Research Round-up June 2025
- Veronica Speiser
- Jul 1
- 7 min read
Point Topic’s June publications: Broadband Digital Deprivation Index – updated to 2025; Q1 2025 UK ISP and network supplier metrics - a market overview
Key publication of the month:
In the UK, Ofcom stated that ‘A good or service is considered to be affordable for a consumer if they are able to purchase it without suffering undue hardship’[1]. Ofcom’s Communications Affordability Tracker found that in January 2025, 23% of UK households ‘struggled to afford their communication services’[2].
Entry level broadband tariffs: value for money?
As of May 2025, the lowest available broadband subscription at the postcode level varied from £12.50 (an FTTP tariff) to £38.32 (a fixed-wireless access, or FWA tariff). The £12.50 tariff was advertised by Community Fibre as ‘Essential’ and came with 35Mbps symmetrical speeds on a 12 months contract. It was available in 50,586 postcodes, mainly in London. At the other end of the spectrum, the cheapest broadband available in 53 postcodes was priced at £38.32 and supplied by Voneus. Its FWA package included average 40Mbps symmetrical speeds on a 24 months contract.
Compared to six months ago, we saw the cheaper broadband tariffs becoming available in slightly more ‘small areas’. In May 2025, the entry level tariffs at the lower end of the price range (£10 - £14.99) were available in 13.1% of ‘small areas’, as opposed to 11.9% we recorded in November 2024. On the other hand, this time the cheapest broadband subscription was in the £15.00-£19.99 range in only 6% of ‘small areas’, compared to 10.6% of areas we recorded six months ago.
[1] Affordability of Communications Services, Ofcom, July 2021.
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Key June telecoms sector news
BT Group News
2 June – BT announced the launch of BT International, serving its multinational customers as a dedicated operation within BT Group with its own people, products and platforms. It has designed BT International specifically to help its customers meet these challenges head on and anticipate future opportunities to thrive.
The way it will do this centres on two highly scalable telco platforms designed for the age of multi-cloud and AI: Global Voice and Global Fabric, with security built in by design. BT have channelled its investments into these cloud-centric global platforms and concentrated its expert teams where customers need them most.
16 June – To mark the 25th anniversary of broadband in UK homes, Openreach combines its unique data of internet usage with study of household behaviours to reveal how Britain is broadbanding.
18 June – Openreach announced PIA006/25 New Services and Functionality on the PIA Product. The briefing is for customers advising them that it has provided new features on the PIA Map Tool via both the Portal and PIA Application Programming Interface (API). This functionality is available to PIA established CPs.
25 June – Openreach published NGA2008/25 Rental charge reduction for FTTP and FTTP on Demand 1000/220 Mbps speed tier. Openreach announced a price reduction to £900.00 p.a. on the FTTP and FTTP on Demand 1000/220 speed tier effective 1 August 2025.
Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) News
5 June – O2 adds data rollover perk as standard to Pay Monthly Plus Plans and Ultimate Plans (phone, tablet, or SIM only).
12 June – Virgin Media O2 urges eligible pensioners to claim discounted broadband and mobile services as isolation soars. With nearly half (48%) of pensioners unaware that providers offering discounted broadband and mobile deals to those receiving Pension Credit, Virgin Media O2 urges individuals to explore its Essential Services starting from just £10 per month – The Virgin Media Essential Broadband and O2 Essential Plan.
18 June – O2 announced a significant upgrade to its 4G and 5G mobile network capacity in Glasgow, after completing work to boost signal and services in over 3,000 postcodes in the last 12 months.
30 June – Virgin Media O2 and Vodafone UK agreed a spectrum transfer deal worth £343m, following the completion of the merger between Vodafone UK and Three UK. Virgin Media O2 is set to acquire 78.8 MHz of spectrum, bringing the operator’s total spectrum holding to approximately 30% of UK mobile spectrum
The deal, part of a wider network sharing agreement struck in 2024, will improve the balance in spectrum holdings across the UK’s three mobile operators, enhancing competition, coverage, and choice for millions of consumers and businesses.
CityFibre (CF) News
3 June – CF revealed its new ‘Multi-Gig’ broadband product, offering its ISP partners symmetrical speeds of 5.5Gb, more than twice as fast as CityFibre’s current market-leading service of 2.5Gb.
5 June – CF announced it completed the primary-build of its full fibre network in Wokingham. The new network is now 'ready for service’ to over 19,000 homes, around 82% of Wokingham’s homes and most businesses.
