London FTTP Broadband Network CommunityFibre Reports Strong Growth
Network operator and UK ISP CommunityFibre, which has invested c.£1bn to deploy a 5Gbps speed full fibre (FTTP) network across 1.342 million homes (inc. 185k businesses within 200 metres of their network) – mostly in London, has today announced a “record year” of annual revenue growth (up 48% to £113m) and their customer base hit 429,000 (up 26% for a take-up rate of just under 32%).
The provider’s preview of its annual results to the end of 2025, which aren’t currently scheduled to be published until September 2026, also revealed that they’d reported an adjustment in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to £49.8 million, up by an impressive 530% from 2024. The company has been EBITDA positive since April 2024 and expects to be “cash flow positive before financing costs in H1 2026“.
CommunityFibre added that their OpEx (Operating Expenses) were also 12% lower year-on-year despite rapid customer growth, a positive wholesale launch with VodafoneThree and customer satisfaction. “As London’s fastest and second fastest provider with a new wholesale partner in the pipeline, Community Fibre expects continued growth throughout the year,” said the announcement.
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Graeme Oxby, Chief Executive Officer of CommunityFibre, said:
“Community Fibre is converting rapid customer growth and great customer service into strong financial results. These results are important to the wider Altnet industry, as it supports the Government’s desire to bring viable competition to the UK broadband market. Community Fibre has proven that new broadband competition can not only be financially sustainable in the long run, it can also deliver meaningful advantages to UK society.”
The provider has come through somewhat of a rough patch due to the rising cost of build, strong market competition and high interest rates (a common challenge in the market). All of this previously caused a slowdown in network build and related redundancies (here and here), which resulted in CF pivoting their strategy to focus more on growing customer uptake (commercialisation). So far that appears to be working for them.
The flip side of this is that today’s results preview doesn’t include any detail on the other side of their accounts, such as in terms of debt and losses etc.
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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Unfortunately, their outsourced South African ‘customer support’ is appalling.
I agree – I had to call them recently and it was really bad!
Fascinating to compare. While Netomnia has less than half the cost of building the network and continues to expand, CF is aggressively pushing take up more to pad numbers for what is clearly expected to be a sale this or next year, but at the expense of future sustainability in the business by not doing any more expansion.
Total Revenue: £113 million (up 48% from £76m in 2024).
Adjusted EBITDA: £49.8 million (a 530% increase from 2024’s ~£8m).
Premises Passed: 1.342 million (The build remains paused, focused strictly on London and existing footprint).
Number of Customers: 429,000 (a 26% year-on-year increase).
Estimated Net Debt: £780 million (Calculated based on previous drawn debt of £714m plus the £125m facility added in late 2024, offset by strong cash flow from EBITDA).
Net Debt per Premises Passed: £581.22 (slight increase from £505 as debt was drawn to reach the “Ready for Service” state for the final footprint).
Average Revenue Per User (ARPU):
Calculation: £113m (Total Revenue) / 382,500 (Average Customers for the year) = £295.42/year.
I think many would argue that “pushing take up” helps rather than hinders future sustainability much more than network expansion.
In the present situation CF are stable and investable and once they are cash positive can reinvest that cash in network growth without the expensive debt.
There are a lot of proximate infill patches they can tackle, round where I am, for not a lot of £££.
Generally people like CF – it is cheap and it is symmetrical.
I’m perfectly happy with the 1G/1G I have.
Shame they stopped building around Croydon.
Had 3 engineers tell me they’ve stopped and are concentrating on support.
For all the AltNet naysayers out there. Also for the multi-gigabit naysayers. Yes there might be some consolidation. Yes prices may need to go up even for AltNets. Yes some AltNets will go into administration and disappear. But the network AltNet built will remain for ever. And a lot of people (probably 50%) will be feeding the old BT and their lack of innovation. The result couldn’t be better. Long live to the AltNets!
Threads in this forum show that the alleged “innovation” you claim isn’t all that. Poor performance that is instantly improved by moving to a higher quality ISP on Openreach.
What “innovations” did the altnets bring to the table? How to lose tons of money even when the regulator tries all it can to knobble your major competitor?
Openreach did need convincing to expand their FTTP rollout to continue to remain the country’s largest network, but now that this is in train, there isn’t much “innovation” that separates the altnets apart from each other or from Openreach unless you’re one of those who obsesses over XGSPON.
Would have been nice to have some comment on whether they when they might start building again. I assume that is still. If they are making money perhaps they have the cash flow to invest in more expansion. We just missed out when they stopped building and have been left in a no-mans-land between two networks with no OR alternative 🙁
They rolled out in my area and did every road around me except mine. They’ve used existing telegraph poles in other roads so I can’t see why they couldn’t do the same in my road. I’d really like faster upload speeds but I’m stuck with what Openreach and VM currently offer.
Drilling into masonry wall, no eye protection! (and possibly should also have gloves)
Anyone from HSE viewing this post?
It’s clearly staged. The back box is already secured to the wall and the tail is present. There is no H&S requirement to wear gloves and safety glasses when pretending to drill a hole.
They installed boxes on poles in the N15 5JB area in 2023, but the service is still not active…
A trading update without details of operating losses and debts is not a trading update.
I am very happy with Community Fibre
I hope they do not go into Administration