UK: Full-fibre broadband now available to 4m+ homes

New figures published by UK comms regulator Ofcom suggest that full-fibre broadband is now available to over 4.2 million UK homes.

The figures are included in Ofcom’s Connected Nations summer update, which provides a summary of broadband and mobile availability across the UK and its nations, as of May 2020.

Key findings from the report include:

• Full-fibre broadband is now available to 14 per cent of UK homes – up from 12 per cent since Ofcom’s spring update, published in May. 4.2 million homes can now access these services, which are faster and more reliable than older copper-based broadband.
• Ultrafast broadband is now available to 57 per cent of UK properties – up from 55 per cent in Ofcom’s last update. This is an increase of 500,000 properties and includes cable-based and full fibre services.
• Superfast broadband is available to 95 per cent of UK properties – this has increased by 100,000 properties since Ofcom’s last update, although the proportion of properties with access to superfast broadband remains the same.
• 98 per cent of UK properties can access ‘decent’ broadband from a fixed line – offering download speeds of 10 Mbit/s and upload speeds of 1 Mbit/s. Anyone without access to decent broadband may be eligible for an upgrade through the broadband universal service obligation.
• Mobile coverage remains stable – but is expected to increase over the coming months as mobile operators continue to extend their networks through the Shared Rural Network.

Full analysis of UK network availability, take-up and resilience will be included in Ofcom’s annual Connected Nations report, published in December. This will also look at how the coronavirus lockdown period affected the UK’s networks.