Research Round-up May 2025
- Veronica Speiser
- Jun 1
- 7 min read
Point Topic’s May publications: Building Digital Britain: Policy & Progress 2024 – 2025; European Broadband Operators and Tariffs Benchmark Report, Q1 2025
Key publication of the month:
Summary and key points:
In Q4 2024, global fixed broadband connections reached 1.5 billion, with quarterly growth of 0.91%, down from 1.44% in Q3 2024. Broadband subscriptions[1] declined in 14 countries[2], up from 13 in Q3 2024.
India was at the top of the largest 20 fixed broadband markets with a 5.27 % quarterly growth rate.
The share of FTTH/B in the total fixed broadband subscriptions increased further and stood at 71.49%. Broadband connections based on other technologies saw their market
Year-on-year, FTTH/B connections grew by 7.4%. Satellite and FWA saw an even higher annual growth (52.5% and 27.3% respectively), with the former mainly driven by Starlink.
Among the largest twenty markets all except Italy saw fixed broadband subscriber growth in Q4 2024. The average growth in the 20 markets was 1.12%, compared to 1.25% in Q3 2024.
The highest FTTH/B broadband subscriber growth rates in markets with at least 0.5m fibre connections were in Egypt, Venezuela, the UK, Greece and Algeria, all in double figures.
In Q4 2024, global fixed broadband subscribers increased by 0.91%, slightly exceeding 1.5 billion. The growth rate was the second lowest in the last two years, but slightly higher than in the respective quarter of 2023.
South and East Asia continues to claim the largest share of global fixed broadband subscribers, having increased it slightly in Q4 2024 to 50.99% (Table 1).
[1] Whenever we refer to ‘broadband’ in this report, we mean fixed broadband. Also, ‘subscriptions’ and ‘connections’ are used interchangeably.
[2] There may be restatements in the coming quarter/s and single-period data should be viewed in that light. A decline in some markets can be due to changes in the methodology used by national regulatory authorities.
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Key May telecoms sector news
BT Group News
1 May – Openreach win £157m Project Gigabit broadband build contract for Scotland.
1 May – BT announced the signing of a multi-million-pound contract with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). The contract, which will run for up to five years across England, Scotland and Wales, will use EE’s mobile network to provide 34,000 connections for workers and a range of devices, from water sensors to payment machines.
6 May – Openreach announced GEN048/25 Notification of Tranche 16, 91 FTTP priority exchanges, stop sell implementation 26 May 2025, along with the realignment of 11 notified exchanges; and GEN047/25 Notification of product stop sells, Tranche 20 in 163 FTTP exchanges.
8 May – BT appointed Peter Leukert to the role of Chief Digital Officer, in which he will have responsibility for leading BT’s Digital unit and driving the company’s digital transformation.
15 May – BT announced the signing of a £9.8m contract to deliver full fibre broadband access to nearly 1,800 hard-to-reach sites across the Swansea Bay City Region.
BT has been awarded the contract for the Better Broadband Infill Project by Swansea Bay City Deal’s Digital Infrastructure Programme, which will be delivered in close partnership with infrastructure supplier Openreach.
16 May – Openreach Northern Ireland announced that it has successfully reached 90 per cent coverage in its rollout of Full Fibre broadband, becoming the first region within the Openreach UK network to hit this milestone.
22 May – BT Group published its full year results to 31 March 2025, with key operational highlights:
Record FTTP build of 4.3m premises passed in the year; FTTP footprint reached more than 18m premises, of which 4.9m in rural locations
Record demand for Openreach FTTP with quarterly net adds above 500k for the first time; total premises connected over 6.5m, increasing our market-leading take up rate to 36%; Openreach broadband ARPU in the year grew by 6% to £16.0, driven by higher FTTP take-up, speed mix and CPI
Openreach broadband lines fell 243k in Q4, driven by losses to competitors and a weaker broadband market; expect the H2 run rate to continue through FY26
Retail FTTP base grew by 33% year-on-year to 3.4m, of which Consumer was 3.2m and Business was 0.2m; 5G base reached 13.2m, up 15% year-on-year
Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) News
12 May – Virgin Media O2 and Daisy Group announced new B2B company to create a communications and IT powerhouse for UK businesses, with an ownership split of 70% Virgin Media O2 and 30% Daisy Group.
Based on full-year 2024 performance, the entity will have approximate pro forma revenues of £1.4 billion, Adjusted EBITDA of £150 million and Adjusted EBITDA less Capex of £100 million, and is expected to deliver around £600 million of operational synergies on a net present value basis, including integration costs, primarily attributable to cost savings. This equates to a pre-tax annual run-rate of ~£70 million by 2030. The transaction is expected to close in early H2 2025, subject to customary regulatory approvals.
15 May – Virgin Media O2 and Telecare Cardiff, which provides services on behalf of Cardiff Council, have today announced the launch of a new trial that will support telecare customers in and around Cardiff to safely and easily move to digital landline services.
CityFibre (CF) News
21 May – CityFibre announced it had completed the primary-build of its full fibre network in Ipswich. The new network is now 'ready for service’ to over 70,000 homes, around 98% of the town’s homes and most businesses.
