Research Round-up April 2025
- Veronica Speiser
- Apr 30
- 6 min read
Key publication of the month:
Produced in partnership with Independent Networks Co-operative Association (INCA), the 'Metrics for the UK Independent Network Sector' report, sets out a series of key figures which illustrate the continuing growth and successes of the sector, alongside some of the central concerns occupying the minds of Altnet leaders over the last year.
Key points
The UK’s independent (Altnet) operators remained resilient during the year, increasing their full network coverage by 27% year-on-year to reach 16.4 million premises at the end-2024.
Despite challenging market conditions, high global inflation, soaring energy and resource costs, combined Altnet full fibre footprints covering cities, towns, and villages across the UK are keeping pace with Openreach’s 17.1 million premises at the close of 2024.
Almost three-quarters of a million customers decided to switch to an Altnet during 2024 leading to 2.7 million live connections (35% growth year-on-year) to independent fixed networks provided by full fibre gigabit capable connections.
For the second consecutive year, access to finance—combined with the broader economic outlook—remains the leading concern among Altnet operators. With rising interest rates and ongoing inflationary pressures, many providers are finding it harder to secure the capital they need to scale networks and maintain operations.
Unsurprisingly, Ofcom’s upcoming Telecoms Access Review (TAR26) has surged up the list of concerns, rising five places to take the second spot. With 70% of respondents highlighting potential risks from the review’s outcome, there is a risk that the resulting framework could introduce further challenges to Altnet sustainability—particularly if it weakens competitive protections or entrenches incumbent advantages.
Read the complete article in our free analysis here and UK Plus subscribers can now access our quarterly Data Windows.
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Key April telecoms sector news
BT Group News
6 April – Openreach CEO’s call for change to boost UK fibre rollout meets opposition.
9 April – Openreach published NGA003/25 briefing to inform CPs of a Bandwidth Modify price change for GEA-FTTC and SOGEA lines upgrading to 80/20Mb. The price change will be effective as of 7 May 2025.
Openreach is announcing a price decrease to £0 for Bandwidth Modify on FTTC and SOGEA lines moving from lower speeds (18/2Mb, 40/2Mb, 40/10Mb and 55/10Mb) to 80/20Mb, effective from 7 May 2025.
9 April – Openreach published NGA2005/25 briefing is to inform CPs about the launch of a £0 Proactive FTTP Upgrades connection charge for migrations to FTTP speeds of 80/20M and above from 7 May 2025.
On 7 May 2025, Openreach is launching a £0 Proactive FTTP Upgrades connection charge for migrations to FTTP speeds of 80/20M or above. The Proactive FTTP Upgrades Process Description will be updated to reflect this pricing launch.
A Proactive FTTP Upgrade is an order by a CP to migrate an existing end customer to FTTP without the end customer initiating the migration provision. Such a provision will be initiated by the end customer’s existing CP on behalf of that end customer. Openreach will only proceed to provision where the appointment date is explicitly accepted by the end customer.
10 April – BT announced it is building a brand-new network-as-a-service (NaaS) platform designed specifically to meet the needs of AI demands.
Called Global Fabric, it offers multinational customers connectivity on demand to a full choice of third-party cloud, AI and SaaS providers. They can choose routes, types of connectivity (e.g. Internet, Ethernet, IP-VPN), scale, locations and services to connect to, all in an instant with the flexibility to make changes at any time. With Global Fabric, we want AI to run best on BT wherever customers are, wherever the data is. That’s a huge ambition and demands extraordinary scale. No single network provider can do this on their own.
BT are deepening its partnership with Google Cloud. It is combining the power of Global Fabric with Cloud WAN, Google Cloud’s fully managed, reliable and secure enterprise WAN backbone that leverages the planet-scale Google network to optimise AI performance and cost.
16 April – EE and BT to raise price of UK Social Broadband tariffs after previously denying price hikes for social tariffs.
17 April – UBS predicts Openreach to lose 800k UK broadband lines in 2025.
24 April – BT is to sell its remaining stake in its Italian unit to local telco Retelit, the Financial Times has reported today.
