Milestone as Gigabit Broadband Coverage Reaches 90 Percent of UK UPDATE
The latest independent data has revealed that 90.04% of premises across the United Kingdom can now access a gigabit-capable broadband ISP connection (1000Mbps+) via fixed lines, which is up from 85% in October 2024 and 80% at the end of 2023. But the figure does drop a little to 82.71% when only looking at full fibre (FTTP) lines.
Take note that the figure for “gigabit-capable” coverage is currently still higher than Fibre-to-the-Premises alone because it includes both the impact from FTTP builds and Virgin Media’s Hybrid Fibre Coax (Cable / DOCSIS 3.1) network, as well as a bit of FTTB (e.g. Hyperoptic). All of these can deliver gigabit downloads, and there’s a fair bit of overbuild between them in urban areas (Virgin aims to upgrade all their Coax cables to FTTP).
The vast majority of this rapid network expansion is currently still being dominated by commercial deployments from numerous network operators, such as Openreach (BT), Virgin Media (Nexfibre), CityFibre, Netomnia and many more (Summary of UK Full Fibre Builds). But it should be said that some of those altnets have had to significantly slow their roll-outs over the past 2-3 years due to the rising cost of build, high interest rates and competitive pressures.
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So far, most of the country’s gigabit-capable broadband coverage has been delivered by commercial deployments (predominantly focused on urban and semi-urban areas), while the Government’s Project Gigabit focuses on the final bits that they fail to reach. The latest progress clearly bodes well for this £5bn (public subsidy) programme, which aims to help extend gigabit broadband networks to “nationwide” coverage (c.99% of UK premises) by 2032.
Looking forward, Ofcom’s most recent study of Planned Network Deployments predicted (here) that gigabit broadband coverage would reach between 91% and 97% by January 2028 (here), which is the furthest out they are able to look with any confidence. Clearly we’re on course to beat the lower end figure of 91%, although 97% may be optimistic for 2028, especially with several network operators pulling out or scaling-back their Project Gigabit contracts (e.g. here, here, here, here and here).
A DSIT (Gov) spokesperson told ISPreview:
“Fast, reliable broadband is essential for people and businesses to thrive, whether that’s enabling someone to launch a start-up from their spare room or helping families stream, work and learn without interruption. These new figures show this government’s action to boost gigabit rollout is paying off, with strong progress towards our goal of 99% gigabit coverage by 2032.
But we know there is more to do, particularly in hard-to-reach rural areas. Through our multi-billion-pound investment in rollout through Project Gigabit and measures to bust barriers for telecoms providers, we are determined to connect homes and businesses that would otherwise be left behind.”
However, as welcome as all this progress is, none of it will mean anything to those of you who still live in poorly served areas (often rural locations and some overlooked patches in urban areas), where the wait for something better to arrive continues to be a slow and painful one. But the country is at least continuing to see good progress in the roll-out, which makes for an ever-smaller gap left to fill.
The catch is that the final few percent of premises are often also among the most disproportionately expensive and challenging to reach via fixed lines, which tends to cause a slowdown in network delivery. For example, the following list represents some of the UK’s most remote areas, where coverage remains well below the national average in reported gigabit coverage:
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The 10 Worst UK Council Areas for Gigabit Coverage
➤ Na h-Eileanan an Iar – 13.5% (up from 6.9% a year ago)
➤ Shetland Islands – 22.8% (up from 11.7%)
➤ Argyll and Bute – 28.2% (up from 22.8%)
➤ Orkney Islands – 30.7% (up from 18%)
➤ Aberdeenshire – 51.7% (up from 43.4%)
➤ Perth and Kinross – 59.2% (up from 50.4%)
➤ North Norfolk District – 60.0% (up from 44.7%%)
➤ South Hams District – 63.2% (up from 59.4%)
➤ City and County of the City of London – 63.7% (down slightly from 64.2%)
➤ Highland 64.1% (up from 50.7%)427 of the 650 UK constituencies have Gigabit coverage of 90% or higher as of 14th February 2026.
