Private equity firms KKR and Warburg Pincus are considering offers for their respective UK fiber broadband businesses.

As reported by the Financial Times, Warburg has hired bankers and approached potential suitors for London-based UK ISP Community Fibre, while KKR has made contact with potential buyers for its broadband provider Hyperoptic.

Community Fibre serves around 450,000 customers, while Hyperoptic has more than 400,000 customers.

Both KKR and Warburg have even considered a merger of the two companies, reported the FT, though neither private equity firm is in a rush to do any deal.

Community Fibre announced plans last month to reach two million premises with its fiber network by 2028-29, with this number currently around 1.3 million.

The report this week comes amid testing times for the UK fiber market, which is made up of several alternative network providers (altnets) jostling for customers while trying to fund expensive fiber build-outs.

The market has already seen consolidation as some of the bigger broadband players, such as BT’s Openreach and Virgin Media O2, dominate the fiber market.

The FT doesn’t name who the potential buyers are, but notes that it’s unlikely to be Virgin Media O2, as the company pushes to close its acquisition of Substantial Group’s Netomnia.

Other bigger altnets such as CityFibre have also had notable struggles trying to keep up with the fiber build out, though did secure a £2.3 billion ($3.08bn) financing agreement to fund its rollout last year.

Another altnet, G.Networks, exited administration in March after being acquired by FitzWalter Capital earlier this year.