• CityFibre reports full year sales, earnings and connections growth 
• AST SpaceMobile readies next-gen D2D launch
• Ofcom updates on UK market developments

In today’s industry news roundup: Major UK altnet grew significantly in 2025 and has been identified as the best strategic fit to acquire struggling fibre broadband player Gigaclear; low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite operator AST SpaceMobile is preparing a major launch to enable direct-to-device services; Ofcom’s CEO says the merger of Vodafone and Three has been positive for the UK market; and much more!

UK wholesale fibre broadband network operator CityFibre ended 2025 with a positive set of numbers and expectations for accelerated growth during 2026. The major UK altnet reported a 27% year-on-year increase in full year revenues to £170m and adjusted EBITDA of £29m compared with just £5m in 2024. Its network now reaches 4.7 million UK premises, of which 4.5 million are ready for the delivery of commercial service delivery: Its aim is to extend its network to be able to reach 8 million premises.  There were 848,000 broadband end users connected to its network at the end of 2025, an increase of 330,000 during the year: In the final quarter of last year, it connected 119,000 end users. Simon Holden, who took over from Greg Mesch as CEO last September, stated: “CityFibre’s wholesale business model has always set us apart and, as our network fills up with customers, we have the momentum to bring about a long-term, competitive alternative to BT Openreach and deliver significant benefits for the UK. Looking ahead, our nationwide 10Gbit/s XGS-PON network will enable our ISP partners to unlock all the power of multi-gig as we deliver future-proofed digital infrastructure for businesses, mobile operators and public sector partners throughout the UK. Following a landmark 2025, CityFibre is proving to be the network of choice and we enter 2026 with ever greater ambition.”

Part of CityFibre’s strategy, now that it has secured new funding, is to grow its network reach and customer base through strategic acquisitions as well as by organic network rollout. And according to the analyst team at broadband sector research firm Point Topic, CityFibre is the best strategic fit to acquire smaller UK fibre altnet Gigaclear, which is weighed down by a significant debt pile and seeking a buyer. The Point Topic team has gone into forensic detail to lay out why Gigaclear, which has a network that passes almost 640,000 premises and is likely to carry a valuation of between £330m and £540m, would be a great acquisition for CityFibre, while noting also that the likes of Trooli, Netomnia (which is also a potential M&A target for CityFibre) and Nexfibre would also be worthy suitors. You can read Point Topic’s excellent analysis here.   

Direct-to-device (D2D) satellite operator AST SpaceMobile is getting ready to launch its second next-generation low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite, the BlueBird 7, in late February as part of a planned launch by Blue Origin, the company founded by Jeff Bezos. Identical to BlueBird 6, which was launched in December, BlueBird 7 is nearly 2,400 square feet in size, once unfurled in orbit, and “features the largest commercial communications array in low-earth orbit” that can deliver data connectivity from space to regular smartphones of up to 120 Mbit/s, according to the company. “This launch advances our mission to bring space-based cellular broadband connectivity to everyday smartphones as we progress towards launching commercial services in 2026,” stated Scott Wisniewski, president of AST SpaceMobile. “BlueBird 7 moves us closer to delivering a new layer of cellular broadband connectivity for consumers, enterprises and government customers worldwide.” AST SpaceMobile is aiming to enable commercial D2D services launches during 2026 with telco partners, such as AT&T, Verizon and Vodafone Group.

Ofcom CEO Dame Melanie Dawes has outlined how the UK’s telecom sector is contributing to government growth goals, and said the regulator is pleased with the results of the merger last June between Vodafone UK and Three UK, in an open letter to UK prime minister Keir Starmer. The letter, which is also addressed to UK chancellor Rachel Reeves, offers an update on commitments Ofcom made in 2025 to promote pro-growth regulation strategies, competition, innovation and investment in UK telecom. 2026 is the midpoint in Ofcom’s 10-year framework for regulation of fixed networks, which aims to boost investment in the fibre access broadband sector by opening up competition to Openreach. Dawes wrote that Ofcom’s approach has “enabled billions of pounds of investment in new networks” with full-fibre coverage available for 78% of UK households – up from 6% in 2018. Increased competition has also brought down prices, Dawes wrote, with the average monthly price available to new residential customers signing up to a standalone full-fibre broadband service falling by 41% in real terms to September 2024. Dawes also highlighted plans for the second half of the framework, including the launch of the Map Your Mobile coverage checker, which went live in June. More than half a million people have accessed the service, she revealed in the letter. On the merger of Vodafone and Three UK, she said customers will benefit from £11bn pledged investment over the next eight years, but added they are already seeing benefits due to network integration and the removal of 16,5000 square kilometres of “not-spots”. Dawes also discussed Ofcom’s commitments to drive economic growth by opening up more spectrum for operators. This includes a consultation on enabling satellite direct-to-device (D2D) services that resulted in Ofcom authorising the use of most bands for D2D. Sticking with satellites, she also discussed the UK’s approval of nine non-geostationary satellite orbit licences, with over 110,000 active connections in 2025. Dawes, who was appointed Ofcom CEO in 2020, wrote: “In the coming year, we are focusing on making spectrum available for new services and technologies. This includes a consultation on updating spectrum rules in response to the growing use of drones in summer 2026, and decisions on expanding spectrum for satellite broadband on planes and ships, and innovative wireless broadband solutions for Wi-Fi, by the end of the year. Finally, we continue to support innovation and trial licences for spectrum with over 730 such licences in 2025.”

The enterprise arm of UAE-based digital services giant e& has partnered with US-based AI firm Emergence to deploy sovereign AI systems for regulated industries across the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey. Under the agreement, e& Enterprise will act as a distribution partner for Emergence’s agentic AI platform and the enterprise solutions built on top of it. This, the companies claim, will provide enterprise customers with flexibility, including the ability to run cloud agnostic environments that can be run on connected enterprise servers or ‘air-gapped’ offline installations. The move to offer sovereign solutions comes as enterprises and governments are looking to scale AI while maintaining stricter controls over data, governance and compliance. Emergence AI leverages its Semantic Intelligence platform, which supports autonomous agents in understanding enterprise data in a wider context. Its three-tier system is built on a foundation layer that automates complex data tasks, the intelligence layer that defines business concepts and rules, and finally a layer that builds autonomous agents that can execute multi-step processes end to end. e& Enterprise’s head of data, AI and fintech, Amit Gupta, stated: “This partnership marks a pivotal moment in the evolution of enterprise AI across the MENAT [Middle East, North Africa, and Turkey] region. Enterprises are moving quickly to operationalise AI, and they need solutions that deliver real impact, not just experimentation. As AI becomes increasingly agentic, data governance has become one of the most critical enablers of safe, scalable automation. Emergence serves as the intelligence layer that brings built-in governance, observability and controls into every workflow.” The deal is e&’s second AI announcement in the past week, after it announced a partnership with IBM to deploy its agentic AI solution to help with its policy, risk and compliance processes. It comes as AI investment across the gulf is set for a major acceleration, with P&S Intelligence predicting the region’s AI market will more than double to $26bn by 2032.

– The staff, TelecomTV