Matthew Howett, founder and chief executive of Assembly Research, said: “There’s a sense that Ofcom is trying its best to be mindful of its duty to promote growth, while also staying true to a competitive fibre build.”

Should the biggest challenger hit trouble itself, however, its backers could pull out of the sector and lenders to other alt-nets could also start to call in their debts.

“A knock of confidence among investors in CityFibre would spell trouble for the wider alt-net market and their funding positions,” says Matthew Howett, the founder and chief executive of Assembly Research.

“While never too big to fail – and we consider that unlikely – smaller fibre providers almost need them to succeed to secure their own futures.”

Matthew Howett, Founder and Chief Executive of Assembly Research said the CMA’s decision “sets the wheels in motion for a transformation of the UK’s mobile market, and ultimately the experience for consumers”. He added: “We expect positive implications overall, not only for investment in, and the quality of, networks (including standalone 5G), but also for the wholesale customers and consumers and businesses that rely on them.”

Matthew Howett, the founder and chief executive of Assembly Research, said: “A deal of this size and scale was alway going to face intense scrutiny from the CMA, and it was fanciful that it could have been approved without any sort of remedies.”

BT has resumed the transition after forming a new telecare action board alongside local authorities and healthcare providers. However, there is still uncertainty over how many vulnerable customers will be affected by the switchover.

Matthew Howett, founder and chief executive of Assembly Research, said: “Fibre does present resilience challenges itself, particularly in the context of power outages and device compatibility.”

But he added: “The more reliable, resilient and future-proof alternative of fibre and IP communications will ultimately mean fewer faults and outages over the longer term.”

CK Hutchison’s merger of Three Italia with Wind Telecomunicazioni was approved only after the companies agreed to divest assets. More recently, regulators told Orange and MasMovil they had to grant spectrum and roaming access to rival Digi as part of their Spanish merger.

Howett says these remedies have “only compounded the problem” by allowing new entrants into the market just as the existing players are trying to consolidate.

“Where four to three has been allowed to happen, the remedies that you put in place have often just recreated the problem you’re trying to solve,” he says.

Matthew Howett, founder and chief executive of Assembly Research, argues that one of the key purposes of alt-nets has been to push Openreach to build its own network more quickly.

“That dynamic has played out already, it’s happened… so I think once they’ve lit that firework the vast majority of Project Gigabit will happen,” he says.

But telecoms are likely to push for further change. “They want more freedom to have a more commercial relationship with content providers,” says Matthew Howett, founder of consultancy Assembly Research.

That could, he says, see “operators striking deals with games makers to prioritise a particular update or traffic”.

And streaming companies argue they already invest heavily in technology that stops their traffic overwhelming mobile and broadband networks. “Netflix invests millions in content delivery networks to get its traffic to you,” says Howett.

Matthew Howett, a telecoms analyst at Assembly Research, said: “The coronavirus pandemic exposed weaknesses with the current set of rules.”

Starlink appears to have solved the issues of slow speed and inconsistent performance that have plagued satellite broadband. “The lower orbit nature of Starlink’s satellites should go some way to reducing problems of latency,” says Matt Howett, founder of Assembly Research.

Matt Howett, founder of Assembly Research, says: “To me it looks like they can see the potential upside from the enhanced fibre roll-out that has yet to be fully reflected in the current share price.

“I'd say the lack of a seat on the board is a fairly good indicator for now that Drahi isn't looking to embark on a change of direction.”

Assembly analyst Matthew Howett added: "While BT would have liked 20 years of no regulated prices for faster fibre products, they will take the certainty of 10 and the broad commitment to continue to honour that fair bet principle if there is a need to move to cost-based regulation in the future."

"The slowing down of the full rollout of gigabit capable broadband will impact productivity and cost tens of thousands of jobs,” said Matthew Howett, the founder of Assembly Research.

“If the infrastructure is not there to make the UK an attractive place set up shop then we miss out. That's really what we don't get back. That's gone for good.”