Following a report from INCA and Point Topic that altnets have now passed more premises in aggregate than Openreach, Neos CEO Lee Myall states that consolidation is the next natural step.
Tue, 23/04/2024 - 16:02
Two million UK customers are now using fibre services from an altnet, representing 33% year-on-year growth in connections.
This comes from the latest INCA-Point Topic report ‘State of the Altnets 2024’ which also finds that nearly half a million customers switched to an altnet in 2023.
Furthermore, altnets grew their collective network footprint by 57% year on year to reach 12.9m premises. This covers 35% of all UK homes.
For comparison, Openreach has passed 12.8m homes with its network.
In London more than half of premises can get FTTP service from one or more altnets. Around three million of these premises were in Ofcom’s Area Three, (Rural postcode areas expected to need project gigabit help.)
The report projects that altnets will supply full fibre to 16.7m premises by the end of 2024, with three million more live connections, giving altnets >10% of the residential broadband market.
Tim Stranack, INCA Chair and Co-founder, Community Fibre, said: “By the time of next year’s report we will have a new Government and Ofcom’s first market review consultation. Support from both parties will be needed if the UK’s vision of established and sustainable telecommunications competition which elevates the UK to the forefront of technological innovation is to be realised.”
