Partner Onboarding: From Pain Point to Differentiator

Wholesale and open access models have become essential to the fibre business case worldwide. But for many operators, enabling partners remains a slow, unpredictable process that undermines readiness and responsiveness as well as revenue.

Based on recent research conducted with 100 senior decision-makers from Tier 1-4 fibre broadband operators in the UK, more than half of operators we spoke to said onboarding a new ISP can take 3-6 months. In an environment where scale and coverage overlap are driving consolidation, this delay can turn potential partners towards faster-moving incumbents.

Why Onboarding Friction Persists

• The obstacles are consistent across regions:

• Commercial teams are complex and poorly standardised

• Systems integration becomes a bespoke project for every partner

• Readiness signals and provisioning remain partly manual

The outcome? Deferred revenue, eroded investor confidence, and inconsistent customer experience. In fast-moving markets, wholesale gains are often offset by retail losses.

The diagram below illustrates the operational drag that delays performance and the shift to trusted activation that transforms onboarding into a strategic differentiator.

A Different Approach

Leading operators – across the UK, Europe, APAC and the US – are reframing onboarding. No longer an exercise in custom integration, but in standardised activation:

• Pre-validated service definitions

• Trusted readiness signals

• Self-service provisioning portals aligned to real-time data

From Bottleneck to Differentiator

In a market heading towards consolidation, speed and predictability are the strongest differentiators. Demonstrating that onboarding takes weeks – not months - positions a network as the platform of choice.

Because ultimately, partners don’t care about internal systems. They care about how fast they can grow.

This is Part 3 of 5 in the Fibre Monetisation series. The next instalment will be published on Thursday 24 July 2025.