Rivals line up against the deal that would hand YouFibre to Virgin Media O2
The competition regulator has published what YouFibre’s rivals think of the deal that would put it under the same ownership as Virgin Media, and most of them are against it. The Competition and Markets Authority is running a Phase 2 investigation into the £2bn purchase of Substantial Group, the parent of the altnet Netomnia and its retail brand YouFibre, by nexfibre, the fibre joint venture between Liberty Global, Telefónica and InfraVia. Liberty Global and Telefónica also own Virgin Media O2. The responses went up on the CMA’s case page this month.
The second half of the deal is what makes this a household story rather than an investor one. When the buyers announced it in February they said the retail business, the YouFibre brand and its customers, would be sold on to Virgin Media O2 for £150m, and that those customers would keep the same trusted service they know today. They put that customer base at around 500,000.
A lot of those people arrived from Virgin Media, and some of them arrived specifically to get away from a bill that went up in the middle of a contract. That is the tension. YouFibre fixes its price for the whole term, which is why it carries a fixed-price badge on our YouFibre page. Virgin Media raises prices mid-contract. Nobody has said which of those two policies a merged retail business would keep. That is the question to hold onto.
The industry responses split three ways. CityFibre and Sky raised the strongest objections, and CityFibre told the CMA that without this deal the likelier outcome is CityFibre buying Netomnia itself. Grain Connect and Hyperoptic did not oppose it. BT wrote about the wider regulatory framework rather than the merger. The objectors mostly reject the buyers’ central argument, that a combined network would compete harder with Openreach.
There is nothing for a YouFibre customer to do today. The contract you signed holds for its term whoever owns the company, and the CMA has a statutory deadline of 15 December 2026 on this investigation, so any change of ownership sits behind that date. What helps is knowing two things before any of this lands: when your term ends, and what leaving early would cost. Ask for the exit fee in writing. Our guide to broadband price rises explains what a provider is allowed to do to your bill mid-contract, and if you would rather not be tied in at all, no contract broadband sets out what a rolling deal costs instead. To see which networks are actually built to your address, start with the availability checker.
The honest gap is a large one. Neither Virgin Media O2 nor YouFibre has published what happens to YouFibre pricing after a completion that has not been approved yet, and until the CMA rules there is nothing for them to publish. Everything past the regulator’s deadline is speculation, including ours.