All Fibre Challengers articles
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Financial & Performance
CityFibre ups the ante with 5Gbps fibre launch
New 5.5Gbps offering to be available across national footprint once XGS‑PON upgrade completed. While notably differentiating in the UK, 5G-10G services increasingly available elsewhere in Europe, and at low cost…
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Network & Infrastructure
Vodafone’s German fibre JV shakes up suppliers to navigate Geodesia delays
OXG Glasfaser has enlisted 29 build partners to accelerate infra rollout and mitigate delays seen with Altice-owned Geodesia. Vodafone’s Margherita Della Valle says the JV is now at “cruising speed” and ready to kick on…
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M&A
MásOrange, Vodafone Spain ‘rethink FibreCo stake sale’
Operator duo reportedly considers adjusting plans to offload a 40% stake in their work-in-progress fibre joint venture, after “most” of the initial non-binding offers that investors have submitted fell below the €7bn minimum valuation they are seeking.
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Weekly Briefings
EMEA Infrawatch Briefing: tower sell-offs, DC deployments, orbital experiments
Cellnex CEO Marco Patuano says the TowerCo is one step closer to selling its Swiss business and French data centre assets. Meanwhile, IHS Towers forks off Rwandan unit to newly formed tower player. In the space sector, several players look to get D2D services off the ground, while others tinker with new space comms solutions.
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Products & Services
Rip & Restart: AllPoints launches aquila UK fibre wholesale platform
Days after Zen’s The Fibre Hub launch, Fern Trading outpost opens curtains on UK’s latest aggregator in effort to offer a simplified, stable route to ‘national’ ISP scale, with multiple FibreCos and B2B retailers already on board. Could this be the game-changer the altnet segment needs?
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Financial & Performance
Cost leadership key as UK FibreCo Grain sows seeds of profitability
Connected North: Grain CEO Richard Cameron positions “cost leadership” as the key to long‑term success for a consolidating and converging altnet sector, following positive earnings in most recent quarter.
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M&A
CityFibre’s Holden: altnets and backers must pull together for investment‑grade nirvana
In-depth from Eight Advisory’s London event: as UK fibre altnets face financing challenges, optimistic CityFibre COO reveals vision for consolidation, suggesting sector is “a very small number of M&A transactions away” from creating a sufficiently scaled platform to rival BT/Openreach and VM O2. Additional Greg Mesch and Rob Hamlin coverage from FTTH Conference in Amsterdam…
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Network & Infrastructure
INCA hails altnet heroes as spectre of overbuild looms
In a punchy, positive report altnet industry group INCA hails “dynamic” altnets on a mission to bring “fairer, faster, and more resilient” connectivity to the UK, but competitive benefits may not be sustainable, and the spectre of ‘supervillain’ Openreach still looms large.
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Network & Infrastructure
Openreach’s new deputy CEO: fibre take-up accelerating, ‘and we can go even faster’
FTTH Conference 2025: Katie Milligan teases Q4 build and take-up figures as Openreach keeps up the fibre rollout pace. Altnets reframe competition battle around migration…
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Weekly Briefings
EMEA Infrawatch Briefing: data centre strategy roadmaps; InfraCos seek to cut overlap
Latest on EMEA Infra: several digital infra and telecoms players adjust data centre strategies, aiming to capitalise on rising demand for AI and cloud services; FibreCos forge fresh access deals with goal of reducing overbuild; wireless infra players still up for sharing; more…
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Partnerships & Alliances
DT fibre JV finalises open access pact with Deutsche GigaNetz
Glasfaser Nordwest firms up open access agreement, with implementation set to begin in the second half of 2025. Panellists from other German fibre players at recent FTTH Conference heatedly debated state of open access in the nation, with DT taking potshots at the altnets…
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Weekly Briefings
EMEA Infrawatch Briefing: TowerCos continue M&A pare-back; telcos plot data centre expansion
TowerCos across Africa and Europe still exercising restraint around M&A, with focus placed on increasing tenancies and driving organic-build out instead. Meanwhile, Orange and Vodafone Spain said to look at expanding data centre estate, while opening up IT capacity to third-parties…
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Network & Infrastructure
MásOrange said to split fibre unit in prep for Vodafone JV
MásOrange said to plan split of fibre infrastructure into urban and rural subsidiaries, as part of prep work for formation of FibreCo joint venture with Vodafone Spain.
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Network & Infrastructure
Community Fibre: don’t fear the overbuild
London altnet CEO Graeme Oxby asserts the presence of fibre competition is a spur for greater adoption, as Community Fibre sees accelerating progress on uptake across its 1.3 million premises footprint.
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M&A
CityFibre confirms M&A outreach, predicts 2025 acceleration and ‘inflection point’
UK’s largest altnet actively engaging rival FibreCos to discuss rollup deals. Sees M&A as “major opportunity” to up competitive pressure on incumbent Openreach. Read more about financial execution, XGS-PON and Sky amongst defining 2025 aspects after first year of profitability
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Weekly Briefings
EMEA Infrawatch Briefing: SatCos explore new options; subsea revamps
Spain’s Indra eyes bigger role in European satellite picture, while Eutelsat moves to bring space connectivity to Nigeria and (reportedly) Egypt. Meanwhile, fibre players have struck fresh deals in Ireland and Spain, while others consider if further buys are immediately necessary…
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Network & Infrastructure
KPN seeks to temper Dutch overbuild amidst fibre storm
CEO Joost Farwerck eager to temper overbuild in the Netherlands, as fibre rivals including DELTA Fiber and Open Dutch Fiber lock in overlapping city build programmes. Concerns accompany latest earnings showing incumbent maintaining pace to hit own rollout target…
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Strategy & Change
Acquisitive Polish FibreCo slows M&A, seeks funding in strategy rethink
Jacek Wiśniewski, Chief Executive at Poland’s Nexera, says business is exploring financing options to fuel push past 1.5 million premises. M&A and build-out set to slow down in 2025, as Nexera follows broader European trend of focusing on take-up…
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Interview
CityFibre sees commercial promise, ‘moral obligation’ in Project Gigabit
CityFibre’s public sector lead Andy Nash talks to TelcoTitans on the altnet’s emergence as a strategic government supplier for Project Gigabit, answering “the big exam question” on going beyond initial goals, and the moral duty of delivering rural connectivity…
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M&A
FullFibre, Zzoomm to form integrated altnet, fuel further M&A
UK fibre altnets to combine for a shared 600,000 ready for service network with 65,000 customers, adding FullFibre’s wholesale platform to Zzoomm’s retail.