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A new report has revealed that two UK broadband ISPs, Exascale and Squirrel Internet, have recently decided to stop selling access to Gigaclear’s alternative full fibre network. The move occurred due to what appears to be a conflict of interest over how the altnet treats their wholesale partners when compared with their own direct retail customers.
Quite a few developments occur behind the scenes of the UK’s broadband industry, some of which are well-known but rarely receive much attention or see the light of day. One of those reflects the complex and sometimes challenging relationships that vertically integrated broadband operators (i.e. those that have built their own physical network and also act as a retail provider) often have with their other retail ISP partners.
The classic market dilemma is that vertically integrated providers are often perceived as being naturally incentivised to give preference to their own retail brand over that of other third-party retail ISP partners, which is perhaps somewhat to be expected (you’ve built the network with your own cash, so you get to set the rules).