INDUSTRY news
CityFibre to Cut Almost a Third of Workforce in Major Restructure
CityFibre said it had “achieved a lot over the past decade” and that the restructure was about positioning the business as “the long-term, sustainable competitor the UK needs.” The company added that affected staff would be supported through the process. It remains to be seen which assets CityFibre may target as it shifts to an M&A-led growth strategy — but with several struggling altnets on the market, there is unlikely to be a shortage of opportunities.
acquisitions, rather than organic build, while continuing to deliver services to its growing customer base across its 4.5 million home network. CityFibre currently hosts more than 848,000 customers on its network, serving well-known retail providers including Sky, Vodafone, Three and TalkTalk. It remains the largest of the UK’s independent altnets and has long positioned itself as the primary challenger to BT’s Openreach and Virgin Media O2. The redundancies are the latest in a string of difficult headlines for the altnet sector. G.Network was recently placed into administration by its new owners, while Gigaclear looks set to fall under the control of its creditors — among them the taxpayer-backed National Wealth Fund, NatWest and Lloyds. The post- pandemic build boom that drove so much investment into UK fibre has given way to a much harder operating environment, with borrowing costs elevated and customer take-up running below earlier projections across much of the sector.
CityFibre, the Goldman Sachs and Mubadala-backed fibre network, has announced it is cutting around 450 jobs — nearly a third of its 1,400-strong workforce — as it restructures its operations and pivots away from building its own infrastructure in favour of expansion through M&A. The news, confirmed via a letter to staff from new CEO Simon Holden, follows a £2.3 billion refinancing last year and comes as the wider altnet sector continues to face significant financial headwinds. CityFibre carried £3.7 billion in net debt as of 2025, while Enders Analysis estimates the sector is sitting on more than £9 billion of net debt industry wide. In his letter, Holden — a former Goldman Sachs banker who took the helm relatively recently — was candid about the need for change, stating that the company’s current structure was “no longer the right fit” for the direction the business is heading. The focus going forward will be on a leaner operating model that can support footprint growth through
www.cityfibre.com
The G.Network collapse is a sobering reminder that our digital infrastructure is only as resilient as the physical environment surrounding it. Unfortunately for G.Network and its customers, London’s rats are winning. Rats! The Grim Tale of G.Network
and engineers discovered miles of fibre- optic cables, systematically devoured by London’s rodent population. Rats, it turns out, are particularly drawn to G.Network’s biodegradable cable sheathing — manufactured using soy- or corn-based materials that hungry rats find irresistible. “Rodents like ducts and they like fibres which are very tasty,” Community Fibre CEO Graeme Oxby told The Telegraph, before politely declining to foot the repair bill.
This is enough to keep anyone up at night. The fortunes for G.Network and their subscribers only seem to get worse, as it has transpired that the London altnet, already underwater by £300m, has slipped into administration after its best hope of rescue has been gnawed away by rats. Yes, you read that right. Community Fibre had been considering an acquisition that would have absorbed G.Network’s customer base and kept London’s competitive broadband market functioning. Once the due diligence began
www.g.network
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MARCH 2026 Volume 48 No.1
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