The government is set to hit its target for 85% of the UK to have full-fibre, gigabit-capable broadband connectivity in 2025, according to the latest figures from industry regulator Ofcom.
The telecoms watchdog said 20.7 million homes can now access full-fibre broadband links if they wish, representing 69% of all households, up from 57% in September 2023. When the numbers for houses with cable network connectivity are included, this means 83% of the country already has gigabit broadband capability.
Northern Ireland is the best-connected region, with 94% of residential properties having full-fibre broadband. Wales lags behind at 74%.
The government’s £5bn Project Gigabit programme was introduced in 2021 with the aim of accelerating the UK’s recovery from Covid-19, prioritising areas with slow connections that would otherwise be left behind in telcos’ commercial plans and giving rural communities access to the fastest internet on the market, so helping to grow the economy.
“It’s a record-breaking year for broadband in the UK, as the roll-out of full fibre continues to steam ahead,” said Natalie Black, networks and communications group director at Ofcom. “Whether you’re running a business, streaming your favourite programmes, or doing Christmas shopping online, it’s more likely than ever that you’ll be able to benefit from a fast and reliable broadband connection.”
However, work remains to be done on encouraging households to take-up gigabit broadband services.
As of July this year, only 35% or 7.5 million households had signed up to receive a full-fibre connection – up from 28% in May 2023. Notably, rural areas are more likely to adopt high-speed connectivity, with over half (52%) of homes signed up, compared with a third (32%) in urban areas.
Take-up of so-called “superfast” broadband – with download speeds of at least 30 Mbit/s – has increased from 72% to 75% of residential and business premises.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite broadband service has signed up 87,000 connections in the UK, mostly in rural areas – up from 42,000 last year.
However, Ofcom said that availability of 5G mobile services remains patchy, with 5G deployed in 42% of sites in urban areas, compared with just 16% of sites in rural areas – although 95% of the country is capable of receiving 5G coverage from at least one mobile operator.
5G roll-out is likely to receive a boost as a result of Vodafone’s acquisition of Three, where the two companies have had to agree to legally binding targets for an £11bn network investment plan to receive regulatory approval for the merger from the Competition and Markets Authority.
One-fifth (21%) of mobile data traffic in the UK now passes over 5G connections. Total monthly mobile traffic has grown by 18% this year to 1069 petabytes, slower than the 25% growth seen between 2022 and 2023.
Recent investments in gigabit broadband capability have seen the full-fibre network extended to properties in rural Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire and West Lincolnshire, and the New Forest area.
Project Gigabit has also led to the growth of new entrants into the broadband infrastructure market to rival the incumbent Openreach, BT’s network delivery arm, and Virgin Media, the main cable provider. City Fibre has won numerous contracts to become a leading rival to Openreach, while smaller alternative networks, or altnets, such as Community Fibre, Toob and MS3, have become competitive in local regions.
