Why Virgin Media O2 is cutting jobs and retreating from fibre

Virgin Media O2 s decision to cut thousands of jobs and halt further fibre upgrades marks quite the retreat for a company once positioned as BT s biggest challenger, writes Saskia Koopman. Five years after Virgin Media and O2 merged to create a £31bn telecoms giant, VMO2 is battling falling revenues, ongoing customer losses and over £22bn of debt. Its response? An £800m annual cost-cutting programme, including £300m in workforce savings and a halt to further full-fibre upgrades beyond existing commitments. But the restructuring also exposes wider issues in Britain s broadband industry, where years of network investment have left operators competing for customers in an increasingly saturated market. A merger under pressure When Liberty Global and Telefónica combined their UK businesses in 2021, the aim was to create a stronger competitor to BT by combining Virgin Media s broadband infrastructure and O2 s mobile network. The deal, however, also saddled the firm with heavy