Total Q2 2024 FTTH/P/B, FTTC, cable, FWA/satellite and DSL wholesale and retail connections in the UK saw a very slight increase during the quarter and stood at an estimated 28.92 million from 28.90 million quarter-on-quarter – and similar to 28.82 million in the previous year, reports Point Topic.

The stall in the fixed broadband retail market remained, with ~21k net broadband subscriber additions compared to ~38k net additions in Q1, and -65k in the previous year.

Openreach hit its pace FTTP rollout target of just over 1 million premises passed during the quarter which will see it reach its build target of 25 million premises by the end of 2026; its average build rate reached 78k premises per week with a footprint of 14.82 million premises.

For the other major ISPs, Vodafone had the strongest quarter with ~44k broadband net additions; but others struggled and saw modest losses Sky with an estimated -4k, Virgin Media O2’s (VMO2) reported -12k losses, followed by TalkTalk’s -30k losses as it continued to restructure, find cost efficiencies, and grapple with its debt-laden Platform X wholesale division.

VMO2’s full fibre footprint reached the milestone of 5 million premises (up 68 per cent y-o-y); its broadband customer base decreased to 5.7 million; its overall in-footprint penetration dropped to 32.6 per cent (down from 33.3per cent) compared to Openreach’s 34 per cent.

AltNets saw ~59k net additions down from around ~70k additions in the previous quarter. AltNets total consumer broadband base reached just over 2.06 million up from 2 million in Q1 and 32 per cent (1.56 million) y-o-y.