UK enterprise telecoms market sees improvement in competition, says GlobalData

Already highly competitive, the addition of well-funded alternative network and service providers is great news for UK enterprises.

Robert Pritchard, Senior Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers his view:

“The UK enterprise telecoms market is arguably the most competitive in the world, having been one of the first to open up to competition. The recent addition of well-funded alternative infrastructure providers sees it enter a new phase, with business customers able to choose from a wide range of providers either with their own infrastructure, or reselling services on the top of others’ networks.

“It is still early days for some new competitors, but they have seized the moment – and investment – to challenge established network operators like BT and Virgin Media/O2. Most notable has been CityFibre, which has partnerships with Vodafone, TalkTalk and a host of ISPs such as Zen Internet. £4bn in planned network investment by 2025 underlines this disruptor’s impact on the market.

“CityFibre is not alone, however, as other challengers like Giganet and Neos Networks are also building out networks – and then there are literally hundreds (if not thousands) of resellers touting for enterprise business.

“In such a dynamic market, the ‘big three’ (BT, Vodafone, Virgin Media/O2) will look to use their brand strength, depth/breadth of portfolio and human resources to dominate, but they will be kept on their toes by challengers from all angles – be it value-added resellers, systems integrators, master agents, or OTT (over-the-top) providers including Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Zoom and others, either directly or via partners.

“The UK enterprise telecoms service provider market is overcrowded and it will continue to consolidate and re-invent itself. In the meantime, UK plc benefits from choice, competitive pricing and service innovations.”