UK mobile provider’s earnings dip over falling customers

• Virgin Media O2 has warned of anticipated declines in sales and earnings for 2026, following significant customer attrition attributed to recent price increases.
• The telecoms giant reported a net loss of 397,500 mobile subscribers last year and 138,400 broadband customers in 2025, with a further monthly increase of £2.50 for mobile customers announced for spring 2026.
• The company's annual results showed a 0.4 per cent decline in underlying earnings, and it forecasts a 3 per cent to 5 per cent drop in underlying earnings and total service revenues for the coming year.
• Virgin Media O2 attributes the lower sales outlook to heightened promotional intensity, ongoing uncertainty in the consumer fixed market, and planned streamlining of its business-to-business product portfolio.
• The company, alongside Liberty Global and Telefonica, recently acquired British fibre firm Substantial Group for £2bn, a move that has prompted competition concerns from rivals such as CityFibre.

IN FULL

Major mobile provider lost nearly 400,000 customers thanks to price hikes