In recent years, the emergence of new alternative network providers (Alt-nets) has helped drive the UK’s gigabit revolution. However, it now seems there is a period of consolidation on the way with many alt-net providers such as CityFibre slowing down their network builds in favour of acquiring smaller alt-nets to grow their network.

While the choice of gigabit services for consumers in the UK will continue to grow and expand, alt-net consolidation should still come as no surprise. Over the past decade, the alt-net sector has benefited from billions of pounds of investment into UK fibre rollouts leading to rapid growth in small, localised alternative providers. However, with competition from established players and rising costs putting pressure on smaller alt-net providers, consolidation is becoming a way for alt-net providers to optimise their portfolio, streamline operations and generate higher returns. This has created a widespread, industry expectation that the number of alt-nets is going to decrease as quickly as it rose over the past few years, with consolidation in the market.

CityFibre adopted this approach announcing at the beginning of 2024 their ambitions to boost their full fibre coverage by acquiring 5 UK alt net operators over the next 2 years. This consolidation effort has already started with CityFibre purchasing Lit Fibre for a reported £80m in March. This strategic acquisition is poised to extend CityFibre’s reach by up to 300,000 premises as part of its ambitious 8 million premises rollout program.

Sign up for a two-year deal with an alt-net now and there’s a chance you could be the customer of a much bigger network before the contract expires, as the bigger fish look to gobble up smaller rivals so they can compete against Openreach and Virgin Media.

The question on the acquisitions is whether they will be purchased solely as a way to remove a competitor from the market, or used as a tactic to extend a firm’s footprint because it’s a cheaper (and quicker) option than a provider building its network.

The increasing popularity of alt-net consolidation in the industry brings up the question; is there a danger that we may see some alt-nets polishing up their image to make themselves attractive to any potential buyers resulting in lots of smoke and mirrors and the underlying roll-out and customer service being ignored? Only time will tell.

Fear not though, at Unity we have strategic partnerships with all the big players in the market such as Virgin Media and BT Wholesale while being able to provide the personal level of service you would expect from a smaller alt-net provider. If you have any requirements or are interested in becoming a channel partner, contact Unity on 0330 119 6666 or email sales@unity.world.

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