Broadband Altnet CityFibre Notifies 200 UK Staff of Possible Future Redundancy

The UK’s largest alternative full fibre broadband network, CityFibre, has this morning proposed organisational changes that could result in 200 roles being impacted, subject to consultation. The move is said to be a response to the current environment, where market conditions remain difficult and there has been “slower progress on consolidation“, impacting their near-term growth.

At present CityFibre’s 10Gbps capable full fibre (FTTP / XGS-PON) broadband network currently covers over 4.7 million UK premises (4.5m Ready for Service), including over 1 million connected customers, and they still aspire to cover 8 million premises in the future. The FTTP network is supported by UK ISPs such as Vodafone, TalkTalk, Zen Internet, Sky Broadband and many more.

However, the operator also carries a lot of debt (c.£3.7 billion net debt) and still faces many of the same pressures as other operators (e.g. high interest rates, rising build costs and competition), which in recent times has already caused hundreds of redundancies earlier in 2026 (here). The recent move to sell their non-core off-net business, Entanet, may have also had an impact (here), as well as the inability to secure a consolidation deal with Netomnia (VMO2/nexfibre outbid them).

Suffice to say it may not come as a huge surprise that more jobs are likely to go in the future. ISPreview understands that CityFibre held an All Hands meeting today to provide some context for the latest development, which could impact around 200 roles (we don’t yet know precisely how many of these will face redundancy).

A CityFibre spokesperson told ISPreview:

“Establishing CityFibre as the third national network the UK deserves, requires an agile and efficient organisation. With a network now serving over one million connections and customer numbers growing 20% in the first six months of this year, we are continuing to drive strong, profitable growth and are accelerating plans to optimise our cost base. We will support our people throughout this process and ensure that CityFibre remains best positioned for long-term, sustainable growth.”

In a letter to staff that was shared as part of the meeting and signed by CityFibre’s CEO, Simon Holden, the operator highlighted how their shareholders “remain confident” in the company’s strategy and continue to support them. But the company also acknowledged that market conditions are “not moving at the pace we anticipated” and there has been “slower progress on consolidation“, which has delayed the expansion of their network footprint and affected near-term growth.

CityFibre is understood to have a three-year plan to help shape their operating model at maturity, which is intended to move the company towards a better position by “simplifying” the organisation and aligning resources more closely to their priorities. “We believe these proposals are the right step to accelerate our operating model and position us well to continue to attract the capital we need,” said Simon.

The move is likely to worry the provider’s retail ISP partners, particularly given the recent concerns over a decline in the company’s support quality (here), although such changes ultimately appear to be necessary to help support the sustainability of the underlying business. CityFibre is currently understood to employ somewhere around 1,000 staff.