At present roughly 1.5 million UK premises are also still without the prospect of gigabit broadband (Enders Analysis estimate) and concerns of a potential funding shortfall under Project Gigabit have also been raised (here). Given how cash strapped the public purse seems to be these days, we wouldn’t be surprised if the government eventually ends up doing more to encourage alternatives like 4G/5G mobile broadband or Starlink (LEO satellite) for the final 1-3% of premises. Time will tell.
UPDATE 12:38pm
The government (DSIT) have finally provided a comment.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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Why is Northern Ireland doing so much better than other countries in the UK? Is it just its small geographic size, is there a local operator that is doing a good job with rollout, or is there some benefit to being connected to Ireland/the EU?
So there’s quite a complex history there that crosses politics with past investment schemes (e.g. the DUP/Conservative Confidence and Supply deal + prior schemes), competition and issues of geography / dwelling distribution (volume of urban vs rural spread etc.).
In Northern lreland you have mainly Openreach as a widespread Network builder, Virgin Media in built up areas, also their partners NexFibre in some areas, especially towards the North coast. Netomnia are in Londonderry/Derry and in small areas of Belfast. Fibrus Network spread widely in supposedly harder to reach areas which isn’t always the case. As Mark alluded to the confidence and supply money given by the then May Goverment to keep them in power has pushed things along with Fibrus benefiting most.
They’ve always had Ulster fast broadband!
*Fibre Scriber, it’s an age thing! 🙂
Do we know how many residential premises have actually subscribed to a gigabit service?
PersonallyI am quite happy with my 115Mb, and wouldn’t pay double to get a gigabit.
I started with a 100Mbps connection but I’m now at 900Mps as the cost wasn’t much more. Now it appears that the 1.6Gbps service is just slightly more than what I currently pay with EE.
I fully expect 900Mbps to be the minimum (and cheapest) level FTTP connection speed once XGS-PON packages are fully rolled out.
its about being gigabit capable — not whether you have purchased a gigibit service
About 21% of users have subscribed to 1Gbps, but a few things should be noted:
1. “Gigabit” is usually a one-way street. In this context, 1Gbps almost always refers to download, not symmetrical speeds. The interesting thing about symmetry is that while many AltNets offer it as standard, you don’t get it from Openreach (who are only just beginning small-scale XGS-PON trials in 2026) and not from Virgin Media — except on Nexfibre, and even then you have to pay a £6pm “Symmetry Tax”. VM’s £6 charge isn’t a technical limitation; XGS-PON/Nexfibre hardware is symmetrical by design (10/10Gbps). Instead, it’s a calculated business strategy:
Yield Management: It boosts ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) to help pay off their multi-billion-pound XGS-PON rollout.
Market Segmentation: It prevents residential users from downgrading from expensive Business lines that traditionally charge a premium for symmetry. VM has a massive business base to protect; AltNets generally don’t, so they have nothing to lose by giving symmetry away to everyone.
Legacy Parity: It avoids a PR disaster with the millions of legacy HFC (cable) customers who physically cannot get symmetrical speeds on copper coax. Meanwhile, AltNets include symmetry for free as a “land-grab” tool. They need a clear “Unique Selling Point” to steal market share from the incumbents, and since they don’t have a large existing business base to protect, they use engineering to drive their economics.
2. The “Accidental” Gigabit User
Virgin Media O2’s Volt bundles often include “speed boosts” as part of a combined broadband + O2 mobile deal. If a customer pays for M500, a Volt upgrade bumps them to Gig1 automatically. Industry estimates suggest somewhere between half and two-thirds of VMO2’s Gig1 base is likely there because of bundling and automatic boosts, not because the customer deliberately sought out or needs 1Gbps.
