Altnets lead the charge as UK fibre competition grows

In all, almost two thirds of UK premises had access to fibre broadband, or 64.7%, to be more specific, as of the end of March, according to new data from Point Topic. That figure equates to 20.4 million premises.

That's a pretty big increase. Six months earlier fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) coverage was at 17.4 million premises, or 54.5% of the total, the analyst firm's data showed.

Further, we are seeing more competition in the market. Almost 7 million of the premises passed could choose from two or more FTTP networks – that's around a third of the total – and 778,000 had coverage from three or more.

Naturally, that raises questions about consolidation, and we are already starting to see M&A activity in the market. Major altnet CityFibre announced the acquisition of Lit Fibre in March, for example.

CityFibre revealed earlier this week that its FTTP network now covers 3.6 million premises and serves 400,000 customers via retail ISPs, and that it finally reached breakeven in the first quarter of the year. The firm is leading a group of altnets – the number with a footprint of reasonable size is growing (see chart below) – that is responsible for a meaningful portion of market growth.

CityFibre's growth rate is not stellar, given its already large network, but a few players with much smaller footprints have recorded noteworthy growth of late. FW Networks, which has built out FTTP in and around the home counties, posted 90% quarterly growth in premises passed, according to Point Topic, while Cumbria-based Grain Connect's growth came in at 59%; both have under 300,000 homes passed though.

Arguably more noteworthy is the 54% growth rate clocked up by Nexfibre, the joint venture between InfraVia Capital Partners, Liberty Global and Telefónica. The company recently trumpeted hitting the 1 million premises mark – it is shooting for 5 million in the next couple of years – and has the scale and backing to make an impact on the UK market.

Openreach is doing its bit too. The incumbent rolled out FTTP to 946,000 additional premises in Q1, up from 917,000 in the final quarter of 2023, to take its total footprint to 12.9 million. That means it has extended full fibre to more than 40% of UK premises, an increase of almost three percentage points in just three months.

All this fibre growth means that the number of people unable to access high-speed broadband is falling.

As of the end of March, 19% of UK premises did not have access to a gigabit-capable network, including FTTP and DOCSIS 3.1 cable infrastructure. That figure has dropped from 21% in just one quarter, which is great news for those newly-covered by gigabit broadband, many of whom are in Wales, which saw the greatest improvement of all the UK nations.

It would be remiss not to point out that it still means almost a fifth of UK premises can't get gigabit broadband though. There's still much work to be done, for both the incumbents and the altnets.