BTwatch Analyst Report #369 - October 2025

Executive Brief

GROUP: Netomnia CEO Jeremy Chelot has set sights on a BT/EE/Openreach take-down as he cast a vision for the future of the sector. In two of three imagined outcomes, he envisions the emergence of a scaled fixed-mobile convergence player. He opined that once a national merged altnet is established, it will likely prove attractive to VodafoneThree or Virgin Media O2, with the result being an attack on the BT machine. [pp.6 –9.]

The UK’s One Touch Switch process is one year old, and has already enabled 1.7 million consumer switches, creating a mix of opportunity and challenge for the market’s broadband providers. At Connected Britain, leaders from BT, altnets, and orchestrator TOTSCo, walked through the next steps for the platform, including introduction of an equivalent enterprise service. [pp.10 –13.]

BT networks veteran Howard Watson has announced his retirement, with Greg McCall to take the reins. While Watson has been seen in recent years as a safe pair of hands, McCall might be considered the continuity candidate for the Chief Security & Networks Officer mantle. The swap makes for a near-complete overhaul of the Group’s ExCo since Allison Kirkby was appointed CEO. [pp.14 –16.]

TECHNOLOGY: Altitude Angel has appointed administrators, two years after BT injected £5m into the drones startup in return for an equity stake. It marks another hangover from the days of Etc., the erstwhile BT Digital incubation unit that folded in early-2025. BT has assured that its own drones business is “unaffected”. [pp.23 –25.]

BT has unveiled the technology and coverage ambitions behind its 5G SA rollout, including a new headline target to hit 99% population coverage in 2030. The move positions BT to become the first UK operator to reach this target, although rivals have updated on their own plans to accelerate what is turning into a race to near-ubiquity. [pp.30 –31.]

BUSINESS: Italian fibre operator Retelit has finalised its acquisition of the bulk of BT’s remaining local assets, setting up a Retelit-X subsidiary to house them. The assets include four data centres in Milan and Rome, “human capital”, and more than 360 enterprise customers. BT’s former Country Manager Andrea Giovanni Bono has transferred over as Retelit-X Managing Director. [pp.33 –34.]

Irish regulatorComReg has come in for criticism from the country’s operators over its regulation of Eir. ALTO, which represents the likes of BT, Vodafone, and Sky, has called for a review into oversight of the incumbent as access to infrastructure is put under the microscope. [pp.35 –36.]

OPENREACH: Openreach’s aggressive copper-to-fibre discounting programme has raised the ire of altnet challengers, with nexfibre execs calling out the incumbent for its ‘unsustainable’ short-term pricing. Ofcom has since dismissed the complaints, while Openreach simply thanked its rivals for promoting the discounts on the Connected Britain stage. With Ofcom’s Telecoms Access Review looming, Openreach is looking to ramp up FTTP connections while altnets call for competitive protections. [pp.40 –44.]

As the access provider looks to ramp up connections through reduced pricing, the fibre-building machine has also rolled on. Openreach has picked up another tranche of subsidised Project Gigabit premises, hoovering up those previously won by Voneus before the altne pulled out late last year. [pp.45 –48.]

Chief Engineer Andy Whale has highlighted the innovation driving Openreach’s fibre building machine. A collaboration with VR startup Digitalnauts has cut costs by up to 65% in a London pilot, and is now being pushed beyond the capital. The HoloPlan platform, which uses LiDAR to build 3D models of sites to making cable routing easier and quicker, is said to help Openreach navigate build challenges in dense, urban environments. [pp.49 –50.]