Digi Comms Acquires 51 Percent Stake in UK Broadband Altnet Whyfibre UPDATE

Romanian multinational telecommunications and mobile operator company Digi Communications N.V. has entered the United Kingdom’s fibre optic broadband market by acquiring 51% of the share capital of alternative network provider WhyFibre, which was conducted via Digi’s subsidiary Fiber One Limited. A pilot of their new FTTP network is now in the works.

The move is interesting as WhyFibre has been around and building a new gigabit speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network in Southern England for several years (here and here). But the operator’s website remains somewhat of a holding page and we still don’t know of any retail ISPs that sell packages over their network. The company’s latest micro accounts also suggest only limited activity (here).

However, back in 2025 some of ISPreview’s readers noticed that a business called FiberOne (American spelling) had been spotted building a new FTTP network in the Hertfordshire (England) town of Letchworth, which when challenged said they were working on behalf of WhyFibre.

The contractor appeared to be laying fresh fibre via Openreach’s existing cable ducts (PIA) and similar activity was later spotted in locations such as Luton, Normanton and Hitchin (often locations with plenty of rival gigabit networks present). But until now we haven’t received any major or official announcements to help elaborate on their plans, network coverage or service availability.

Statement by Digi Communications N.V.

The Company hereby informs investors that it has taken the initial steps to enter the telecommunications market in the United Kingdom. On 19 March 2026, its wholly owned subsidiary incorporated in England, Fiber One Ltd., acquired 51% of the share capital of Whyfibre Limited, which owns a fibre network currently under deployment in the counties of Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire in southern England (the “Network”). Fiber One Ltd. is the operator of the Network and expects to commence the provision of fixed broadband services on a pilot basis in the near future.

The new announcement is very short and oddly includes no comments from any management figures, but crucially it does indicate that a pilot of their new full fibre broadband services will follow in the “near future“. Hopefully that means they’ll soon be hiring somebody to do a bit of marketing and explain their strategy or plan.

UPDATE 9th April 2026

Some additional details uncovered by Point Topic’s broadband roadworks dataset has recorded Whyfibre Limited as a street-works promoter across 2,274 postcodes (~53,400 premises) since October 2024, with ~10,000 permit events filed to date.

Monthly volumes have since ramped from 79 (Oct 2024) to over 1,000 (Sep 2025), holding at 600–750 per month through Q1 2026. The footprint is currently said to be concentrated in Luton (15% of the borough’s postcodes), St Albans, Dacorum, Watford and Welwyn Hatfield.

The analyst also noted that CityFibre already covers 31% of WhyFibre’s postcodes (704 of 2,274), with F&W Networks (173), Netomnia (170) and CommunityFibre (64) also present.