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Carlisle-based alternative broadband provider Grain (Grain Connect) has today published an update on their latest company results, which among other things reveals that their point-to-point full fibre (FTTP) network now covers 300,000 UK premises (up from 270k in Jul 2025) and their customers increased to 56,000 (up from 43k in March 2025).
The altnet, which now serves existing homes across more than 60 urban centres and more than 150 new build developments, has been steadily continuing to deploy new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) lines at the same time as many of their competitors in the same space have stalled.
The latest results summary, which only offers a limited preview, states that “profitability has continued to improve” (they announced being EBITDA positive back in April 2025), with the network provider now delivering a 10% EBITDA margin across the year (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation). But sadly we don’t get any solid financial figures or information on company losses etc.
Otherwise, Grain reports that EBITDA margins still grew to over 16% during Q4, with Gross margin also expanding from 67% to 77% for the full year. Homes ready for service grew by 19% during the financial year to cover over 300,000 premises across the UK and the rate of expansion is now “expected to accelerate even further in the coming year“.
Customer numbers also increased by 31% to 56,000, with penetration growing to 19% (up from 17% last year). Excluding new sites which went live during the year, penetration on the existing footprint grew from 17% to 21%. Grain’s network typically costs less than a lot of other altnets to deploy, which means that even a modest take-up can be more favourable than it might first appear.
Grain CEO, Richard Cameron, told ISPreview:
“The Altnet market has experienced significant challenges this year, with many providers struggling to deliver an efficient platform to compete in the market.
We are proud to be doing something different and unique amongst altnets; building our own fully owned end-to-end network, giving us an efficient asset that delivers long-term profitability and cash generation.
Others are undoubtedly being hit by the high operating and connection costs driven by the decision to build PIA based networks.
I am pleased to say that these are problems which Grain doesn’t face, putting us in a strong position to compete over the long term.
We’re excited about the future of Grain and the competition and choice it offers, allowing more customers to make the move to Full Fibre broadband, with affordable and transparent pricing.”
Richard added that Grain is “fully funded” and plans to continue investing significant capital into expansion of its footprint, thanks to the “strong financial returns being generated“. But we’ll have to wait for the company’s full results to be published before being able to judge the complete picture.