AllPoints Fibre Denies Talk of UK FTTP Network Sale to CityFibre
A new newspaper report claims that CityFibre is allegedly engaged in “discussions” with Fern Trading, a subsidiary of Octopus Investments, over the potential acquisition of the Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network built by All Points Fibre Networks (APFN) – itself reflecting an earlier consolidation of Jurassic Fibre, Swish Fibre and Giganet.
CityFibre currently aspires to cover up to 8 million UK premises with their new full fibre network – representing c.30% of the UK (they’ve already done 4.4 million or 4.2m as ready for service). But their original target of hitting that by around 2025 will not be achieved, and the operator has instead made no secret of their desire to boost their growth via mergers and acquisition (M&A) of smaller alternative networks.
In fact, CityFibre has only relatively recently completed or announced the consolidations of several altnets, including LitFibre and Connexin (here). But a separate report has also indicated that the network operator already has “up to” 850,000 homes served by other alternative networks “under M&A exclusivity“ (here), which suggests that even more deals are imminent.
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According to The Times (paywall), the acquisition hungry provider is now said to be eyeing up the network assets of APFN for a possible deal (note: CityFibre and APFN already have a wholesale access agreement). The newspaper claims that “discussions” have taken place, although it’s unclear to what level this occurred, and Fern Trading itself has responded to say that APFN “is not for sale“.
However, we’d take that “not for sale” remark with a pinch of salt, particularly as they suffered a pre-tax loss of £35.2m for 2023 and are under similar strains to everybody else. In addition, it’s not clear whether their comment was only in reference to APFN the company or their network assets, or both. Furthermore, there isn’t much in the way of overbuild between CityFibre and APFN’s network across England, which would make them a potentially good fit.
In terms of network size, the FT uses an estimate from Enders Analysis to suggest that APFN’s infrastructure could reach 568,000 premises by the end of March 2025. But an independent estimate of ‘Ready for Service’ (RFS) premises published by Thinkbroadband put them closer to 298,000 premises in March 2025. Sadly, APFN have not shared an official figure in some time.
Finally, CityFibre itself is currently still in the process of trying to secure a £500m equity financing deal with existing investors (here), which is expected to be supported by £1bn of incremental debt funding – potentially enough liquidity to keep them fuelled through to mid-2027. The possibility of further deals may well hinge, at least in part, on the outcome of this.
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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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I think both positions could be true. APFN appears to be setting itself up as an AltNet aggregator. If that’s the business that they want to be in then it would make sense for them to sell off the full fibre networks that their predecessors built to someone they’re already integrated with, like CityFibre, while retaining APFN as an aggregator. In my mind there’s a deal to be made here where bot APFN and CityFibre can come out with much stronger businesses than before.
APFN stopped selling on their network as of 28th February 2025, and now their former installers are facing redundancy. That’s a big red flag.
The explanation being used is that the “ultimate client” post-transfer isn’t APFN anymore, but this is highly contentious, especially since the work is clearly continuing, just under a different company. Installers are being let go despite the job still existing, just elsewhere.
To complicate things, Cuckoo (which absorbed Jurassic Fibre) claims the current service freeze is due to a “planned migration”. From a recent Trustpilot complaint:
“As part of the planned migration of services, we are no longer selling new Jurassic Fibre packages… We have paused all new installations.”
Their response to the customer also included:
“To the best of my knowledge, there are no current plans to transfer ownership of our network. Post-migration, Jurassic Fibre and Cuckoo’s networks will merge and operate under a single brand… no new installations will be scheduled until the migration is complete.”
So we now have:
No sales since Feb
Installers facing redundancy
Active work continuing under new names
Denials of network sale, yet signs of backend consolidation
No staff protection applied
And customers in live areas being turned away
It’s hard not to see this as a strategic restructuring—or even a quiet handoff—with the workforce and customer base caught in the middle.
