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The latest Q2 2025 results from Virgin Media and O2 today have revealed that their gigabit broadband network increased by 114,900 premises in the quarter to cover 18.53 million UK homes. But related customers suffered another fall to total 5,643,500 (down by -51.4k in Q2 vs -44k in Q1) and O2’s mobile base also suffered a fall (albeit with positive results in wholesale).
The new results confirm that the combined Virgin Media and nexfibre fixed broadband network now reaches a total of 18,535,800 Homes Serviceable (up from 18,420,900 in Q1). As before, the vast majority of the new quarterly UK network build is from nexfibre’s full fibre FTTP lines (this network alone now accounts for around 2.3 million premises of the total), although the recent impact of Telefonica’s strategic review has significantly slowed their roll-out (here).
The results reveal that a total of over 7 million Virgin Media and nexfibre premises (footprint) are now covered by FTTP lines (XGS-PON and RFOG), which is up from 6.8m in Q1. But this figure also factors in Virgin Media’s ongoing upgrade of existing Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) areas to FTTP under Project Mustang (i.e. aiming to convert all of Virgin’s existing HFC and RFOG lines to XGS-PON by 2028).
Finally, a tiny portion of the quarterly nexfibre build figures (shown below) may also include infill deployments from Virgin Media itself, which usually takes place on sites for existing property developments (i.e. the legacy of long contracts with housing developers for new build homes). But otherwise, the Q2 pace of build continues to slow, which reflects the expected fallout from Telefonica’s ongoing strategic review (here and here).
Nexfibre Rollout Progress
Q2 2025 = 114,900 Premises
Q1 2025 = 165,000 Premises
Q4 2024 = 485,500 Premises
Q3 2024 = 281,100 Premises
Q2 2024 = 295,300 Premises
Q1 2024 = 194,000 Premises
Q4 2023 = c.299,000 Premises
Q3 2023 = 250,800 Premises
Q2 2023 = 175,500 Premises
Q1 2023 = 107,800 Premises
Q4 2022 = 24,000 Premises
Just for context. Telefónica, Liberty Global and InfraVia Capital Partners established a new £4.5bn joint venture called nexfibre in 2022 (here), which originally aimed to deploy an open access full fibre (FTTP) 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.
Elsewhere, Virgin Media has long stopped giving any solid figures for their Pay TV (video) base, which often happens when a base is in decline. But their mobile base has grown, albeit primarily due to their wholesale (MVNO) providers (increased by 480k in Q2), since O2’s own contract base reduced by 73,600 in Q2.
VMO2 Q2 2025 UK Customer (Connection) Figures
5,643,500 Fixed Broadband – (down from 5,694,900 in Q1)
46,165,200 Mobile inc. Wholesale – (up from 45,685,000)
On the financial front, VMO2 reported total revenue of £2,526.8m in Q2 2025, which is up from £2,480.1m last quarter.
Lutz Schüler, CEO of VMO2, said:
“Against a tough trading environment, we have continued to be disciplined delivering growth in profitability which means we are reconfirming our guidance for the year.
We are carefully balancing volume and value through a multi-brand strategy in both fixed and mobile, underpinned by a continued improvement in customer service and one of the country’s best loyalty programmes with Priority from O2. In B2B, our new company with Daisy Group has received all relevant approvals and is now ready to go with an imminent launch, creating a dedicated entity with the scale, focus and expertise to deliver a great service for British businesses and drive long-term enterprise growth for Virgin Media O2.
Our significant network investments are continuing, as we leverage our scaled gigabit broadband network today and rollout fibre for future, and on the mobile side we continue to boost our network across the country, expand 5G Standalone to more areas and have announced a significant spectrum acquisition that will materially enhance our network performance in future, further improving customer experience.”
Sadly, the latest results didn’t include much in the way of any useful updates on Virgin Media’s plans for opening their existing fixed broadband network up to wholesale via their new NetCo (originally intended to launch during the first half of 2025), or the future of their roll-out via nexfibre. All of this remains somewhat dependent upon what happens with Telefonica’s strategic review.
In the meantime, we suspect Virgin Media will be concerned at the level of ongoing decline in their broadband base, which is being eroded by more competitively priced alternative networks. Something that isn’t helped by the high post-contract pricing that the provider continues to adopt. In the past, Virgin could rely on being considered more of a premium brand and the fastest widely available broadband provider, but today’s market is much more diverse.