Q4 2025 UK ISP and network supplier metrics - a market overview
- Veronica Speiser
- 2 hours ago
- 8 min read
Fibre Surge Masks a Flatlining Market
The UK broadband market remained relatively flat in Q4 2025, adding 14k subscribers to make a total broadband base of 28.96m connections. Full fibre (FTTP) adoption surged ahead at its fastest rate since nationwide rollouts began, reaching 12.39m connections whilst FTTC decreased to 9.86m. Full fibre coverage climbed to 81.3% of premises, with multi-network overbuild increasing sharply, and FTTP take-up, while strong, is expected to stabilise over the next year as the early-mover surge eases. Openreach expanded to 21.4m premises and added 571k FTTP customers, while BT Consumer delivered another quarter of growth. CityFibre posted a standout 118k net adds as its Sky partnership continued to bear fruit, and Altnets collectively added 250k connections, lifting their FTTP base to 3.55m. However, with FTTP now mainstream and competition intensifying, Altnet pricing and operational models face increasing pressure, raising questions about how many can remain sustainable as take-up normalises and overlap with larger networks grows.
In summary
Total Q4 2025 FTTB/H/P, FTTC, DOCSIS 3.1, DSL, FWA and satellite retail and wholesale connections saw a slight return to growth during the quarter and stood at an estimated 28.96m, up from 28.95m q-o-q and down from 29.01m in the previous year.
The fixed broadband market saw 13k net additions in Q4, down from around 100k additions in Q3. Q3 tends to be a stronger quarter with students returning to halls, but the lift was short-lived, with the market returning to flat or negative growth in line with the overall trend for 2025.
Full fibre connections reached an estimated 12.39 up 6.5% q-o-q.
Openreach continued to see fluctuations in its quarterly line losses with total broadband connections decreasing by 210k in the quarter compared to 242k losses in Q2, noting that it expects full year (end-March 2026) losses coming in at c.850k.
Openreach saw 571k full fibre net additions, bringing its FTTP subscriber base to 8.22m; BT’s Consumer division saw growth again with 8k net broadband additions to reach 8.22m (excluding its Business segment with an estimated 571k connections).
CityFibre closed off the year strongly and reported 118k net additions, bringing its total base to 848k.
Independent (or Altnet) providers[1] performed well with 250k net additions from 200k additions in the previous quarter. We estimated Altnets total consumer broadband FTTB/H/P subscriber base reached 3.55m, up 31.4% year-on-year.
Retail (consumer and business) sector
Q4 2025 saw modest gains in total consumer and business fixed connections to reach 28.96m; DSL connections dropped by 2.8% totalling 1.39m, FTTC (including G.Fast) reduced by 6.9%, reaching a total of 9.86m, with FTTB/H/P lines increasing by 6.5% and totalling 12.39 m (Figure 1).
Figure 1 Retail broadband connections by technology, Q4 2024 – Q4 2025
BT’s Consumer division (we include BT’s Business segment in our reporting) remained positive in Q4 with a gain of 8k net additions (with a total base of 8.79m) compared to the previous quarter’s gain of 1k subscribers; its FTTP base added 248k FTTP connections to reach 4.02m, of which Consumer 3.9m and Business 0.3m, and an increase of 32% year-on-year and representing 46% of its subscriber base.
For the other major ISPs, Vodafone again saw strong gains with 64k broadband net additions; Sky had an estimated 7k additions, Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) reported 17k losses, and TalkTalk had another quarter of monumental losses of around 120k connections.
In late January 2026, it was reported that financially challenged TalkTalk Group is now in talks to sell off its various divisions. Our potential acquisition assessment provided an analysis of its competitive position and the best-fit potential buyers.
Retail Business connections reached an estimated 1.97m at the close of the quarter, down slightly from 1.98m in the previous quarter. FTTC connections dropped to 488k from 536k in Q3 2025. FTTP connections increased to just over 1m from 964k (Figure 2).
Figure 2 Retail business broadband connections by technology, as of Q4 2025
BT’s B2B and wholesale segment reported a weak quarter on the surface, with revenue declining by 8% and EBITDA down 10%, though these figures were affected by several one-off factors. Revenue was negatively impacted by the completion of four out of five planned disposals of non-core assets, reducing quarterly revenue by approximately 2.5%. The final disposal (BT Radianz) was completed on 1 February 2026. The prior period benefited from contract milestone payments and favourable cost timing, particularly boosting EBITDA, which did not recur in the current quarter and therefore dampened reported growth.
Considering this, we estimated its Business division lost around 5k connections, bringing its total to 571k, including ~300k FTTP connections.
Retail and business FTTB/H/P connections reached an estimated 12.39m at the end of Q4 2025. Figure 3 below represents the growth in full fibre connections (for the major ISPs and combined Altnets) over the past year.
Figure 3 Top 5 retail broadband providers and Altnets full fibre connections, Q4 2024 – Q4 2025
BT added 248k FTTP subscribers in the quarter, bringing its retail full fibre base to 3.91m, up 32% y-o-y, comprising 46% of the total base.
VMO2 saw a 1.6% growth in its FTTP base to reach an estimated 606k subscribers, and we estimate its full fibre penetration rate to be 8% where available.
CityFibre saw the largest gains (118k additions) as a focused wholesale consolidator and Sky being fully onboarded and offering services in non-Openreach footprint areas.
Altnets remain a manageable threat to Openreach with the latter expanding its FTTP footprint at pace it should navigate the tricky Altnet consolidation shake-up steadily. We estimate the total number of Altnet FTTP connections to have reached 3.55m up from 3.30m in the previous quarter.
