Most altnets are loss making business propped up by investors. The market will continue to consolidate, smaller providers will merge with or be taken over by others. This is no different to the various cable services decades back, lots of different providers that eventually coalesced down to a single operator. The ride for altnets is going to be rough going over the next decade whilst they consolidate into a position where eventually they might be able to make a profit.

In reply to a post by ian72:

The ride for altnets is going to be rough going over the next decade whilst they consolidate into a position where eventually they might be able to make a profit.

All very true, no doubt, but small comfort for those of us who have little option but to ride the altnet roller coaster. I'm too old for that sort of thing, I just want a peaceful life now.

Anyone got any suggestions for someone in my situation, outlined a couple of posts back? To complete the picture, 4G is poor where I live (-115 dbM indoors typically) and 5G pretty much non existent. Paying money to Musk for Starlink is against my religion, even if I could afford it.

In reply to a post by Thaumaturge:

In reply to a post by ian72:

The ride for altnets is going to be rough going over the next decade whilst they consolidate into a position where eventually they might be able to make a profit.

All very true, no doubt, but small comfort for those of us who have little option but to ride the altnet roller coaster. I'm too old for that sort of thing, I just want a peaceful life now.

Anyone got any suggestions for someone in my situation, outlined a couple of posts back? To complete the picture, 4G is poor where I live (-115 dbM indoors typically) and 5G pretty much non existent. Paying money to Musk for Starlink is against my religion, even if I could afford it.

A lot of Openreach only customers would like the cheaper and faster packages that a lot of altnets provide. The downside is what you are seeing - if you have just one altnet you are at their mercy and will be affected by mergers and acquisitions. Upsides and downsides to either delivery (of course the lucky ones might have OpenReach, altnet(s) and Virgin to choose from - but that is a relatively small minority.

yeah hard to find normal broadband provider in the uk.

Edited by MotoFanatic (Fri 29-May-26 17:29:28)

In reply to a post by Thaumaturge:

All very true, no doubt, but small comfort for those of us who have little option but to ride the altnet roller coaster. I'm too old for that sort of thing, I just want a peaceful life now.

Anyone got any suggestions for someone in my situation, outlined a couple of posts back? To complete the picture, 4G is poor where I live (-115 dbM indoors typically) and 5G pretty much non existent. Paying money to Musk for Starlink is against my religion, even if I could afford it.

I am the same as you, getting older and not wanting hassle, one of the reasons I went for a Mac and not another Windows based tower machine.

But when Plusnet tried to push me to a 24 month contract, pushing me to FTTP, also wanted to increase the price I was paying for a service I really did not want, I thought lets try something else.
Zzoomm put a card though my door £24 a month for 12 months on a 12 month month contract, I thought stick it, lets go for it.

I did have the thoughts as people on here would know about what would happen if zzoom went belly up and a company I don;t know, the CEO had already started up one network and sold it off. In the end I went for it and I am happy with Zzoomm.

Okay, they are not Zzoom now, they are Full fiber/Befibre what ever. Sometimes you just have to go for it, still a chance it could still fall apart.

In reply to a post by MotoFanatic:

yeah hard to find normal broadband provider in the uk.

What is a normal broadband provider?

Morning Adrian,

Hopefully I'm mistaken, but I get the impression that Mr Moto might just be "extracting the urine" out of those of us of an age that desire less hassle(?), in his reply to Ian.

If it weren't for the Alt-Nets, likely BT's copper assets would still be dripping with sweat, however, surely there's a better way to get from where we were, to where the UK needs to be, without a shed-load of wasted CapEx into duplicated, triplicated or even, in some cases, quadruplicated fibre networks (proverbially & literally) sunk in the ground?

I sometimes wonder what that investment capital could have been used for, if it hadn't been used for chasing high flying pies.

/end of rant.

All the best,

In reply to a post by ian72:

A lot of Openreach only customers would like the cheaper and faster packages that a lot of altnets provide. The downside is what you are seeing - if you have just one altnet you are at their mercy and will be affected by mergers and acquisitions. Upsides and downsides to either delivery (of course the lucky ones might have OpenReach, altnet(s) and Virgin to choose from - but that is a relatively small minority.

Fair point. I guess the grass always looks greener elsewhere. There's still a lot of folks without any fibre options at all, so I'm better off than many.

My contract with Swish/Cuckoo/Onestream/APFN/whoever it is today expired just over a week ago. So far my service continues, albeit without V6. My plan at present is to lie low and say nuffin, and hope that they don't notice or are too disorganised to do anything about it until hopefully alternatives are a bit clearer. The worry is that Onestream will wake up and demand I sign a new contract with them or else, because given recent reviews of them on ISPR, there's no way I'm going to do that.

In reply to a post by bit_bucket:

If it weren't for the Alt-Nets, likely BT's copper assets would still be dripping with sweat, however, surely there's a better way to get from where we were, to where the UK needs to be, without a shed-load of wasted CapEx into duplicated, triplicated or even, in some cases, quadruplicated fibre networks (proverbially & literally) sunk in the ground?

Some remember it took "LLU" with companies such as Bulldog providing upto 16 Mbps ADSL2+ whilst BT Group Plc was happy upto 8 Mbps. The gorilla has always needed a poke to move.... once moving can deliver very well.

That dichotomy isn't lost on the investors; all hoping for "first mover" advantage, to get and keep as many customers as possible.

Afternoon JC,

If it isn't "... lost on investors ...", why are most of them acting as if they are "first movers", when, patently, all but one, in a particular geographical area, cannot be so?

Challengers, such as Bulldog, work(ed) well, on a single asset base (transmission network, be it copper or fibre), but the current situation is bound to, at least in my (largely irrelevant) opinion, "end in tears".

All the best,

Edited by bit_bucket (Sat 30-May-26 12:44:55)