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Mobile network provider giffgaff, which is owned by Telefónica and naturally uses O2’s virtual operator (MVNO) platform, has today confirmed their intention to trial and launch a range of full fibre (FTTP) home broadband packages via nexfibre and Virgin Media’s national networks. Much as ISPreview first leaked last year.
Just to recap. Nexfibre is the product of a £4.5bn joint venture (here) between Telefónica, Liberty Global and InfraVia Capital Partners, which aims to deploy an open access full fibre network to reach “up to” 7 million UK homes (starting with 5m by 2026) in areas NOT served by Virgin Media’s own network of 16m+ premises (Telefonica and Liberty Global also own Virgin Media).
Nexfibre’s 10Gbps capable FTTP (XGS-PON) network has so far covered 2 million premises (RFS), which is up from 986,000 in Q1 2024 and much of that has been built by Virgin Media’s engineers. The operator is currently expecting to reach another million premises by the end of 2025. The latter is predicted to cost them another £1bn of their committed investment.
However, the good news today is that giffgaff has now confirmed what ISPreview first leaked last year (here), which is that they’re planning to launch a range of broadband packages that will initially harness nexfibre’s growing network – the first major provider to do so, other than Virgin Media. This will later also be extended to include Virgin Media’s FTTP network, once that becomes available via wholesale in the next few weeks or months (here).
As part of this, giffgaff has today said they’re looking for “up to 500 trialists” to help them “build a better broadband” by testing the new service and will even pay them £100 to help. In addition, trialists will get 500Mbps broadband for just £10 a month for a whole year (not reflective of the final price!). A small number of early trialists are already testing giffgaff’s new offering, but this marks the first step in doing something much bigger.
Ash Schofield, CEO of giffgaff, said:
“Broadband is a natural evolution for us as a connectivity brand. We know people are frustrated with their current broadband offering so we’re committed to bringing together the best tech, with the experience of the people that matter most – our customers – to build better broadband.”
A Virgin Media O2 spokesperson said:
“The planned launch of a giffgaff broadband service mirrors the successful approach we’ve taken with the brand on the mobile side. It allows us to offer a complete range of broadband and mobile services to a wider mix of different customers and aligns with our broader commercial strategy with three of the best brands in the country. giffgaff broadband is currently in a trial phase, leveraging our wholesale capabilities and recruiting people to test and shape the service, so we’ll share more information later in the year.”
Giffgaff is a brand that has long earned itself a reasonably positive reputation within the mobile space, which is theoretically something that could also help to fuel interest in their future broadband packages. But at the time of writing, we still know very little about their final packages and prices. The latter could provide some useful indications for how competitive Virgin Media’s future wholesale offerings may be with the wider market.
One of the challenges for nexfibre and Virgin Media here will be in enabling other providers to offer competitively priced broadband packages, albeit without disrupting or cannibalising Virgin’s own range of retail broadband products too much. As we’ve said before, finding the right balance here will be particularly difficult once Virgin Media opens up their own network to wholesale (they’re traditionally positioned as more of a premium brand).
At the time of writing, giffgaff hasn’t said precisely when the final non-trial packages will launch (we’ve been told it’ll be “some time later this year“), but they might wait until after Virgin Media have opened up their existing network to wholesale. Otherwise, anyone interested in giffgaff broadband should register their interest at giffgaff.com/broadband/register-interest to “help it understand demand and where it could launch in the future, or for their chance to be a trialist“.