Table 1 Selected Altnet suppliers and retail ISPs full fibre penetration rates, Q4 2024 and Q4 2025
Retail new subscriber entry-level pricing trends for full fibre / gigabit-capable services
Entry-level superfast (>30 Mbps) pricing remained static q-o-q with the average tariff coming in around £31.00 per month (Figure 4). This is due to seasonal price offers and ISPs keeping price lifts for the annual price increases that come into effect the following April.
BT’s entry-level 36 / 9 Mbps FTTC package came in at £34.99 per month and continued to be above the national average however, its brand equity, large coverage, and predictable pricing structure allow it to continue winning and retaining customers - even in a price-sensitive segment. BT reported 22k net adds to its TV base during the quartyer further shoring up its ARPU.
Sky Broadband came in at the most expensive at £46.00 per month for its copper-based 35 / 9 Mbps package. Faster full fibre connections are comparably priced or cheaper with consumers in its legacy network coverage areas definitely feeling the sting of costly slower speed tiers.
Figure 4 Retail ISPs entry-level superfast pricing, Q4 2024 – Q4 2025
In addition to the major suppliers, we tracked 5 Altnet providers ranging from the larger national players (Hyperoptic and Gigaclear) to London-focused urban supplier Community Fibre, and regional ISPs Fibrus and brsk. Gigaclear continued to be the cheapest major Altnet offering symmetric 200 Mbps entry-level packages for £19.00 per month (Figure 5).
Figure 5 Retail ISPs entry-level ultrafast pricing, Q4 2024 – Q4 2025
Hyperoptic remained the most expensive at £45.00 per month for its symmetrical 150 Mbps entry-level package as it seeks to increase its ARPU, focus on uptake, and reduce expansion costs.
BT’s 150 / 30 Mbps package came in at £34.99 per month, followed by brsk’s symmetrical 150 Mbps package at £33.00 per month.
Sky’s 150 / 26 Mbps package cost £27.00 followed by TalkTalk’s competitively priced 150 / 30 Mbps package cost £25.00, Community Fibre’s £25.00 symmetrical 100 Mbps package, followed by Fibrus’ 106 / 31 Mbps £24.99 monthly package and Vodafone’s symmetrical 150 Mbps tier costing £23.00.
Infrastructure (wholesale) sector
Total Q4 2025 FTTB/H/P, FTTC, DOCSIS 3.1, DSL, FWA and satellite wholesale connections saw a slight return to growth during the quarter and stood at an estimated 28.96m, up from 28.95m q-o-q and down from 29.01m in the previous year.
Our data for Q4 2025 puts full fibre coverage at 81.3% of the UK total premises up from 79.5% in Q3; 12.5m premises had access to two or more FTTP networks (up by 8.2% since the previous quarter). Just over 2.1m premises were covered by 3+ fibre networks.
Openreach passed 1.1m premises with FTTP, putting its build rate at an average of 91k per week, and its total FTTP footprint reached 21.4m premises, of which 5.9m in rural locations. Its FTTP connections increased by 571k q-o-q to reach 8.22m with a take-up rate of just over 38% (Figure 6).
Openreach reported a loss of 210k broadband lines (down from 242k losses in Q2 and up from Q1’s 169k losses).
Figure 6 Openreach ultrafast coverage, connections and penetration rates, Q4 2024 – Q4 2025
CityFibre saw its best quarter to date with 118k total net additions, and we estimate Sky’s onboarding having added around ~50k of these lines. This uplift exceeds what would be expected from Sky provisioning only new customers (~30k per quarter), suggesting Sky also offered existing customers without Openreach FTTP the chance to upgrade to CityFibre, with uptake of roughly 10%, making the numbers align.
VMO2 announced that its combined full fibre footprint reached 8.3m premises passed at the close of the quarter. Basing these figures on nexfibre’s announcement that its footprint covered 2.44m premises with VMO2 adding 110k full fibre premises to its nexfibre build during the quarter, along with its own HFC network FTTP overlay (Project Mustang) of around 5.2m premises, we estimate its total FTTP footprint to have reached 7.6m premises at the close of Q4 2025 (Figure 7).
Figure 7 Virgin Media O2’s combined FTTP network deployments, Q4 2024 – Q4 2025
VMO2 noted in its 2026 financial outlook that a total service revenue decline of 3 to 5% year-over-year, adjusted for the Daisy Transaction, is expected. The revenue outlook reflects heightened promotional intensity and ongoing uncertainty in the consumer fixed market, alongside the planned streamlining of the B2B product portfolio.
Figure 8 provides a flavour of the year-on-year take-up rates to FTTP or gigabit-capable networks, with Openreach dominating the sector in terms of full fibre penetration. VMO2’s DOCSIS 3.1 technology, which for several years boasted higher-speed advantages, has been steadily receding (down to 30% in Q4 and expected to drop below this in the next two quarters) as more affordable and faster packages have become readily available due to overbuild by the Altnets.
Figure 8 FTTP / Gigabit-capable broadband take-up rates, Q4 2024 – Q4 2025
Altnets FTTP connections increased by 7.5% during the quarter, with 250k net additions, and a total base of 3.55m.
Openreach’s expanding FTTP footprint and rising adoption continue to strengthen its position, and Altnet share gains should ease as their slowed build programmes take effect. Industry consolidation may create short-term disruption, but the overall trajectory is unchanged, and the higher regulated price increase in FY27 provides additional protection.
[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.
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