Openreach: UK broadband usage up 10.5% in 2024
January 7, 2025
According to Openreach’s annual update, broadband traffic across the UK increased by 10.5 per cent in 2024 to 103,590 Petabytes (PB) of data.
A closer look at the numbers reveals that peaks coincided with specific online events, such as Prime Video’s Premier League coverage, the release of popular gaming title downloads, the setup of new gaming consoles, and millions going online for Black Friday.
There was a real surge in broadband use towards the end of 2024, with December being the busiest month of the year for broadband traffic, and December 1st the busiest day.
Openreach builds and maintains the fibre network used by customers of more than 300 service providers selling fibre – including BT, Sky, TalkTalk, Vodafone and Zen. Openreach’s network now also reaches more than half of homes and businesses in the UK – that’s around 17 million premises with access to the technology.
Clive Selley, CEO at Openreach, said: “Fast, reliable connectivity is essential for the UK, and the increased traffic on our broadband network is evidence that customers are increasingly reliant on it in their daily lives. While over a third of properties have already switched, there’s plenty of room for more people to get a better connection right now. So why not check if you could get faster – and potentially cheaper – broadband today.”
Key findings for the UK’s broadband use during 2024 include:
- The busiest day across the Openreach network was December 1st, when 405 Pb of data was consumed. This was unusually high due to a surge in online spending as people sought Black Friday bargains, and people downloaded the latest content update for popular online multi-player game Fortnite (pictured).
- The second busiest day was December 26th, which was due to new gaming consoles being used, and eight Premier league games being streamed on Prime Video. More than 367 Pb of data was consumed across the Openreach network.
- The next busiest day was November 24th, when 355 Pb of data was consumed.
- The busiest months in 2024 were December at a usage of 9,707 Pb, an 8.5 per cent rise on December 2023 and November at 8,953 Pb – an 8 per cent increase on November 2023.
- The busiest day of the week is typically a Sunday.
- The busiest time on the network is usually between 8pm and 10pm
- The busiest hour during the festive period was between 20:00 and 21:00 on December 26th.
- Live football (on Prime Video) and online gaming continue to have the greatest impact on UK’s broadband consumption.