Broadband Altnet Netomnia UK Wins FTTH Europe 2026 Operator Award
Alternative network operator Netomnia (Substantial Group), which has built their own full fibre broadband (FTTP) network to cover 3 million UK premises RFS (inc. 460,000 customers) and is currently in the process of being acquired by VMO2/nexfibre’s parents (here), have just been named the winner of the FTTH Europe 2026 Operator Award.
The award, which was handed out by the FTTH Council Europe during their annual conference in London this week, is designed to “acknowledge an operator company that has significantly contributed to the development and roll-out of FTTH in Europe” over the past 12-months. The winner is chosen by a judging panel that consists of FTTH Council board members, committee chairs, conference and workshop speakers.
Suffice to say that it’s no surprise to see Netomnia winning the award, particularly given their rapid pace of build over the past year and at a time when many other altnets have struggled to just stay afloat.
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Jeremy Chelot, Group CEO of Netomnia and YouFibre, said:
“Winning the FTTH Europe Operator Award is a powerful endorsement of what we’ve built in just six years. We set out to challenge the status quo in the UK fibre market, delivering faster, more efficient and more scalable infrastructure. This recognition validates both our execution and our ambition. As we continue to scale, our focus remains clear: to drive competition, unlock investment, and deliver world-class connectivity for millions of homes and businesses across the UK.”
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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Last ever award for “FTTH Europe 2026 Operator Award” then, as being consumed by VM in a few months as regulator won’t stop it that’s for sure….
I think by its very nature this will be the last time they issue a 2026 award.
yep, delete 2026 and insert any year after 2026 instead. Most would have got that.
Going from being awarded for something positive, to being taken over by a firm infamous for its god-awfulness.
well deserved
Shame they are in the process of selling out to someone with what must be among the worst reputations in the UK broadband market, helping to re-establish the duopoly. I would have preferred they merged with another independent operator, or several to create a third large scale network, but that chance has been missed.
Shame vermin are in the process of taking the competition out. A smart pal of mine once mentioned that if vermin do not get any wholesale customers then they are finished. Hoping all the smaller firms get together and become a main player in the market instead of vermin. Fingers x’d
DOCSIS is the peasant of the broadband world, vastly inferior in every way. VM has been left behind, their upload speed is from the 1980s and routers are basic, one channel peasant quality tat.
They need Netomnia to circumvent years of inferior quality broadband and tech.
This is doomed to failure and the wholesale customers are going to find out the hard way that VM are not in it for the longer term
VM aren’t buying Netomnia.
Name is nexfibre but people running the network will be very much VM. There are only about 30 staff in Nexfibre.
Very true but doesn’t make the original post any less irrelevant. Also: single band routers?
I do wonder what the “significant contribution” is. What have they done that endless FTTP operators, including that whose physical infrastructure that they are heavily reliant upon, have not done?
Deploy non legacy kit like GPON and use forward thinking so something is not out of date as soon as its deployed……or take years to upgrade existing customers ON GPON once you decide to go to XGS-PON, and then find whilst they (Brokenreach) are doing that the others are on 50PON/newer anyway!
Cityfibre probably have a larger XGS footprint until OR flick the switch, and I would presume there are European operators with even larger footprints, so that would still rule Jezza out of contention.
50GPON was a PR piece in the same way as when Openreach announced they were doing 25GPON in the suburbs surrounding their Suffolk R&D HQ, probably to a handful of their own employees.
Ivor, wish it would be a flick of the switch to xgs-pin but it’s likely to be phased over many years after trials.
If they go xgs-pon and symmetric I’d be happy with Openreach as would many others.
And Jesser looks like he’s just come from the Gym!
He’ll be able to afford a suit soon, when he gets the money from the sale. 🙂
Jeremy always looks like he’s been on the bench and lifting weights. He looks too buff to be a Telecoms CEO. LOL