3. Capacity vs. Usage
The vast majority of gigabit or near-gigabit subscribers don’t use anything like the capacity they’ve paid for. We are currently in a marketing-led speed war where the capability of the fibre in the ground (XGS-PON) is light years ahead of what a typical 4K-streaming, Zoom-calling household actually consumes.
@Roger_Gooner Apparently the average FTTP customer consumes about 768 Gigabytes of data a month. If you average that out it comes in at around 2.5 megabits per second so apart from a few peaks most users rarely utilise the full bandwidth of their connection.
Interesting that even 64% coverage now gets you into the ‘shame list’. Also interesting that the “City of London” is on the list – I know that, in theory, almost nobody actually lives in the Square Mile. But you’d expect those that do to have access to world-class connectivity!
Those large business buildings tend to be served by leased lines, not broadband.
Not all businesses want a leased line though. There are plenty of smaller businesses in the area that just want a solid, reliable and low cost connection. Not to mention that it takes 2-3 months to get a leased line installed given they usually need to run a dedicated fibre. Whereas with a standard FTTP service the fibre is already sitting in the road not to far away.
Shetland is up from 117%
11.7% a decimal point went for a walk
Clearly demand is there, as my aggregator, 12 way, is now fully utilised, in the space 8 weeks.
Such a shame it took so long to implement in this country.
My neighbours and I are less than 100m (often less than 15m) from Openreach and other dark fibre in the street. Frustratingly despite offering land to site distribution equipment, Openreach have deemed it not cost effective to serve 15 properties and Virgin, who had built up to the county boundary years prior to Project Gigabit refuse to expand.
The county scheme deems is to be in an area due to be upgraded, but can’t tell us who. Contacting the obvious contenders, they all reply with “not on our current plan”. Going back and asking for the postcode to be considered for vouchers is met with a blank. We are all relying on capped contended and weather variable 4g, those with deep pockets, starlink, Or the 12mbit down 1.2mbit sync (but actually has never performed at 1mbit as per the UK minimum) upload. The engineers I’ve talked to seem to think fibre would be a cheap install via telegraph poles and I’m sure, getting out of this limboland (no upgrade plans and no vouchers) would be just a quick call or email to the right person. But my yearly efforts have fallen on tied hands or deaf ears. I wonder how many other areas are in exactly the same position?
Described my situation almost to a T. Eventually went through the rigour of having Openreach draw up a community plan, with the caveat that everyone (50+ properties) had to stump up £100 each to justify it. Might not sound like much, but given the mix of social and much more well-to-do properties with much older inhabitants who don’t seem that bothered, means we’re destined to stay in holding pattern until OR are absolutely forced to do something about the infra. Very frustrating to say the least, and sticking with ‘unlimited’ 5G is the only thing I can do in the meantime.
Unfortunately, you’re in what the industry calls a “Sub-Economic Cluster.” As of February 2026, while the UK has officially hit the 90% Gigabit coverage milestone, the remaining 10% (roughly three million premises) are largely trapped in this 15-property “limbo”. Here’s the brutal maths behind why you’re being ignored.
Every fibre rollout has a cost per premise (CPP). For urban areas, this is typically £300–£600. At that price, an ISP sees a return on investment in about three years. However, for a small cluster like yours, even being “near” fibre isn’t enough. To connect you, an ISP has to fund:
The “Breakout”: Splicing into that nearby dark fibre isn’t like tapping a water pipe; it requires a new underground chamber and high-level engineering.
Civils & Distribution: Digging trenches or clearing blocked Openreach ducts (which are often silted up or at capacity).
Infrastructure Tax (PIA): Annual rental fees paid to Openreach just to keep the cables in their ducts or on their poles.
Backhaul & Handover: The cost of carrying your data from the street back to the national network.
When you spread these costs across only 15 homes, your CPP can easily exceed £3,100.
