sting of TalkTalk’s continued loss of wholesale connections as it lost 10% (over 400k) of its subscriber base over the past year. This is partly due to TalkTalk reducing its spending on costly customer acquisitions along with the acquisition of Shell Energy Broadband’s customer base (in early 2024) having churned off.
However, Openreach reported a record quarter with 529k FTTP additions reaching 6.53m connections with a take-up rate of 36%.
VMO2’s total full fibre footprint reached 6.8m premises through a combination of its existing fibre footprint, progress in the fibre upgrade activity, nexfibre deployments.
There has been significant slowdown in nexfibre’s build rate in 2025 with only 165k premises passed in the quarter. VMO2’s overall footprint growth is set to slow from 7% in 2024 to 3% this year. The implied low penetration rates over nexfibre’s network and the reduction in build targets indicate that VMO2’s parent companies are being reserved with its CAPEX.

Figure 3: FTTP / Gigabit-capable broadband take-up rates, Q1 2024 – Q1 2025

The stability of the Altnet sector still remains uncertain as consolidations are happening albeit at a reserved pace. Netomnia, a serious consolidation player along with CityFibre, announced it had received £160m in further funding in May whereas CityFibre are seeking to raise £1.5bn to cover debts and expansion.
CityFibre announced in March the acquisition of Connexin’s full fibre infrastructure, establishing a material foothold across Hull and East Riding and enabling the expansion of CityFibre’s footprint by up to 185k premises. We estimate that at the close of the quarter, CityFibre’s network connections increased by 63k net additions to reach a total base of 581k.
Netomnia reported 50k net additions in Q1 to put its total base at 288k with a combined footprint (consisting of YouFibre, Netomnia, and brsk) of 2.32m premises, increasing its penetration rate to 12.4%.

[1] Point Topic tracks the quarterly key metrics of 106 Altnet network suppliers and ISPs, the figures included here are based on company reports, market resources and our estimates, where necessary. Net additions and losses cover the main Tier 2 Altnet providers (CityFibre, Community Fibre, Fibrus, Gigaclear, Hyperoptic, Netomnia, and OFNL) along with larger Tier 3 operators (AllPoints Fibre, Full Fibre, MS3 Communications, Ogi, toob, Trooli, WightFibre, and Zzoomm). Our datasets provide detailed figures for consumer, business, wholesale, and technology segments for all tracked Altnets.