Broadband Altnet Netomnia Prepares Around 50 UK Redundancies
Alternative broadband operator Netomnia (Substantial Group), which has already expanded their full fibre (FTTP) network to cover 3 million UK premises (here) and is close to signing a major consolidation agreement with either Virgin Media’s (nexfibre) parents or CityFibre (here), is understood to have held talks over redundancies with around 50 employees.
According to ISPreview’s sources, staff were first notified about the latest development with jobs on Friday 6th February 2026, although the move was not unexpected. Netomnia spent a big chunk of last year completing their network merger with Brsk (here) and they recently announced that their associated retail ISP brands would also both be merged into YouFibre (here).
Suffice to say that such mergers often result in significant issues like role duplication. The unfortunate, albeit often necessary, outcome of this can be the loss of some jobs – helping to drive efficiency and keeping costs under control. But naturally, for employees, the outcome is often frustrating.
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Jeremy Chelot, Group CEO, told ISPreview:
“As we bring our businesses together into two stronger, more focused organisations — Netomnia and YouFibre — we are making a small number of targeted redundancies as part of the integration process. These decisions are never easy, and we are incredibly grateful for the contributions of our colleagues.
Netomnia is known and respected for being capital-efficient and responsible in how we scale, and these changes ensure we remain well-positioned for long-term, sustainable growth.”
The reality is that this may not be the last set of redundancies Netomnia have to make, which is likely to be particularly true if they end up reaching a major network merger agreement in the near future. Suffice to say that employees may be facing a nervous period of waiting to see what happens and how it will impact them. The same nerves may also be true for YouFibre’s customers.
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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In other words, reduce liabilities for a better offer / sale
No. These redundancies will most definitely be a consequence of the merger with Brsk, not due to any potential future acquisition of the business by a third-party.
No reason a customer of Brsk or YF should be nervous – unless it sells to VM and then it’s all gone to pot anyway and they will lose many customers – mainly those who came from VM!
Virgin Media is not involved in the takeover offer.
This is how you know Jeremy talks rubbish. During the entire merger process he said there will be no redundancies.
A reference/link to these comments would be interesting.
https://www.ft.com/content/9c679b17-668f-4b15-8e8b-65ca72409f66
Here is one link for you..
“The Netomnia-Brsk deal is set to be finalised in the coming weeks, subject to regulatory approval. No job cuts are expected.”
On a couple of podcasts he was saying “how great Netomnia and BRSK are for merging together with no jobs being lost”
Pathetic
Your link seems to be from over 18 months ago. Anything more recent?
That commitment is more than a year old. Look at how much the cost base has been changed by government policy since then. However, yes, a promise is a promise and promises should not be made lightly.
As I said, look at the many podcasts Jeremy has done since merger. He says BRSK and Netomnia merging with no job losses is an industry first..oh and he also mentions “look at me..look what I’ve done”.
Its common sense there will be job losses.
Not a nice place or people. Just take a look at their Glassdoor reviews
The FT article does indeed say “No job cuts are expected.” but it’s not a quote/attributed to anyone…
There will be more of this coming, especially if Virgin Media/Nexfibre get their grubby hands on Netomnia!
Have you considered that Nexfibre might instead be merged into Netomnia?
Probably see more of this across the industry. Hyperoptic let go a bunch of business development staff in December with engineers going through the process now. GNetwork ran out of money let go a whole workforce, so not surprised to see Netomnia follow.
Interesting to see how the Jeremy and Netomnia defenders spin this and the eventual sale. I was often ridiculed for suggesting this was Netomnia’s trajectory. I was proven right as usual.
The value to NO was the BRSK network and customer base, not so much the staff.
Sad for the employees affected, but not exactly surprising.
Interesting that it follows so soon after Cityfibre redundancies, is this a sign of the market or possible pre-requisites for any deal between the two to proceed?
As a Netomnia employee the whole Nexfibre merger doesn’t make sense the whole time I have worked here all we have been told is we are here to challenge the big networks now the whole thing possibly is being sold to one of them…. It’s no longer about challenging it’s about cashing out… It will be a disaster not only for the employees but also the customers
They have been lying to you for their own gain
Yup. Contract runs out end of the summer. I will move provider if vm get it
Not again, if they merge with VM then I will leave and go to a different supplier, as this will be the second time this has happened to me, first is was with UPP and now it could also be with Youfibre.
Hopefully it will be managerial jobs rather than the people that ‘actually’ do the work!!