Jobs at Risk as Svella Connect and Virgin Media UK Work to Settle Dispute

Broadband ISP Virgin Media (inc. nexfibre and O2) and civil engineering partner Svella Connect are currently trying to resolve a difficult dispute over “contractual terms“, which touches on issues of worker safety, rate reductions, and work volumes for Nexfibre. But there’s still hope for an amicable solution that may avoid the risk of redundancies.

For context. Svella Connect is a telecommunications contractor working with Virgin Media, Openreach and CityFibre to help expand their respective national fibre optic broadband networks. A good chunk of their work with Virgin Media was acquired when they gobbled up the struggling telecoms division of NMCN Plc at the start of 2022 (here).

Svella Connect was thus previously carrying out work for Virgin Media under both their past Project Lightning network expansion and the more recent Morpheus contracts, with the Morpheus framework originally running until March 2025.

However, recently ISPreview has observed a rise in complaints from certain Virgin Media areas, which were previously known to be covered by engineers from Svella Connect but which now seemed to be handled by another contractor. The complaints tended to manifest as delays for customers getting connected and awaiting re-pulls etc.

Admittedly cable re-pulls, which usually reflect a change of cable to your home, can sometimes involve multiple engineers to complete, or construction work and permissions from local councils that can cause delays. But on digging deeper (no pun intended) we also discovered that Svella Connect had begun the process of lodging a Part 7 Claim against Virgin Media (case ID: HT-2024-000414).

Svella Connected commented:

“Last year, Svella and Virgin Media mutually agreed to transfer the Morpheus contract to O’Connor Utilities, with the understanding that this would secure longer-term volumes under the Lightning contract. Any customer service concerns that have arisen are likely post-transfer, as Svella Connect is not aware of any outstanding issues from its period of work.

Separately, Svella Connect has raised concerns regarding Virgin Media’s approach to contractual terms. This includes attempted unilateral rate reductions and a shift to less safe working practices—particularly the move away from MEWPs for overhead work to ladders, which was not part of the original agreement.

Svella Connect also believes that Virgin Media has not fulfilled certain obligations under the transfer agreement, particularly in relation to work volumes for Nexfibre. As a result, Svella has lodged a claim for financial impacts arising from these breaches. However, this has not been formally issued, as discussions are ongoing in the hope of resolving matters amicably and endeavouring to mitigate the impact of any potential job losses that failure to provide these volumes will cause.”

The contractor also clarified that there were “no genuine performance concerns” on Svella’s part, and that payments continue to be made by Virgin Media for all amounts outside of the claim.

A Virgin Media spokesperson told ISPreview:

“We are continuing to work with Svella and providing open and constructive feedback, as we do with all our valued build partners, to ensure they meet the high standards we expect.”

Disputes between network operators and contractors do happen in this industry, although they sometimes get resolved before reaching the courts and thus simply go unnoticed by the wider public. Hopefully an amicable solution can be found for both sides, which would help to avoid the aforementioned risk of future redundancies.