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The CEO of broadband ISP Zen Internet, Richard Tang, has today published the seventh edition of his entertaining ‘Full Fibre Wacky Races‘ presentation, which summarises both his and the wider industry’s views of how the UK’s troubled market for alternative fixed broadband networks (altnets) has progressed and what the future may hold.
Altnets have of course faced a troubled few years due to rising build costs, strong competition from rivals (i.e. overbuild and the challenges of growing take-up) and the difficulties of securing fresh investment during a protracted period of high interest rates. The situation has left the industry holding billions in debt and the need to make painful repayments on that.
In response many altnets have stopped or slowed their network expansions in order to focus on commercialisation (i.e. growing take-up of what they’ve already built), albeit often more as a strategy to buy time and make themselves more attractive while seeking out consolidation partners to help grow scale.