Nexfibre’s Owners Refuse to Offer CMA Remedies as Regulator Weighs Blocking Deal

The owners of UK fibre network Nexfibre will not offer the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) any remedies to win approval for their planned £2 billion purchase of Netomnia’s parent group, DCD reported on 20 October 2026.

In a joint statement quoted by DCD, InfraVia, Liberty Global and Telefónica called the regulator’s interim report “fundamentally flawed”. On the same day, the CMA published a consultation that names blocking the deal as a possible remedy.

The CMA has not made a final decision. Its statutory deadline for this stage of the inquiry is 15 December 2026.

What is the deal?

Nexfibre is a wholesale fibre broadband network owned by Liberty Global, Telefónica and funds managed by infrastructure investor InfraVia. Liberty Global and Telefónica also jointly own Virgin Media O2 (VMO2), which is Nexfibre’s only customer, according to the CMA.

Nexfibre agreed in February to buy Substantial Group, which includes Netomnia, DCD said. According to the CMA’s case page, Substantial also owns Brsk, Brsk ISP and the retail provider YouFibre.

DCD said Netomnia’s fibre network reaches more than three million premises and that the company has more than 460,000 customers.

What did the CMA find?

The CMA published its interim report on 2 October. In its summary, it said: “In our view, the Transaction gives rise to a significant reduction in wholesale competition across the Parties’ FTTP network footprints.”

FTTP, or fibre to the premises, means fibre cables running all the way to homes and businesses. Wholesale providers sell access to their networks to the internet service providers (ISPs) that serve customers.

The CMA’s central point concerns what would happen without the deal. It said its “provisional view is that the most likely counterfactual is an acquisition of Substantial by CityFibre”, a rival network that sells wholesale access to ISPs including Sky and VodafoneThree.

On that basis, the CMA estimated that the share of the VMO2/Nexfibre network facing competition from three wholesale providers would fall “from c.32% to c.18%” if the deal went ahead.

The summary stresses: “This is not our final decision.”

What did Nexfibre’s owners say?

The owners rejected that view. “The CMA’s interim report is fundamentally flawed. Its conclusions rely on counterfactuals that do not reflect the commercial and financial reality of the UK fiber market,” their joint statement said, according to DCD.

They said the assumption that CityFibre would buy Netomnia “is not a credible basis on which to judge this transaction”. They also criticised CityFibre’s finances and pointed to BT’s planned purchase of TalkTalk. Those are the owners’ views.

“We engaged in good faith on potential remedies, including commitments on investment and wholesale access. But there is no remedies package that can address the CMA’s current counterfactuals, and on that basis we have not submitted one,” the statement said.

DCD reported that the owners would be willing to continue talking to the CMA “once the counterfactuals reflect the reality of the market”.

What happens next?

The CMA published an invitation to comment on remedies on 20 October. It says: “The Parties have not made a remedy proposal to address the SLC provisionally identified in our Interim Report.” SLC stands for substantial lessening of competition.

The CMA said it has “identified prohibition of the Transaction (Prohibition Remedy) as a possible remedy option”. It added that it has “not yet reached any decision, provisional or otherwise” on any remedy. A prohibition would normally stop the parties trying to merge again without CMA consent for ten years.

Our read

This is TSN’s analysis. By refusing to offer remedies, Nexfibre’s owners are betting that the CMA will change its view of what would happen without the deal. The CMA has left little room for a middle path: it says that without a proposal from the parties, it will not usually look closely at options other than prohibition or selling off a standalone business. Unless the CMA’s provisional findings shift after the 23 October deadline, a block looks like the main option on the table.

Sources

1. DCD: “Nexfibre rejects “fundamentally flawed” CMA verdict on £2bn Netomnia acquisition” (20 October 2026)
2. CMA: “nexfibre / Substantial merger inquiry” (case page) (updated 20 October 2026)
3. CMA: “Summary of interim report” (PDF) (2 October 2026)
4. CMA: “Invitation to Comment on Remedies” (PDF) (20 October 2026)

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