Technology advances and growing demand for high-speed internet access are leading independent broadband firms to feel overwhelmingly positive about the future, according to a survey measuring confidence in the sector.

Despite reports of their imminent demise, UK ‘altnet’ companies are expecting a boom in business over the next 12 months with 83 per cent of decision makers expecting strong growth in the coming year, the first Altnet Confidence Index found. Of the 300 surveyed decision makers from ISPs, network operators, and equipment and technology vendors, 23 per cent of that number predict significant growth. When looking ahead to five years, 77 per cent anticipate growth over that time.

“There has been a view for some time now that the UK’s alternative broadband sector was in decline,” commented Proactive International PR CEO James Page. “With investors demanding to see returns on their investment and customers’ unwillingness to pay substantially higher prices for higher speed services, the future seemed to consist only of mergers, acquisitions and a sharply diminishing number of companies remaining in the market. As a B2B tech PR and marketing agency with deep experience in the fibre and broadband market, we wanted to gauge how the sector was feeling – and the results are surprising.”

The optimistic outlook means companies are ready to spend, with 77 per cent of respondents planning to increase their investment over the next year, compared to the last 12 months. ‘Sustainability’ was the biggest priority for investment (39 per cent), even above network build, on which 25 per cent of respondents planned to spend.

Commissioned by Proactive International PR in partnership with Censuswide, the Altnet Confidence Index 2025 provides an in-depth look at the alternative broadband sector, assessing its ability to grow, looking at where planned investment is focused and revealing the real view on consolidation in the industry.

For companies expecting growth, ‘Technological advancements’ were cited as the biggest driver by nearly half of respondents (45 per cent), while ‘Private equity and investor interest’ and ‘Increased demand for high-speed internet’ each gave 35 per cent of professionals reason to be positive. Other reasons given included ‘Competitive differentiation and market gaps’ (33 per cent), Fibre rollout and infrastructure expansion’ (33 per cent) and Resilience of the industry’ (30 per cent).

Despite the positivity, there are still causes for concern. ‘Rising operational costs’ worry 37 per cent of respondents, as do ‘Increased regulatory pressures.’ A further 31 per cent of respondents said ‘Consolidation of smaller players reducing opportunities’ was a concern.

However, the overall view on consolidation was favourable, with 70 per cent of decision makers describing it as impacting their business very or somewhat positively.

“The brief for this survey was well suited to Censuswide as we can poll very specific audiences to achieve interesting narratives, as we see here,” said Censuswide’s Head of Client Services Lucy Stewart. “The findings were varied but overall, they followed some key themes. For example, when we looked at confidence and growth outlook there was a lot of optimism, both in the short and longer term. It’s really interesting to see that respondents are feeling so optimistic and we can dive into the data to look at some of the reasons for this.”

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Categories: Articles, Broadband, Markets, Research

Tags: altnet, b2b, UK