30
Oct, 2025

VMO2 in talks with Netomnia for £2bn takeover


News

The move would be the largest consolidation of the UK altnet market to date

According to a report from the Financial Times, Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) has entered into negotiations to acquire fibre altnet rival Netomnia for £2 billion.

The move would represent the start in earnest of long-awaited consolidation of the UK’s fibre broadband market.

Founded in 2019, Netomnia’s fibre network currently covers 2.8 million premises, with roughly 400,000 ISP customers. The operator is one of the fastest growing in the UK, targeting 3 million premises passed by the end of the year and 5 million by the end of 2027.

If acquired, anonymous sources suggest that Netomnia’s network would be folded into those of VMO2 and/or Nexfibre, the joint venture owned by VMO2’s shareholders Liberty Global/Telefonica and InfraVia Capital.

VMO2’s network has around 6.4 million premises covered by full fibre, while Nexfibre has roughly 2.3 million. Combining Netomnia with either of these players would make the resulting company the second-largest fibre network operator in the UK, overtaking rival CityFibre, which has around 4.3 million premises passed.

No official agreement has yet been reached. In fact, VMO2 may yet have some competition for Netomnia, with the report also noting that CityFibre is discussing a tie up with the company.

Netomnia has also been positioning itself more as an acquirer than an acquiree. Netomnia acquired smaller rival brsk last year, a deal which remains the largest M&A activity in the altnet market to date, and more smaller players could yet follow.

Speaking to Total Telecom at Connected Britain earlier this year, Netomnia CEO Jeremy Chelot spoke about the company’s rapid growth and his ambitions to make it the “largest altnet in the UK”. The company recently secured an additional £300 million in junior debt in order to fuel its expansion, both organic and inorganic. It also undertook a major rebrand, which Chelot said was more representative of the company’s scale and potential.

The altnet market has been primed for consolidation for some time, with smaller players largely struggling towards a positive cash flow in a highly competitive market. Despite this, M&A has been slow to materialise, largely due the networks’ ever-shifting borders and disparate valuations. If Netomnia is acquired by either of its major rivals, it could be a catalyst for a consolidation cascade.

In related news, VMO2’s latest earnings report coincides with the announcement of a new partnership with SpaceX’s Starlink. The deal will see the operator make use of the Starlink’s nascent direct-to-device (D2D) capabilities via a new product called ‘O2 Satellite’.

Starlink’s D2D capabilities, which are currently limited to data and messaging services, are intended to help fill in the UK’s various ‘not spots’, enhancing the network’s overall coverage in rural areas.

Commercial launch is expected in H1 2026.

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