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Giffgaff could be poised to launch full-fibre broadband deals to compete with the likes of BT, TalkTalk, and Sky. The UK firm currently offers SIM-only contracts as well as new and refurbished phones. It guarantees no mid-contract price rises with its 18-month contracts and won't charge you to use your calls or mobile data in Europe — something that cannot be said for three of the four most popular carriers in the UK.
Sources speaking anonymously to industry blog ISPreview revealed the planned expansion into home broadband. Giffgaff is tipped to use Nexfibre to provide the infrastructure for its broadband.
This brand is a £4.5 billion joint venture between Telefónica, Liberty Global, and InfraVia Capital Partners designed to connect 5 million homes to full-fibre broadband by the end of 2026.
Most broadband providers rely on BT-owned Openreach to connect to customers' homes, but Giffgaff will purportedly make use of Nexfibre — a new £4.5bn venture from Telefónica, Liberty Global, and InfraVia Capital Partners planning its own network
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Since Telefónica and Liberty Global own Virgin Media O2, this all-new infrastructure will be in parts of the UK not already connected to the latter's broadband network. Virgin Media O2 is currently available in some 16 million homes and businesses nationwide.
If these whispers are accurate, it would mean that Giffgaff customers could access some of the fastest broadband speeds available — with downloads over 2,000Mbps. That's 28x faster than the average home broadband speed in the UK. Earlier this year, when Virgin Media O2 switched thousands of its broadband customers over to infrastructure operated by Nexfibre, their speeds doubled.
Most broadband brands rely on infrastructure provided by BT-owned Openreach, which is available in 99% of homes and businesses. In total, Openreach claims that 96% of the UK can access its superfast fibre broadband, with average download speeds of 66Mbps.
It's currently in the process of upgrading 25 million homes and businesses by the end of 2026, including 6.2 million in rural areas. Earlier this month, it confirmed the location of the next 300,000 homes to enjoy an upgrade to faster, more reliable full-fibre internet.
Giffgaff already has a relationship with Virgin Media O2, and by extension its parent companies, as its subscribers rely on O2's network of masts across the UK to make and receive phone calls, send texts, and browse the web on 4G and 5G mobile data.
Giffgaff is quietly conducting a trial of its full-fibre offering on Nexfibre's infrastructure in Scarborough, ISPreview reports. We'll have to wait to see if this materialises into something concrete.
Earlier this year, Giffgaff executive Ash Schofield told City A.M. hinted at plans to expand beyond the current crop of SIM plans. He said: "You can expect Giffgaff to be looking to extend its portfolio as we have done this year with our Good Contracts offering. We’re thinking long-term as an organisation. You know, at the moment we sell airtime [credit], we sell phones, we sell refurbished phones.
"We can’t help but think that people might want to buy other things from us as well. We’re just dying to explore where else we could turn out that people would really appreciate and value."
Back in April, Ofcom data confirmed that 8 out of 10 homes across the UK can now access eye-wateringly fast gigabit broadband speeds. That's the equivalent of 24 million UK homes.
But despite the increased speeds available, the average download speed in UK households remains around 69.4Mbps — suggesting that most people still aren't taking advantage of the faster connections.
While 69.4Mbps is enough for most individuals, it will begin to struggle in busier households — with multiple people making video calls, downloading software updates, watching video, streaming music, uploading to social media, listening to podcasts, and much more.
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With a pivot to streaming-only television — Sky has slashed the number of satellite dish engineers at the company as its broadband-powered Sky Glass 55" became the best-selling Smart TV in the UK last year, and the team behind Freeview switching from traditional terrestrial broadband to a streaming-only solution known as Freely, which looks set to be the default for all new Smart TVs — a decent connection will only become more important, something some campaigners fear will leave millions without access to television.
Research has shown that speedier internet can even boost the value of your home.
