Voneus to Cut Jobs and Slow UK Gigabit Broadband Rollout UPDATE

Rural broadband operator and UK ISP Voneus, which has spent the past few years rolling out a gigabit-capable fixed wireless access (FWA) and full fibre (FTTP) network across poorly served areas, has today informed staff about a fresh round of redundancies after “market conditions” meant it was “no longer possible” to continue their previous pace of deployment.

The development follows shortly after the provider dropped out of the Government’s £12m (state aid) Project Gigabit contract for Mid West Shropshire (here) and suffered a spate of complaints about their legacy network (here). Voneus had previously been aspiring to cover 370,000 UK premises via their gigabit-capable broadband network, although today’s update notes that they have now passed the 100,000 premises milestone.

Naturally, the operator is not immune to the challenges being faced by many other alternative broadband networks in today’s market, such as the pressure from high interest rates, rising build costs and strong competition from rivals etc. Instead, Voneus has today informed ISPreview that they’re adapting their “operating model” to focus less on build and more on commercialisation of what they’ve already built. Similar strategies have been adopted by many other altnets.

A Voneus Spokesperson told ISPreview:

“Since its founding in 2011, Voneus has made impressive strides in establishing itself as a leading provider of rural broadband in the UK, recently passing the milestone of 100,000 gigabit-enabled premises.

Due to market conditions, it is no longer possible for this network roll-out to continue at the same pace. As a result, Voneus is adapting its operating model to focus on enhancing customer service as well as continuing to grow sales and revenue. This shift in focus will involve a strategic reorganisation which is likely to result in some redundancies.

The company remains active on potential strategic growth opportunities through mergers and acquisitions and to secure funding for future network deployment.”

The company’s most recent accounts, which cover the year to 31st March 2023, revealed that the group is being funded by up to £250m from its investors and was home to a total of 156 employees (up from 121 in 2022); but we understand their latest figure is just under 300. Voneus also reported a turnover of £3.29m (2022: £2.72m), gross profit of £942k (2022: £1.39m) and a loss for the year of -£14.47m (2022: -£8.82m).

UPDATE 1:06pm

Voneus has informed ISPreview that they will continue to complete the fibre builds that are in-plan and remain committed to improving and maintaining their existing FWA (wireless) networks. For example, their plan to deploy a gigabit wireless network in Carmarthenshire (here) is now underway and “will be completed“.

The operator couldn’t yet say precisely how many jobs will go, but we understand the figure will be less than 100.