12 June – CF announced it tripled the availability of its dedicated, enterprise-grade Ethernet services to now serve over 260,000 UK businesses.
The increase not only expands the total number of businesses available to partners but also increases the density of serviceable businesses within its network footprint, making it easier and more efficient for partners to run targeted sales and marketing campaigns.
24 June – ISPReview reported that CF is set to sign a £2bn in funding deal reflecting a split of debt and equity – to help keep them in business and support their plans for a major consolidation of rival operators.
26 June – CF completed the primary-build of its full fibre network in Havant, Westbourne and other surrounding areas. The new network is now 'ready for service’ to over 22,000 homes.
Independent Operators (Altnets) News
3 June – Sources have informed ISPreview that FullFibre Limited (Fibre Heroes), which in early March 2025 completed its merger with Zzoomm, are preparing to drop one of their joint retail ISP brands – BeFibre (first acquired after FullFibre gobbled ‘Digital infrastructure’ in 2023). No official timescale has been announced.
9 June – Fibrus announced it had reached a significant business milestone, having reached EBITDA breakeven in March 2025, just five years after it entered the market. Customer growth increased 45%, rising to 113,500 customers at March 2025. Customer penetration grew from 23% to 28%, we are on track to reach 30% in the coming months.
9 June – Hyperoptic confirmed to ISPreview that they plan to extend its full fibre network (currently covering 1.9m premises) to a further 1m premises – albeit using Openreach’s FTTP products.
12 June – VodafoneThree has today announced a new strategic wholesale agreement with Community Fibre. The partnership will provide access to Community Fibre’s network, allowing VodafoneThree, under the Vodafone brand (as the converged brand in the VodafoneThree portfolio) to offer full fibre broadband to up to 1.3 million homes across the capital, and become London’s largest full fibre supplier.
12 June – Convergence Group acquired M247 Networks connectivity and IT platform services.
14 June – Zen Internet announced that it has started selling services via’s Freedom Fibre’s alternative full network, which at the last update covered 315,000 premises in parts of England and North Wales.
23 June – Wessex Internet secured a £50m investment from the National Wealth Fund (NWF) to expand coverage to 140k hard-to-reach homes and businesses.
25 June – Freedom Fibre announced it had pulled out of its North Shropshire Project Gigabit contract, originally due to cover around 12k premises, with 2,500 premises having already been built, and a further 1,000 will be live in the coming days. BDUK is seeking alternative suppliers to fulfil the remaining contract for 8,500 premises.
Other News
12 June – VodafoneThree merger completes. The company will operate a multi-brand mobile strategy in consumer with Vodafone, Three, VOXI, SMARTY and Talkmobile remaining. Customers will be able to choose the service package that best fits their needs from any one of these brands, all operating on the Nation’s Network.
17 June – The Scottish Government looks to be preparing to relaunch their proposed gigabit roll-out procurement for Fife, Perth, and Kinross in September 2025.
19 June – UK Government published its UK Infrastructure: A 10 Year Strategy policy paper. The Strategy sets out the government's long-term plan for economic, housing and social infrastructure to drive growth.
20 June – Sky News reported that investment banks were asked to pitch this week for a mandate to oversee a potential sale of TalkTalk's two remaining businesses: its consumer arm and PXC, its wholesale and network division.
City sources said that Barclays and Morgan Stanley were among the banks in the frame to oversee the strategic review, which has been triggered by separate unsolicited approaches for both parts of the group.
25 June – Ofcom launch broadband and mobile coverage checker. The mobile and broadband checkers lets users enter a postcode to view mobile coverage by provider, or availability of broadband services (standard, superfast and ultrafast). Users can also view the results as interactive maps.
27 June – Scotland’s R100 programme delivered more than 27k FTTP connections in a year, surpassing its commitment to deliver gigabit-capable broadband connections to 20,000 homes and businesses last year. The R100 contracts, being delivered by Openreach, have now enabled more than 80k faster broadband connections across the country, with 80% of all R100 contract build to take place in rural areas.
30 June – Shared Rural Network programme reported it has achieved its overarching target a year ahead of schedule, with over 95% of the UK now within range of a 4G mobile signal as a result of all MNOs delivering new infrastructure. The programme has also met its road and premises targets which were due in January 2027 and delivered more than 50 government-funded mast upgrades as part of the SRN’s Extended Area Service (EAS) project.
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