A major UK broadband provider has collapsed into administration after its rescue plan failed. G Network, which provides services to more than 416,000 premises across London, fell into administration earlier this month, with rival Community Fibre considering buying its assets. 

It comes amid many firms and businesses that are facing financial issues, having no choice but to sell sites or assets. Some firms have been saved by being bought out by other companies, though not G Network. Community Fibre pulled out of the rescue deal after fears that G Network’s cables were chewed to pieces and ripped up by rats.

Graeme Oxby, Community Fibre chief executive, told The Telegraph that the rescue deal would not go ahead, partly because of the cost of repairing rat damage to the cables, stating that “rodents like ducts and they like fibres which are very tasty”.

He added: “It’s not something we’ve been particularly interested in because we think it’s got quite a lot of structural issues and would be quite an expensive fix.”

FitzWalter Capital, which buys up distressed assets before selling them on for a profit, has applied to appoint administrators at G Network, reports Birmingham Live.

The application comes only a week after FitzWalter Capital took control of G Network from its previous owners, the USS pension fund and Cube Infrastructure Managers.

Analysts have predicted the possibility of further mergers and collapses across the alt-net sector, as more alt-net firms are set up to challenge BT’s dominance.

G Network was set up as one of the alt-net competitors challenging BT, but failed due to rising costs. Mr Oxby, however,  believes that some firms will be able to survive BT’s rule across the industry.

Mr Oxby said: “Clearly there are going to be the distressed consolidations, maybe lender-led or specialist-led, but we don’t feel that consolidation is the only answer.

“Recently it’s seemed that alt-nets only exist to consolidate. We set up to be successful competitors to the incumbent and introduce some competition into the market… I think that’s got lost a bit.”

The capital is not the only place where rat-related broadband issues have taken place. Last month, issues with rodents also affected residents and businesses in Doncaster.

Local MP and Labour Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said that the issues were caused by “rodent damage”, and that he had “asked [Openreach] what they’re going to do to prevent widespread outages like this in the future”.