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The UK’s largest alternative 10Gbps capable full fibre (FTTP) broadband operator, CityFibre, has today published their latest trading update to the end of 2025 and revealed that their network now covers 4.7 million premises (4.5m RFS). Customer take-up has also grown rapidly to total 848,000 (up by 64% from 518,000 at the same time last year).
The network operator has long aspired to reach up to 8 million UK premises – representing c.30% of the UK, but their original target of hitting that by the end of 2025 has been missed. Instead, they’ve more recently been looking to boost coverage via greater consolidation of rival networks (here and here) and coverage expansion under c.£860m worth of Project Gigabit contracts (public subsidy), while also having to deal with some of the same pressures as many other networks (e.g. high interest rates, rising build costs and competition).
Despite those challenges, the operator secured a crucial UK funding agreement worth £2.3bn in July 2025 (here) and also saw major ISP Sky Broadband begin to offer services over their network to consumers at speeds of up to 5Gbps (here). The latter has been helping to give CityFibre a strong boost in customer growth over the past few months.
For example, Q4 saw an average of more than 50,000 new customers installed each month, a 112% increase year-on-year. CityFibre says they’ve now exceeded 20% penetration across its consumer footprint and is on track to exceed 30% by the end of 2026. “In recent months, around 70% of households who were switching broadband provider were moved onto the CityFibre network where available,” said the operator.
On the financial front, company revenues reached £170 million in 2025 (up 27% year-on-year), with consumer revenue growth of 50%. Adjusted EBITDA also surged 480% to £29 million. CityFibre thus said they “exited 2025 strongly“, with annualised run rates over Q4 of £200m revenue and over £50m adjusted EBITDA. But we don’t get any updated figures on their losses and employee count.
Simon Holden, Chief Executive Officer at CityFibre, said:
“CityFibre’s wholesale business model has always set us apart and, as our network fills up with customers, we have the momentum to bring about a long-term, competitive alternative to BT Openreach and deliver significant benefits for the UK.
Looking ahead, our nationwide 10Gb XGS-PON network will enable our ISP partners to unlock all the power of Multi-Gig as we deliver future-proofed digital infrastructure for businesses, mobile operators and public sector partners throughout the UK. Following a landmark 2025, CityFibre is proving to be the network of choice and we enter 2026 with ever greater ambition.”
The big focus on CityFibre through 2026 is likely to be on their ambitions in the field of wider network consolidation, which has already seen them being linked to talk of a possible deal with Netomnia, Gigaclear and other alternative networks. But the company only has so much funding to throw around and may need to keep their powder dry for the deals that truly make sense. The decisions made in 2026 may well shape CityFibre’s future, as well as that of the entire UK market.
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