BT has suffered a blow after Sky chose rival network provider CityFibre as its second broadband partner while the two telecoms groups compete to roll out full fibre across the country.
CityFibre, which is one of dozens of alternative network providers — or “altnets” — said on Tuesday that work was under way to make Sky’s broadband available to people on its network next year. Sky said that this would focus on areas where there were no overlaps between it and the network provided by BT’s Openreach.
BT and Sky have an existing agreement under which the telecoms group hosts all of Sky’s broadband customers. Sky last reported the number as more than 6.5mn subscribers at the end of 2022. These customers are expected to remain on the Openreach network while new Sky customers will use CityFibre in areas where Openreach is not present.