Six Alternative UK Broadband Networks Ranked in Sunday Times 100 Tech List
The latest 2026 Sunday Times 100 Tech list has been published, which reflects a ranking of Britain’s fastest-growing private technology companies. The good news is that six broadband network operators have managed to make it into the 2026 hardware list, with Netomnia topping the table in 3rd place and CityFibre just edging in at 48th at the bottom.
The list itself is split into a top 50 for software companies and a top 50 for hardware companies, with altnet operators all being ranked under the hardware list. But it’s worth remembering that being one of Britain’s fastest-growing private technology companies doesn’t always equate to overall success. For example, the last year’s (2025) list only ranked two broadband operators, toob (4th) and G.Network (33rd), but the latter is now in administration (here).
The 2026 ranking manages to include six alternative networks, including toob that remains well ranked (9th) for the second year running. The 100 businesses in the full list are said to have combined revenues of £3.7 billion and plan to create 4,300 “well-paid roles” this year, although there’s no mention of how redundancies might weigh against this (probably because companies tend not to broadcast such things until they happen).
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Nick Parbutt, toob CEO and Founder, said:
“It’s an honour to be ranked in The Sunday Times 100 Tech listing for the 2nd year running. This achievement reflects our rapid growth, thriving customer base and is a testament of our dedicated team who work incredibly hard to deliver ultrafast full-fibre connectivity to homes and businesses across England and Scotland.”
2026 Sunday Times 100 Tech List (Hardware)
|
Rank
|
Name
|
Activity
|
Location
|
Sales
|
Growth
|
Profit
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | Netomnia | Fibre broadband provider | Tewkesbury | £38.7m | 352.78% | No |
| 9 | toob | Fibre broadband provider | Portsmouth | £14.0m | 169.89% | No |
| 13 | Fibrus | Fibre broadband provider | Belfast | £29.5m | 116.05% | No |
| 18 | CommunityFibre | Fibre broadband provider | London | £76.0m | 101.93% | No |
| 31 | ITS Technology | Fibre infrastructure provider | Warrington | £34.5m | 54.74% | No |
| 48 | CityFibre | Fibre broadband provider | London | £133.5m | 27.82% | No |
UPDATE 9:51am
Somehow we overlooked ITS Technology in the first draft.
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 would have added ITS Technology to that list at 31, it is a Fibre Altnet but specialises in B2B and Wholesale. Think they are definately worth and should be included in this list
Mark, you’ve missed ITS off this list. 31st Place.
Fantastic to see so many altnets showing such strong top-line growth and featuring in the Sunday Times tech list. However, as last year’s inclusion of G.Network shows – now in administration – growth on its own doesn’t guarantee long-term viability, and the fact that none of the operators listed are yet profitable really shouldn’t be overlooked. The prices that toob are charging, even when reselling over other altnets’ networks, raise fair questions about how and when they expect to move from pure growth to sustainable profit, especially given the likely customer acquisition costs needed to deliver this kind of expansion at such low ARPUs
Equal in one respect – not making any profit. I wonder in the longer term how many of these mentioned will survive in their present form?