Fibre broadband providers warned about return on investment

New players in the UK's fibre optic broadband market have been warned it may take some time for them to reap the rewards of their investment.

Telecoms analyst Point Topic noted several additional companies have begun rolling out super-fast broadband in recent months, rivalling the high-profile fibre deployments being conducted by BT and Virgin Media.

CityFibre Holdings, Gigaclear, Hyperoptic and even Network Rail are among the many firms looking to go head to head with the larger and better established broadband providers.

However, senior analyst at Point Topic Annelise Berendt stressed: "From past experience, we know it takes a long time for investment, plans and network rollouts to turn into real customers."

One of the smaller network operators, CityFibre, recently unveiled plans to extend fibre optic broadband connectivity to one million homes and 50,000 businesses across the UK.

The company has teamed up with infrastructure corporate finance provider Macquarie Capital in a bid to secure funding for the ambitious project.