Virgin Media O2 See UK Broadband Users Fall to 5.71 Million as Nexfibre Ramps FTTP

The latest Q2 2024 results from Virgin Media (O2) have today been published, which reveals that they’re now home to 5,710,700 fixed broadband customers (down by -12.2k in Q2 2024 vs +5.3k in Q1) and built another 295,300 full fibre (FTTP) premises – mostly via nexfibre (up from 194k last quarter). Both VM and nexfibre now cover 5m premises via full fibre.

According to the latest results, the combined VMO2 and nexfibre broadband network currently reaches 17,489,000 Homes Serviceable (up from 17,193,700 in Q1) and the vast majority of that new build is from nexfibre. The nexfibre network alone accounts for well over 1 million premises passed of this total (here).

As a result of the above, a total of 5 million Virgin Media and nexfibre premises (footprint) are now covered by FTTP (XGS-PON and RFOG), which is up from c.4.2m in Q1 2024. But a tiny portion of the nexfibre figures will include a bit of infill build for Virgin Media itself (separate to nexfibre). The c.175,000 premises passed by Upp, which was acquired by nexfibre last year, have yet to be integrated into any of Virgin’s totals (inc. c.4,000 customers).

Nexfibre Rollout Progress
Q2 2024 = 295,300 Premises
Q1 2024 = 194,000 Premises
Q4 2023 = c.299,000 Premises
Q3 2023 = 250,800 Premises
Q2 2023 = 175,500 Premises
Q1 2023 = 107,800 Premises
Q4 2022 = 24,000 Premises

Just for context. Telefónica, Liberty Global and InfraVia Capital Partners setup a new £4.5bn joint venture called nexfibre in 2022 (here), which aims to deploy an open access full fibre (FTTP) network to reach “up to” 7 million UK homes (starting with 5m by 2026) in areas NOT served by Virgin Media’s own network of 16m+ premises. But Virgin Media, which shares some of the same parentage, is currently the only ISP on this network (here).

At the same time, Virgin Media’s Project Mustang programme is also upgrading their older Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC1) and FTTP based Radio Frequency over Glass (RFoG) network – covering over 16 million premises – to harness the same XGS-PON based FTTP technology as nexfibre. But this process isn’t due to complete until 2028, although it will eventually mean that VMO2 and nexfibre cover up to 23 million premises with full fibre.

The operator’s (O2) mobile base has also grown during Q1, while sadly Virgin Media has stopped giving any solid figures for their Pay TV (video) base (this often happens when a base is in decline). But most of their mobile growth is coming via wholesale and prepaid, while O2’s own mobile contract base reduced by 118,400 (ending Q2 at 15.9 million).

VMO2 UK Customer (Connection) Figures – Q2 2024
5,710,700 Fixed Broadband – (down from 5,722,900 in Q1)
45,486,400 Mobile inc. Wholesale – (up from 45,083,300)

The latest results also state that 5G coverage is now available to almost two thirds (65%) of the UK population (up from “more than 50%” in Q1), which follows the switch-on of next generation 5G Standalone (SA) technology in the first quarter. The company said they’re “on track to bring 5G to all populated areas by the end of 2030“, although they haven’t specified a % figure for population or geographic coverage.

On the financial front, VMO2 reported total revenue of £2,673.7m in Q2 2024, which is up from £2,588.8m last quarter.

Lutz Schüler, CEO of VMO2, said:

“Despite a tough trading environment, we remained focused on delivering more for our customers, continuing to invest significantly in our networks and services, to the level of more than £1 billion so far this year and successfully executing price changes. We have maintained consumer fixed and mobile revenue excluding handset, with overall revenue impacted predominantly by mobile hardware headwinds, and profitability is on track and in line with our full year guidance.

“Our fibre deployment has gathered significant pace, with the Virgin Media O2 fibre footprint now hitting 5 million premises as we push forward towards creating the UK’s largest national fibre challenger. Our 5G mobile connectivity now covers almost two-thirds of the UK population and the team pulled out all the stops to hit our Shared Rural Network target, improving mobile coverage in rural areas of the country.

Looking ahead, our new network sharing agreement with Vodafone UK builds on the success of our existing relationship and also keeps Virgin Media O2 in a strong position should the Vodafone-Three merger be approved – an outcome we support and believe would be a positive step for investment in the UK’s digital infrastructure.

Looking to the second half of the year, our strategy to invest in key drivers of future growth is the right one, and we’re focused on delivering while transforming and simplifying our business for long-term success.”

At this point it’s worth not reading too much into Virgin Media’s fixed broadband (customer base) decline, since they often get hit by student and price-rise related contract cancellations in Q2 (this tends to recover in later quarters). On the other hand, Virgin Media are under a lot of pressure from alternative networks (not unlike Openreach) that can often undercut them on price, speed and all without the historic baggage of consumer complaints.

However, the combination of Virgin Media and nexfibre is potentially a potent one for the future, provided they can make their wholesale commercials attractive enough and treat partner ISPs fairly (easier said than done). But they’ve arguably been moving too slowly on all of this, and there’s also a lack of clarity on Project Mustang’s progress.