Quick summary: Are altnets safe to sign a 2-year deal with in 2026? Altnets now pass 19.7 million UK homes and often cost less. Here's what happens if yours is bought or fails, and how to decide with confidence.

Should I Sign a 2-Year Deal With a Small Altnet in 2026?

The verdict, in one line

Yes, for most households a two-year deal with a small altnet is a sound choice in 2026, as long as you check the specific provider's price terms first. Your contract, your price and your right to leave are protected by law whoever ends up owning the network, and altnets often deliver faster full fibre for less.

19.7 million

UK premises now passed by altnets (INCA, 2026)

£26 vs £39

near-gigabit: altnet vs big provider (Ofcom, 2024)

Contract protected

a takeover cannot change your price or term

Quick answer: altnets, the independent companies building their own full-fibre networks, are now a mainstream part of UK broadband, not a gamble. A longer contract with one is usually a smart way to lock in strong value. The two things worth checking before you sign are the price terms and whether the altnet is your only option at your address. This guide gives you the verified facts and a simple way to decide.

850,000+

customers switched to an altnet during 2025, taking live altnet connections past 3.5 million, up 32% in a year (INCA and Point Topic, 2026).

Key takeaways

Altnets now pass 19.7 million UK premises and often cost less for faster, symmetric full fibre.
If your altnet is bought, your contract transfers unchanged, and a takeover alone gives no right to leave early.
If an altnet fails, the fibre almost always passes to another operator; in administration your service usually keeps running.
The one thing to check carefully is the price-rise clause, since a few altnets have moved away from fixed prices.

What is an altnet, briefly?

An altnet, short for "alternative network," is a broadband company that has built and runs its own physical full-fibre network, rather than reselling Openreach or using Virgin Media's cable. Names you may know include CityFibre, Community Fibre, Hyperoptic, Gigaclear, Netomnia and its YouFibre brand, Toob and many regional builders. They are a big reason full fibre now reaches 78% of UK homes, around 23.7 million premises (Ofcom, 2025).

Are altnets safe to use in 2026?

For most households, yes, and with good reason. This is no longer a fringe corner of the market. By the end of 2025, UK altnets passed 19.7 million premises, up 20% in a year, with more than 3.5 million live connections, up 32%, and an average take-up of 18% (INCA and Point Topic, 2026). They are also winning the customers the big networks are losing: INCA reports that over 850,000 people switched to an altnet in 2025, closely mirroring Openreach's roughly 860,000 net line losses over the same year (INCA and Point Topic, 2026).

Just as importantly, the consumer protections that matter do not depend on how big your provider is. Your contract transfers if the network is bought, you get notice and a free exit if your terms worsen, every provider must belong to an independent complaints scheme, and switching away is a single, simple process. We cover each of these below. The honest risk of a longer contract is not that you lose your connection, it is the smaller chance of a rebrand or a change in service experience, so the trick is simply to choose well and check the price terms.

What happens to my contract if my altnet is bought?

In short, almost nothing changes for you, and this is the single most reassuring fact in the whole debate. Ofcom's guidance is clear that when one provider takes over another, in most cases your service continues without interruption and your existing contract transfers to the new provider (Ofcom, n.d.-a). Your price, your remaining term and your terms and conditions all carry across.

A change of ownership on its own does not give you the right to leave early, because it is treated as an administrative change with no negative effect on you. However, if the new owner later notifies a change to your contract that is not exclusively to your benefit, not purely administrative, and not required by law, you are entitled to at least one month's notice and the right to end the contract with no early-exit charge, under Ofcom's General Conditions (Ofcom, n.d.-b). It is worth knowing that the old "material detriment" test was removed from those rules on 17 June 2022 and replaced by this clearer notice-and-exit regime, so an agent who still refers to "material detriment" is out of date. Our guide to what happens when your provider is bought or sold explains this in full.

What happens if my altnet goes bust?

This is the fear that puts people off a longer deal, so here are the facts, calmly. There is no energy-style "supplier of last resort" for broadband, so nobody is automatically moved to a replacement provider. But total loss of service is rare, because the fibre in the ground is hugely expensive to build and effectively impossible to repossess, so it is almost always sold on to another operator. What actually happens to you depends on which of two routes a struggling altnet takes.

