London-based Internet Service Provider (ISP) Community Fibre has announced that it is set to cut its workforce and suspend its fibre build process
The firm, which claims to operate the largest full fibre network in London, have decided to implement a change in strategy, focussing on service take-up rather than network expansion.
“The Community Fibre Board has decided to pause our network build as we can deliver a stronger return to our investors by focusing even more on our already successful marketing and sales activities and as a result continue to fill our network with even more happy customers,” a company spokesperson told ISPreview.
This change of strategy will result in “some redundancies”, though an official number was not disclosed. The company said it is working to keep the number of redundancies to a minimum and will share more information on the matter in the new year.
Based on existing targets, the company is aiming to pass 2.2 million premises in the UK to their full fibre network by the end of next year, which is overhalf of the 3.7 million homes in London. In October last year, the company announced that had signed a new finance facility worth £985 million, which is being used to fund the rollout expansion.
It is unclear whether this week’s announcement of build suspension will impact the company’s rollout targets for the end of 2024.
In fact, news of the job cuts and the rollout delays have been somewhat masked by the company’s recent customer acquisition milestone announcement. In a press release, Community Fibre stated that they have reached the 200,000 customers.
“More than 200,000 customers have chosen to join Community Fibre to benefit from the fastest speeds, best prices and best service in the market. We look forward to welcoming even more customers in 2024 as we increase our focus on driving customer growth,” said CEO Graeme Oxby.
Network operators across the country are under pressure from rising costs and strong competition, and as such are increasingly focussing on customer acquisition to satisfy investors..
Stay up to date with the latest international telecoms news by subscribing to the Total Telecom newsletter – subscribe here.
Also in the news:Broadcom finalises VMware acquisition dealFrom Gigabit goals to Sustainability: Navigating the Optical Fibre frontier in Europe and beyondCayman Islands moves to modernise submarine cable infrastructure