29 April – April 2025 progress update on BT’s 10Mbps UK broadband USO.
Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) News
8 April – O2 completes work to improve its network in Manchester. Since the start of 2024, O2 has boosted 4G and 5G network capacity in over 5,700 postcodes in the city.
22 April – Virgin Media O2 to continue 3G switch off in Norwich, Telford, Guildford and Torquay. Following the successful pilot in the city of Durham in April, Virgin Media O2 has confirmed that Norwich, Telford and Guildford will be the next UK locations to have 3G withdrawn on 16 July, with Torquay to follow on 4 August.
CityFibre (CF) News
8 April – CityFibre announced it completed the primary-build of its full fibre network in Dundee. The new network is now 'ready for service’ to over 58,000 homes and most businesses.
28 April – CityFibre announced it connected the first Project Gigabit customers in its Hampshire rollout. The rollout was made possible thanks to £104m from the government’s Project Gigabit, which will enable CityFibre to connect more than 75,000 homes and businesses across the area.
Independent Operators (Altnets) News
1 April – GoFibre plans rapid expansion to deliver experiences across Scotland and Northern England with Calix Broadband Platform.
2 April – Community Fibre upgraded its fastest residential package from 3 Gbps to symmetrical 5 Gbps. The new 5 Gbps Premium WiFi Full Fibre Broadband package is now available at only £59pm on a 24-month contract for new customers.
3 April – Fibrus appoints new managing directors and Fibrus Group restructures into three distinct businesses: Fibrus Broadband, Hyperfast Networks, and Viberoptix to drive growth, expansion, and future success.
7 April – Sky Broadband to have tens of thousands of CityFibre users by May 2025.
8 April – Nokia and Fibrus, have signed a five-year agreement to deploy the Nokia Deepfield solution across its growing network following a successful trial. This partnership will enhance Fibrus’ ability to protect its network from cyber threats like DDoS attacks and manage the increasing demand for high-quality broadband services.
9 April – toob add 23 more towns and cities across the UK to its CityFibre partnership.
14 April – Lit Fibre, which now utilises CityFibre’s nationwide network, has refreshed their existing range of packages and also introduced new a range of “specialised” product packages called ‘Lit Ultimate’, ‘Lit Homeworker’, ‘Lit Family’ and ‘Lit Gamer’.
14 April – Grain Connect reported to ISPReview, that it went EBITDA Positive as its FTTP broadband network covers 250k premises.
14 April – Budget mobilele operator giffgaff is launching a new broadband trial offering speeds of 500Mbps.
giffgaff is using nexfibre’s FTTP network and it becomes nexfibre’s second wholesale customer after VMO2.
The company is offering the service to an initial 500 triallists who will get 500Mbps broadband for just £10 a month for a year.
16 April – M Group makes transformative move into the technology solutions market by acquiring Telent.
30 April – Bosses of B4RN, MS3 and Quickline give ISPReview update on UK broadband builds.
Other News
2 April – Streetwave Data casts doubt on Ofcom’s 4G UK mobile coverage claims.
2 April – Three UK announced it business mobile customer base passes 1 million milestone.
2 April – The UK government has set out the scope and ambition for their new Cyber Security and Resilience Bill (CSRB).
3 April – Ofcom finds 5% of UK people do not have home Internet access.
8 April – BDUK close Gigabit Broadband Vouchers to Devon and Somerset UK.
20 April – Starlink preps new UTR-251 router for satellite broadband service.
25 April – TOTSCo announced it is aiming to publish the price list for the TOTSCo Business Switching Solution in early May, with connection testing available from the end of May. It will be sharing details soon on how ISPs can sign up to take part.
It’s planning is currently focused on a go-live in early 2026, and it’s working closely with industry to make sure the solution is robust, practical, and ready to scale.
28 April – The first 27 satellites for Amazon's Kuiper broadband internet constellation were launched into space from Florida on Monday, kicking off the long-delayed deployment of an internet-from-space network that will rival SpaceX's Starlink.
28 April – Progress on GBP70m extending high speed broadband in Wales project.
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