Broadband Altnet Netomnia Puts 100 UK Staff on Redundancy Notice
Alternative broadband operator Netomnia (Substantial Group), which has already expanded their full fibre (FTTP) network to cover over 3 million UK premises (inc. 500,000 customers) and is in the process of being acquired by the parents of Virgin Media (O2) and nexfibre, has confirmed to ISPreview that they’ve put around 100 further workers on notice of possible redundancy.
Sources began informing us about this development last night and a quick bit of checking via social media confirmed that there had been a clear increase in the number of employees reporting that they were now open to work, which has just been confirmed by Netomnia. The move follows an earlier cut of around 50 jobs in February 2026 (here), although that related to the merging of retail ISP brand Brsk into YouFibre.
The latest round of redundancies have instead been linked to the same wider market conditions as many other network operators have had to face, such as high interest rates, rising build costs and competition. The challenges have, over the past few years, already caused plenty of redundancies across the sector, particularly as operators have gradually switched from a focus on new network build to commercialisation. Netomnia is not immune to such strains.
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The company’s most recent results to the end of Q4 2025 revealed that their revenues had increased to £104m (up 168% year-on-year) and they were delivering positive adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) of £5m (up from £0.3m in Q3). However, Netomnia’s ongoing network build also meant that their Net Debt had grown by 69% in the year to total £905m (debt drawn to date including accrued interest less cash), which is up from £801m in Q3.
The expected acquisition by nexfibre’s parents is another factor, which may yet have further impacts in the future (once the deal has been approved by the competition watchdog). We are currently awaiting an official statement from Netomnia and will update again when that arrives, although it’s possible the current regulatory process may limit their ability to comment.
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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Has nothing to do with financial constraints of the industry. Ebitda positive with an already tiny team of staff. This is borderline a HR claim based on the timing of the sale of the business. The less people there are the more of the pie a few will get.
I doubt that any of the people being made redundant have any fingers in the pie.
“EBITDA positive” means nothing when your earnings are swamped by debt repayments; this is still a massively loss-making business. Alternatively, you can consider than VM are paying an extra £0.9bn to cover the debt in addition to the headline price.
Wow… another day, another altnet bloodbath.
Netomnia just put ~100 more workers on notice. At this rate the only thing growing faster than their fibre footprint is the pile of CVs on LinkedIn.
High interest rates, exploding build costs, brutal competition – well yeah, the “build it and they will come” dream is officially on life support. Sector’s eating itself alive.
Heart goes out to the people actually losing their jobs though, this sucks.
The UK fibre market is looking increasingly unforgiving.
Reports that around 100 Netomnia employees are now at risk of redundancy are another reminder that rapid network expansion does not automatically translate into a sustainable business.
Borrowing costs remain high, construction expenses have climbed, and multiple operators are fighting for the same customers. The industry spent years prioritising coverage; now the financial consequences are starting to catch up.
Behind every restructuring announcement are real people facing uncertainty. Whatever anyone thinks of the wider altnet strategy, those affected deserve support.
If the CMA stick to their guidelines, there’s very little chance of NexFibre being allowed to takeover Netomnia without selling off the Fibre assets in VMO2 overlap areas. I doubt these redundancies are related to the NexFibre takeover.
They absolutely are related to the NexFibre takeover. To put it brutally all NexFibre (or CityFibre) want from this is the assets and the customers. Both potential aquirers have announced that they intend to expand by aquisition rather than building.
The actual number at risk are over 170 with a proposed reduction of over 100.
News delivered in tipical half arsed fashion.
Basically most of the build team are in the firing line.
I can only write about what we’re credibly able to confirm. Nobody mentioned the 170 figure to me, so I’ve not enough basis to be able to confirm that, only the c.100 figure that are actually likely to be cut.
I can also confirm it’s actually more like 180+ up for redundancy
This is exactly what the previous message says we have been told consistently that the company is in a good place financially but now that the CMA has shifted to phase 2 the company is all of a sudden struggling financially this is nothing but a ploy to say to the CMA that if the sale is stopped they will fold the company as it’s not viable anymore
As if they will need a build team next year!
Unfortunately for those in that team, if the merger goes through they are gone, if it doesn’t then they may also be gone as the disappearing rug is pulled even faster!
Well I can only guess all the rollouts on the webpage will be scrubed.
However the post code checker is new and quiet fun! But not much use!