Administration: service usually continues

An administrator keeps the business running while a buyer is found. When G.Network entered administration in early 2026, its network kept operating with no interruption, and it soon emerged debt-free and better capitalised with its co-founder returning as chief executive (ISPreview, 2026; Capacity, 2026).

Liquidation: service stops on a set date

If a firm is wound up with no buyer, service ends on a stated date. When Vispa ceased trading on 4 February 2026, it emailed customers to switch immediately and to cancel their direct debit; the service was not migrated (ISPreview, 2026).

The lesson is simple: if you ever receive a closure notice, act that week, start a switch to a new provider, and cancel your direct debit. Our guide on what to do if your provider goes out of business walks through the steps.

Are altnet prices really cheaper?

Frequently, yes, though prices vary by postcode and should always be treated as illustrative. Ofcom found that promotional prices for near-gigabit services, 900 Mbit/s to 1 Gbit/s, from independent full-fibre providers started at £26 a month, compared with £39 for the cheapest similar service from a larger provider (Ofcom, 2024). Competition helps everyone: Ofcom found average broadband prices fell by around 6% in real terms over the year to September 2025 (Ofcom, 2026), and INCA notes that homes with a choice of four or more fibre networks consistently see lower average pricing than those served only by Openreach full fibre (INCA and Point Topic, 2026).

Altnets also tend to lead on upload speed. Most run a technology called XGS-PON that offers symmetric speeds, where upload matches download, which is genuinely useful for video calls, cloud backups and working from home. Openreach's full fibre is asymmetric, with its fastest consumer tier offering far less upload than download (ISPreview, 2025). To be fair to the big providers, they typically win on TV and mobile bundles, on brand familiarity, and on the widest coverage, so the right choice depends on what you value.

Do altnets have mid-contract price rises?

Some do, some do not, and this is the one area to check carefully before you sign. Since 17 January 2025, Ofcom has banned inflation-linked and percentage-based mid-contract price rises in all new contracts, so any rise must now be set out clearly in pounds and pence when you sign (Ofcom, 2024b). That is a real win for shoppers.

Many altnets go further and hold your price fixed for the whole term. Zen Internet's "Contract Price Promise," for example, guarantees no in-contract rises for the length of the contract (Zen Internet, n.d.), and providers such as Community Fibre, Fibrus and Cuckoo have also built their pitch around fixed or no in-contract pricing. But this is no longer universal, so do not assume it.

Check the small print: a few altnets now do raise prices

Hyperoptic, long a campaigner against mid-contract rises, introduced a fixed £3 a month annual increase for customers joining from 3 June 2025, later raised to £4 a month for new customers from January 2026 (ISPreview, 2025; ISPreview, 2026). On a 24-month deal that can mean two set rises. Toob has also confirmed a fixed annual increase for new and re-contracting customers from 21 April 2026. None of this is hidden, but you should read the price clause and factor any rise into the total cost.

Altnet versus a big provider: an honest comparison

Neither is simply "better." Here is a fair, general picture, and your own postcode is what decides it.

What matters to you	Typical small altnet	Typical big provider
Price for full fibre	Often lower, from around £26 for near-gigabit	Often higher for a similar speed
Upload speed	Commonly symmetric (upload matches download)	Usually asymmetric (much lower upload)
Mid-contract rises	Often fixed, but check (a few now raise prices)	Usually a set pounds-and-pence annual rise
TV and mobile bundles	Rarely offered	Widely offered
Coverage	Area by area, may not reach you	The widest national reach
Automatic compensation scheme	Only some altnets take part (check)	Most big providers take part

What protections do I have, whatever the size of my provider?

Three strong ones, and they apply to the smallest altnet exactly as they do to BT.

An independent complaints route. Every provider serving consumers must belong to an Ofcom-approved dispute scheme, the Communications Ombudsman or CISAS, and since 8 April 2026 you can escalate an unresolved complaint after 6 weeks, down from 8 (Ofcom, 2025b). Our guide to complaints and compensation explains how.
Easy switching. One Touch Switch, live since 12 September 2024, means you contact only the new provider and it arranges everything, including cancelling your old service. So if you ever want to leave an altnet, it is a single, simple step. See our One Touch Switch guide.
Automatic compensation, where the provider takes part. This scheme pays set amounts for delayed repairs, missed engineer appointments and delayed installs. It is voluntary, though, and among altnets only some take part, so it is worth checking before you sign.