That’s pretty contentious though, especially given that the work is still continuing, it’s the employees and installers who are paying the price — being told they’re redundant, with no transfer option or job security, even though the fibre work itself isn’t going anywhere except to a new company.
Add to that the fact that CityFibre is rumoured to be in talks to acquire APFN’s network, and you’ve got a picture of quiet consolidation happening behind the scenes.
Cuckoo have stated that the pause of installs is due to a system migration to cuckoo.
From a recent Trustpilot customer complaint review where a potential customer was refused service after buying a house which had Jurassic Fibre service which was live upto he moved in. Everything in place ready for a new account and Router.
“As part of the planned migration of services, we are no longer selling new Jurassic Fibre packages, as all services are transitioning to Cuckoo as part of a planned merger. This unfortunately means we are unable to set up new Jurassic Fibre accounts, even in areas where the infrastructure is in place.”
“The reason we are not currently accepting new customer orders is precisely due to this upcoming migration. Installing new customers on the Jurassic Fibre network now would require another transition once the migration is complete. To avoid unnecessary disruption, we have paused all new installations. In the meantime, we are referring prospective customers to Cuckoo. If they are not yet available in your area, we encourage you to register your interest directly with them, and you will be contacted once service becomes available.
Cuckoo’s response to his complaint
To the best of my knowledge, there are no current plans to transfer ownership of our network. Post-migration, Jurassic Fibre and Cuckoo’s networks will merge and operate under a single brand, but the combined network will continue to support all existing service areas. There should be no negative impact on service availability due to this merger.
It’s important to note that, legally, service providers—including Jurassic Fibre—are not obligated to provide coverage to all areas and may choose where and when to offer service. While we understand this can be frustrating, especially when you rely on a stable internet connection for working from home, we did not receive a request from you for installation prior to the sales freeze.
We are not required to give public notice regarding service availability decisions. While we sympathise with your situation, we must remain consistent: no new installations will be scheduled until the migration is complete, and no exceptions can be made on an individual basis.”
@Anon I’ve emailed Mark on this topic multiple times but no response or story has seen the light of day. Cuckoo emailed me recently that they are taking over the Jurassic Fibre service, and they are going to retain my pricing but change my package to symmetric. So the takeover is happening and will take place between June & August.
On the migration of the retail base from JF/Swish/Giganet to Cuckoo, this is nothing new and forms part of the original APFN consolidation – it’s been going on gradually for the best part of 1-2 years and has been reported multiple times before.
@anon, isn’t All Points Fibre itself a consolidation company for Jurassic, Swish and giganet? Not sure I follow the ‘quiet consolidation behind the scenes’ line.
Hi Mark, to clarify my comment. I am referring to when I emailed about Jurassic Fibre no longer selling, and details on the new Cuckoo packages that were going to replace it.
If the small AltNets don’t decide to sell-out soon they could be left on the sidelines as being too small to buy.
Couldn’t agree more with you.
Wonder why the Truespeed & County Broadband merger is taking so long, its been well over a year now since it was first announced. Or is it because the main investor of both companies don’t trust or have confidence in the Truespeed CEO to run the newly merged company.
@ SquareSausages:
Thank you.
The rule of thumb is that business mergers will take between 18 months and two years to complete. There will usually be a lot of low-hanging fruit, but it is very difficult to estimate the costs of the changes required to gain the full benefit from a merger. Then there are the details of contractual agreements that can make things very painful. There have been many cases where mergers fail and leave the combined business unsustainable or worth less than the total value of the original businesses.
To be fair, a sale/transfer of the physical infrastructure to CF in return for an aggregation agreement would free up Octopus Investments to focus on retail (Cuckoo and Brillband are a good pairing, an operator running 2 ISPs where the brand and offering is positioned differently is a great idea… Take note FullFibre and Zzoomm) and aggregation.
That strategic move from managing/growing physical infrastructure to solely customer (ie wholesale and direct customers) is an obvious one if the sums add up and aligns perfectly with CF.