Strategic report
Governance
Financial statements
28 OCU Group Annual report and financial statements 2026
Operational review continued United Kingdom market review
Digital Infrastructure A deliberate shift from predominantly urban fibre build towards maintenance, complex fibre, mobile connectivity, data centre enablement and recurring network services.
FY26 progress Digital Infrastructure continued its
The operating model also became more data‑led. AI-supported ingestion of client job packs reduced manual activity by 84%, improving the speed and consistency with which high‑volume work could be brought into operational systems. This is a practical use of technology: removing repetitive processing, improving visibility and helping the business scale a complex program without adding equivalent administrative overhead. “This year we have demonstrated that we can mobilise and control a high-volume national program, but the longer-term story is broader. The installed fibre base needs to be maintained, business and rail networks require resilient connectivity, mobile operators need densification, and data centres require co-ordinated fibre and power infrastructure. We are implementing the delivery discipline built in fibre into each of those adjacent areas.”
planned transition during FY26. Urban fibre‑to‑the‑premises activity continued to reduce as the most densely populated phases of the national rollout matured, while rural deployment, maintenance and wider network services became more important. The VMO2 Morpheus framework was a major operational program in the year, covering residential pre‑enablement, business works and emergency restoration services. At the same time, maintenance relationships expanded, business fibre activity continued, and the Group retained delivery positions with long-standing clients including VMO2, Openreach, CityFibre, Colt, and NEOs.
FY26 showed the continued evolution of our Digital Infrastructure proposition, which is increasingly managed as a portfolio of value adding activities – not as a single fibre build market. We delivered at scale on current programs while continuing to move resource towards maintenance, rural networks, business fibre, mobile connectivity and data centre infrastructure. That balance is important as the original urban fibre rollout matures and the installed network becomes a larger maintenance market. Paul Alderton Managing Director, Digital Infrastructure
Adrian O’Sullivan Chief Operating Officer, OCU Utilities
Powered by FlippingBook