The Financial Reality: At a typical market price of £25–£30/month, the ISP’s actual profit (after tax and wholesale fees) is only about £12/month. At that rate, it would take over 21 years just to break even on your 15 houses. Since most routers and street hardware only have a 7–10 year lifespan, the ISP would actually lose money connecting you.
This is why “planned” status can be so bad where an area is caught in limbo, technically planned for an upgrade, but with no clear timeline, delivery partner, or funding mechanism in place. It blocks you from the £4,500 government vouchers that are designed to bridge this exact gap. Until you are descoped from those phantom commercial plans, the maths simply doesn’t work for anyone.
Yes, but the bid process was supposed to mitigate these less financially lucrative properties by combining highly lucrative areas in the same lots? Just because some are loss losing doesn’t mean they should be allowed to take the funding and then cherry pick?
I must be ultraspecial as no matter where did I live in the last 20 years, the top speed was never more than 100mbits…(Currently in Croydon, fastest available broadband: 67 mbits….)
Still not in North Glasgow… absolute joke.
Why? Other suppliers available?
I live a few hundred metres from a fibre-enabled small village with 900 mbps connections on offer but I’m in a remote spot outside the village with only 3 other neighbouring properties in a quarter mile radius. I’m on a 20mbps plan (maximum that can be offered to my address), and Ive tried it from 2 different providers but I barely manage 10mbps reliably from either. There is no upgrade plan that Im aware of for my area. I’m considering starlink but have lots of reservations about it. I would LOVE to be on a 100mbps ground based link somehow but I fear its never going to happen where I live. Very unfair, they need to look at cheaper alternatives to laying fibre underground (beamed transmissions, microwave etc?).
The lowest speed (downstream or upstream) should be how lines are categorised. It’s not gigabit if the upstream is only 70 for example, etc, in my personal opinion.
Well, it certainly looks like the network builders will deliver something like full fttp coverage by 2032.
What will happen to those that have proven too difficult or too expensive to reach is less certain.
4G/5G is great but it can be challenging to get decent results in remote areas. Few masts coupled with UK topography mean speeds can be good in one spot and non-existent just a few metres away.
Had good results with external modems which allow very flexible locating up to 100m away from a dwelling using Ethernet cable. More with repeaters.
You can even add static IPV4 and IPV6 addressing via an L2TP service (works with Starlink too).
Apart from the hassle involved getting decent reception if your indoor 4g router can’t cut it, there is also the ‘unlimited’ data issue. Usually, throttling occurs after 400-600 mb per month depending on supplier. OK for most but game downloads and the like can consume this in short order.
Starlink is an option of course but both it and it’s owner are the subject of some controversy. Personally, I’m electing not add to Mr Musk’s magnificent collection of modern money (or Mr Bezos’ for that matter when Leo comes online) but i’m sure both of them will survive the shock.
90.04% of premises across the United Kingdom being able to access a Gigabit-capable broadband ISP connection, is pure Propaganda, a meaningless statement. The UK is still Far, far behind many European countries, in their Landline FTTP rollout. Untold Millions still languish on Creaking BT / Openreach Copper and unreliable Mobile Internet connections, that have no Generator power backup. Organisations like these, do themselves no favours by, Distorting the real situation, on the ground in the UK. Government and greedy Telco’s can’t be allowed to pat themselves on the back and claim Mission accomplished, because it’s not…
Living in a democracy there is nothing stopping Charlie-UK Broadband from delivering the service the country deserves…
Logically, 90% coverage means that yes there are technically “millions” of properties still not served. Openreach has not declared “mission accomplished” either – the rollout goes into the 2030s – but it’s perfectly fine for them to tout the incredible progress made so far. Ten years ago FTTP was a rarity. Now it’s not.
Plenty of Europe still uses copper and mobile too as their own telcos slowly and steadily get FTTP out there. It was never true that the UK was some copper outlier.
Standard British mentality of finding something negative to gripe about.
What a bizarre rant.