Is the wave of takeovers a reason to worry?

Not in itself. Consolidation is a normal sign of a maturing market, and it has actually been orderly: INCA counted just six deals in 2025 (INCA and Point Topic, 2026). The headline move is nexfibre's roughly £2 billion agreed acquisition of the Netomnia group (which includes YouFibre), announced in February 2026 and now under an in-depth Competition and Markets Authority investigation, with a decision due by 15 December 2026 (Competition and Markets Authority, 2026). Separately, Truespeed and Freedom Fibre completed their merger on 30 April 2026 to form the Freedom Truespeed Group, and CityFibre raised £2.3 billion of new financing in July 2025 to keep building (Truespeed, 2026; CityFibre, 2025). The direction of travel is toward fewer, better-funded networks, which is generally good news for the customers on them.

Being straight about the risks: some altnets are under financial pressure, analysts at AlixPartners estimated that 47% of UK fibre companies would need to refinance a significant amount of debt or equity by 2026 (AlixPartners, 2025), and a few, such as Gigaclear, have been through a lender-led financial restructuring (Gigaclear, 2026). That is exactly why the checklist below focuses on the price terms and whether you have a fallback network, rather than on the provider's size alone.

How to decide: sign it, or think twice?

A 2-year altnet deal makes sense if

it is clearly better value or faster at your postcode than the alternatives
the price is fixed, or the annual rise is small and clearly stated
you value symmetric upload speed for work, calls or backups
you are settled at the address for the term
another network also serves you, giving you a fallback

A shorter or big-provider deal is wiser if

you might move home within the term
the altnet is your only fibre option and its saving is marginal
you want a TV or mobile bundle altnets rarely match
the provider is not in a complaints scheme (a real red flag)
you prefer maximum brand continuity and will pay a little more for it

Five quick checks before you sign

All free, and they take a few minutes.

1 Check the price terms.
Is the price fixed for the full term, or is there a set annual rise? If there is a rise, work out the total 24-month cost, not just the headline.

2 Check the complaints cover.
Confirm the provider is in an Ofcom-approved scheme, the Communications Ombudsman or CISAS. This is a legal requirement, so its absence is a warning sign.

3 Check the compensation scheme.
See whether the provider is in Ofcom's voluntary automatic compensation scheme, as only some altnets are, and ask about its own policy if not.

4 Check for a fallback network.
Is another network, such as Openreach full fibre or a second altnet, also available at your address? If not, weigh the small disruption risk a little more.

5 Compare the value at your postcode.
Put the altnet up against the big providers actually available where you live, on price, speed and term, and pick the best fit for you.

However you lean, the smartest move is to see exactly what is available where you live, and what it costs, then choose with confidence. Our full fibre deals and 24-month deals pages are a good place to compare, and our in-contract price rises guide explains the pounds-and-pence rules in detail.

Compare altnets and big providers at your postcode

Frequently asked questions

Are altnets safe to use?

Yes, for most households. Whatever the size of your provider, your contract transfers on the same terms if the network is bought, you get one month's notice and a penalty-free exit if your terms later change for the worse, your provider must belong to an Ofcom-approved dispute scheme, and you can leave easily using One Touch Switch. Altnets now pass 19.7 million UK premises with more than 3.5 million live connections.

What happens to my contract if my altnet is bought?

Your contract transfers to the new owner unchanged: your price, your remaining term and your terms all carry across, and your service should not be interrupted. A change of ownership on its own does not give you a right to leave early. If the new owner later notifies a change that is not purely administrative or to your benefit, you get at least one month's notice and the right to leave with no exit charge.

What happens if my altnet goes bust?

It depends on whether the business is sold or wound up. In administration, service usually continues while a buyer is found, as happened with G.Network in 2026. In liquidation with no buyer, service stops on a stated date and you must switch, as Vispa's customers had to in February 2026. There is no energy-style supplier of last resort for broadband, but the physical fibre network is almost always sold on.

Are altnet prices really cheaper than the big providers?

