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Interview
At Connected Britain 2025, we caught up with Aprecomm’s Daniel Fearon to discuss the economic crunch facing the UK’s fibre altnet market and what they can do to differentiate themselves from the competition
The UK’s full-fibre broadband market has reached a critical “inflection point,” according to Aprecomm’s Senior Director Sales for Europe, Daniel Fearon. In a recent interview at Connected Britain 2025, Fearon offered a candid assessment of the market’s trajectory, suggesting that a rapid overbuild, combined with a global financial slowdown, is forcing many altnets to confront their long-term viability.
“We’ve now hit saturation point. There’s no more growth from a service provider perspective, so ISPs are now fighting to steal each other’s customers,” said Fearon. “This is a real ‘look in the mirror’, reflection moment for some of these altnets. They’ve got to decide if they’ve taken this as far as they can and begin looking for an exit, or if they can change their strategy to build a sustainable business.”
Part of the challenge these altnets face, Fearon explained, is the broadband industry’s historic preoccupation with speeds. Over the past five years, fibre networks have been built at pace using the latest technology, with a major focus on delivering speeds of over 1 Gbps. Consumers, however, have shown comparatively little interest in the fastest speeds, leaving the network operators looking for new incentives to draw in subscribers.
“Not that long ago, most customers were happy with 10 Mbps DSL. Now, they have hundreds of megabits per second, which is more than enough for most people,” said Fearon. “If these altnets want to survive, they will need to look more closely at the customer and ask, ‘what do they really want?’”
Network visibility and customer experience
Answering this question, however, is no easy feat. Customers rarely communicate their needs effectively to their service providers, leaving the CSPs to dig through obtuse network data for insights. For Fearon, improved network visibility is the foundation for creating a better customer experience.
“The CSPs need to know how people are using their networks. What types of devices are they using? When are they using them? Are they using them at the same time? If so, which device or service should get priority? These are all important questions for how best to serve the end-user,” said Fearon. “This is what our platform at Aprecomm is designed to help with.”
Aprecomm’s AI-driven customer experience platform tracks a wide variety of consumer data metrics, allowing ISPs to proactively manage customers’ Wi-Fi networks for a better experience, including optimised workflows and automated ‘self-healing’, in real time.
Perhaps more importantly, it provides the CSPs with a more granular understanding of their customers’ needs. With this visibility, they can identify trends and craft propositions that are genuinely attractive to specific segments. If the customer base shows a high concentration of young families, for example, a cybersecurity service with parental controls could be more valuable than a generic, high-speed gaming package.
Unlocking value-added services
In discussions of altnet longevity and growth at Connected Britain, the concept of value-added services (VAS) like these was never far away. At a time when altnets are desperately trying to monetise their assets and attract new customers, offering customers services beyond traditional connectivity can be very appealing.
For Fearon, however, altnets need to be careful about making these VAS the core of their offering.
“Lots of value-added services are still in their infancy – things like Wi-Fi sensing and hyperconnected smart home features. These will come in time, particularly as the number of smart home devices increases but they need to be built on a reliable foundation first,” he said, adding that services built on a weak network foundation would “fall like a house of cards” and erode customer trust.
Instead, he suggests these altnets focus on building a localised brand identity based on reliability and quality of service.
“We’ve seen some altnets really double down on their local focus, really becoming the provider of choice for the region, the community, the town,” he explained. “That’s a really powerful base to launch VAS from once you have a much better understanding of your customers’ needs.”
Customer-centricity is the key to longevity
Ultimately, the UK’s altnet community are facing a fundamental pivot away from network build-out to customer relationship management. Survival will depend on the ability to leverage network visibility and data analytics to move beyond the status quo of a commoditised ‘speed and price’ battle towards more reliable and personalised service.
“Everything starts with a reliable network and close understanding of who’s using it,” concluded Fearon. “Without that, sustainable growth will remain out of reach for these altnets.”
Grab Aprecomm’s latest whitepaper, Beyond QoS: Why QoE is the Future of Internet Performance Monitoring, to learn more.