28 May – CityFibre announced it had completed the primary-build of its full fibre network in Reading. The new network is now 'ready for service’ to over 97,000 homes, covering around 98% of homes and most businesses in Reading and the surrounding areas.
Independent Operators (Altnets) News
2 May – Netomnia has raised £160m in junior debt from I Squared Capital and Palistar Capital. This investment builds on an £880m senior debt commitment, bringing total funding support to £1.04bn.
2 May – Nexfibre cut 2025 UK full fibre target to 2.5m premises as VMO2 pause NetCo plans.
5 May – Community Fibre reportedly “posted its maiden profit” after recording earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of £8m in 2024. Customers also grew to 336,000.
6 May – Netomnia published its Q1 2025 results: its FTTP footprint reached 2.32m premises (up 238,000 during the quarter) and 288,000 connections (up 50,000 from the previous quarter) with revenue reaching £19.9m during the quarter.
7 May – MS3 announced further job cuts as it shifts focus from deployment to commercial take-up.
7 May – Zen Internet announced the launch of The Fibre Hub, starting with access to CityFibre’s extensive full fibre footprint. The Fibre Hub will aggregate access to a number of major and smaller alternative full fibre broadband networks
12 May – Fibrus’ Project Gigabit broadband rollout in Cumbria UK reaches 12,500 premises.
14 May – toob, launched its service to over half a million homes across Barnsley, Doncaster, New Edlington,Rossington, Rotherham, Sheffield, Bradford, Dewsbury, Huddersfield, Leeds, Harrogate and York as part of its strategic partnership with CityFibre.
14 May – AllPointsFibre launched new UK Aquila wholesale full fibre network.
14 May – Persimmon Plc announced the sale of FibreNest, its full fibre broadband service, to BUUK Infrastructure, subject to regulatory clearance.
FibreNest will join OFNL as part of the BUUK group which provides full-fibre and multi-utility services to new build housing developments.
The discounted total enterprise value for the sale is c. £100m, with £70m received upon completion and further payments contingent on business performance over the coming years.
16 May – ASK4 has announced the acquisition of ClearFibre, a respected broadband provider with established relationships across the UK Build-to-Rent (BTR) sector.
This move supports ASK4’s long-term strategy to enhance connectivity and service delivery in multi-tenant buildings, and reinforces our ongoing commitment to the BTR market.
19 May – FullFibre announced job cuts post merger with Zzoomm, mostly in its internal fibre build teams.
21 May – Smartoptics, a leading provider of optical networking solutions, announced that Netomnia, has deployed a Smartoptics ROADM-based core network across the UK. The solution delivers scalable IP over DWDM at 100G and 400G wavelengths and is 800G-ready by design.
22 May – Adtran and Netomnia announced a major milestone in the evolution of the UK’s broadband market with the first-ever commercial deployment of a 50G PON service. Netomnia is using Adtran’s SDX 6400 Series to upgrade an existing residential customer with an ultra-high-speed service.
22 May – ISPReview reported that FullFibre Limited (Fibre Heroes), which recently completed its merger with Zzoomm and confirmed further job losses, has “mutually agreed to terminate” their state aid supported Project Gigabit broadband roll-out contracts for the Derbyshire Peak District and Herefordshire.
30 May – Country Connect brings full fibre broadband to 10,000 premises.
Other News
1 May – Ofcom published its Telecoms and pay-TV complaints figures.
2 May – Vodafone expands its role in UK energy 4G smart meter upgrade project.
6 May – TalkTalk Group shrinks to 3.2m UK broadband ISP customers.
7 May – Government rejects amendment to push FTTP broadband into flats.
8 May – Ofcom published its Spring 2025 Connected Nations report update; The number of homes able to get gigabit-capable broadband has increased to 25.9 million (86% of the UK’s 30.2 million homes), up from 25.0 million (83%) in July 2024. Gigabit-capable coverage for all properties, i.e. combining both residential and business, stands at 84%. Nearly three-quarters of UK homes (22.5 million or 74%) can access a full-fibre broadband service. This corresponds to an increase of five percentage points (1.8 million homes) in the six months up to January 2025.
9 May – TalkTalk Group confirmed to ISPreview that some 95,000 customers of ISP Origin Broadband, which is a trading name for Origin Communications and OB Telecom (owned by TalkTalk), are being transferred to Utility Warehouse (UW / Telecom Plus) as part of a recently agreed partnership.
11 May – TOTSCo announced that 1m UK Consumers have switched broadband ISP since September 2024.
13 May – The Welsh Government reopened Access Broadband Cymru grant scheme to offer funding to help rural premises get a superfast 30 Mbps broadband connection.
22 May – Ofcom published its report: Comparing customer service: choosing the best home broadband, mobile and landline provider.
28 May – DSIT announced that a total of 50 government-funded rural 4G mast upgrades have now gone live across England (9 masts), Wales (28) and Scotland (13) as part of the industry-led £1bn Shared Rural Network (SRN) project. But 50 more will follow by March 2026.
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