Often, yes. Ofcom found promotional prices for near-gigabit (900 Mbit/s to 1 Gbit/s) services from independent full-fibre providers starting at £26 a month, against £39 for the cheapest similar service from a larger provider. Prices vary by postcode, so always compare at your own address.

Do altnets have mid-contract price rises?

Some do, some do not. Many altnets market fixed prices for the term, such as Zen's Contract Price Promise. But it is no longer universal: since 17 January 2025 any rise must be shown in pounds and pence at sale, and some altnets now apply one. Hyperoptic, for example, introduced a fixed annual increase for new customers. Always check the specific contract.

References

AlixPartners. (2025). Commercial reality check raises consolidation prospects for U.K. altnets. https://www.alixpartners.com/insights/102lr2g/commercial-reality-check-raises-consolidation-prospects-for-u-k-altnets/
Capacity. (2026). G.Network exits administration debt-free as David Sangster returns as CEO. https://capacityglobal.com/news/gnetwork-exits-administration/
CityFibre. (2025). CityFibre agrees £2.3bn in new financing round. https://cityfibre.com/news/cityfibre-agrees-2-3bn-in-new-financing-round-in-major-investment-in-uk-digital-infrastructure
Competition and Markets Authority. (2026). Anticipated acquisition by nexfibre of Substantial Topco Limited: merger inquiry. GOV.UK. https://www.gov.uk/cma-cases/nexfibre-substantial-topco-merger-inquiry
Gigaclear. (2026). Gigaclear successfully concludes financial recapitalisation. https://gigaclear.com/posts/gigaclear-concludes-financial-recapitalisation
INCA and Point Topic. (2026). State of the Altnets 2026. Independent Networks Cooperative Association. https://inca.coop/state-of-the-altnets-2026/
ISPreview. (2025, June 3). Hyperoptic ends campaign against mid-contract broadband price hikes. https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2025/06/hyperoptic-ends-campaign-against-mid-contract-broadband-price-hikes.html
ISPreview. (2026, January). Broadband ISP Hyperoptic increases UK mid-contract price hikes to £4. https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2026/01/broadband-isp-hyperoptic-increases-uk-mid-contract-price-hikes-to-4.html
ISPreview. (2026, February). Broadband ISP VISPA informs UK customers of closure and liquidation. https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2026/02/broadband-isp-vispa-informs-uk-customers-of-closure-and-liquidation.html
ISPreview. (2026, March). London full fibre broadband provider G.Network moves forward debt-free. https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2026/03/london-full-fibre-broadband-provider-g-network-moves-forward-debt-free.html
Ofcom. (2024). Ultrafast broadband and landline bundles see biggest price drop in 2024. https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/bills-and-charges/ultrafast-broadband-and-landline-bundles-see-biggest-price-drop-in-2024
Ofcom. (2024b). Ofcom bans mid-contract price rises linked to inflation. https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/bills-and-charges/ofcom-bans-mid-contract-price-rises-linked-to-inflation
Ofcom. (2025). Connected Nations UK report 2025. https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/coverage-and-speeds/connected-nations-2025/
Ofcom. (2025b). Quicker complaints resolution for telecoms customers, under new Ofcom rules. https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/service-quality/quicker-complaints-resolution-for-telecoms-customers-under-new-ofcom-rules
Ofcom. (2026). New Ofcom research reveals how to cut phone and internet bills. https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/bills-and-charges/new-ofcom-research-reveals-how-to-cut-phone-and-internet-bills
Ofcom. (n.d.-a). What to do if your broadband or landline provider goes out of business. https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/switching-provider/what-to-do-if-your-broadband-or-landline-provider-goes-out-of-business
Ofcom. (n.d.-b). General Conditions of Entitlement. https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/service-quality/general-conditions-of-entitlement
Truespeed. (2026, April 30). Truespeed and Freedom Fibre complete merger. https://www.truespeed.com/news/truespeed-and-freedom-fibre-complete-merger/
Zen Internet. (n.d.). Zen's Contract Price Promise. https://www.zen.co.uk/contract-price-promise/

Written by Adrian James, Broadband Editor at BroadbandSwitch.uk (LinkedIn). Reviewed by Dr Alex J. Martin-Smith (LinkedIn). Published 21 July 2026. Prices are illustrative and vary by postcode; this guide is information, not advice.