Gigabit Broadband Covers 89 Percent of UK Premises – Ofcom Spring 2026 Data
Ofcom has released its Spring 2026 update on UK fixed broadband and mobile coverage, which reveals that “full fibre” (FTTP) lines now reach 82% of homes (up from 78% in July 2025), while 89% are within reach of a gigabit network (up from 87%) and 76% – 94% of premises can get an outdoor 5G signal (up from 64-89%).
The regulator’s latest report is based on coverage and service availability information that has been received from both fixed line ISPs and mobile network operators as of January 2026, which is several months more recent than the July 2025 data used in their last update (Connected Nations 2025).
Overall, the UK’s coverage of fixed “superfast broadband” (30Mbps+) remains unchanged at 98%, while 24.9 million home (82% of homes) can now order a Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) service via various networks (up from 78%). Meanwhile, gigabit-capable broadband (1Gbps+) services are now available to 89% of UK homes (up from 87%) or 27.1 million.
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The gigabit coverage figure is higher than the FTTP one because a lot of recent gigabit connectivity has also flowed from Virgin Media’s upgrade to their existing Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) network via DOCSIS 3.1 technology – there’s a lot of overbuild between HFC and FTTP in urban areas. Ofcom also splits their “premises” (inc. business) and “homes” figures on fixed lines, which can be a bit confusing (gigabit cover is 87.8% if you look at all premises).
All of this work will help to support the UK Government’s £5bn Project Gigabit programme, which aims to further improve the picture for gigabit speed connectivity by using public subsidies to target connectivity improvements toward the final 10-20% of hardest to reach premises (i.e. helping to extend gigabit broadband’s coverage “nationwide” or c.99% by 2032 – delayed from the original 2030 target – here).
However, the number of premises that cannot get a “decent broadband” (10Mbps+) service – when you include delivery via wireless connections (i.e. 4G, 5G and fixed wireless access) – is currently 39,000 (0.1% of the UK), which is down from 44,000 at the last update. The download speed of 10Mbps (1Mbps upload) also represents the core specification for the UK’s Universal Service Obligation (USO) for broadband.
As for mobile networks, 5G coverage outside premises has increased by at least five percentage points for each mobile operator, with individual operator coverage now ranging between 76% and 94%. Coverage outside premises from all MNOs has increased from 47% to 64%. Meanwhile, 4G has seen geographic coverage across all network operators (EE, Three UK / Vodafone and O2) rise to 84% (up from 81%) – the new £1bn Shared Rural Network (SRN) agreement has helped to improve that.
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Spring 2026 Coverage Data by Region
The following table summarises the latest mobile and fixed broadband coverage figures for Scotland, Wales, England and Northern Ireland individually, although you can get a bit more detail by checking the full Spring 2026 Update.
UK Fixed Broadband Coverage (Residential)
| Access to full fibre | Jan-24 | Jul-24 | Jan-25 | Jul-25 | Jan-26 |
| UK | 62% | 69% | 74% | 78% | 82% |
| England | 62% | 69% | 75% | 79% | 82% |
| Northern Ireland | 92% | 93% | 94% | 95% | 95% |
| Scotland | 58% | 62% | 67% | 71% | 75% |
| Wales | 61% | 68% | 74% | 78% | 82% |
| Access to a gigabit-capable service | Jan-24 | Jul-24 | Jan-25 | Jul-25 | Jan-26 |
| UK | 80% | 83% | 86% | 87% | 89% |
| England | 81% | 84% | 86% | 88% | 89% |
| Northern Ireland | 94% | 94% | 95% | 96% | 96% |
| Scotland | 75% | 77% | 79% | 81% | 84% |
| Wales | 69% | 74% | 78% | 81% | 85% |
| Access to a superfast fixed line service (at least 30 Mbps download speed) | Jan-24 | Jul-24 | Jan-25 | Jul-25 | Jan-26 |
| UK | 97% | 98% | 98% | 98% | 98% |
| England | 98% | 98% | 98% | 98% | 98% |
| Northern Ireland | 98% | 98% | 99% | 99% | 99% |
| Scotland | 96% | 96% | 96% | 97% | 97% |
| Wales | 96% | 96% | 97% | 97% | 97% |
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| Take-up of full-fibre services as a percentage of premises with access to full fibre | Jul-24 | Jan-25 | Jul-25 | Jan-26 |
| UK | 35% | 38% | 42% | 47% |
| England | 33% | 37% | 41% | 46% |
| Northern Ireland | 53% | 58% | 62% | 65% |
| Scotland | 35% | 39% | 43% | 47% |
| Wales | 39% | 44% | 49% | 53% |
UK Mobile Network Coverage (4G)
| Geographic area – coverage range across MNOs | Jan-24 | Sep-24 | Jan-25 | Jul-25 | Jan-26 |
| UK | 81-88% | 88-89% | 88-90% | 89-90% | 89-93% |
| England | 92-95% | 94-96% | 94-96% | 95-96% | 95-97% |
| Northern Ireland | 89-92% | 89-95% | 89-96% | 90-96% | 90-97% |
| Scotland | 60-78% | 77-80% | 78-80% | 79-81% | 80-85% |
| Wales | 74-87% | 83-89% | 84-90% | 84-90% | 85-93% |
UK Mobile Network Coverage (5G)
| Premises (outdoor) – coverage range across MNOs (High Confidence) | Jan-24 | Sep-24 | Jan-25 | Jul-25 | Jan-26 |
| UK | 51-74% | 61-79% | 62-85% | 64-89% | 76-94% |
| England | 53-75% | 65-81% | 66-86% | 67-91% | 79-95% |
| Northern Ireland | 28-68% | 36-90% | 37-93% | 38-95% | 42-98% |
| Scotland | 42-71% | 54-76% | 56-81% | 59-84% | 70-89% |
| Wales | 12-74% | 16-80% | 22-85% | 23-89% | 27-92% |
| Geographic area covered by at least one operator (High Confidence) | Jan-24 | Sep-24 | Jan-25 | Jul-25 | Jan-26 |
| UK | 50% | 60% | 62% | 65% | 73% |
| England | 67% | 76% | 79% | 81% | 88% |
| Northern Ireland | 53% | 71% | 76% | 86% | 93% |
| Scotland | 23% | 33% | 34% | 37% | 48% |
| Wales | 46% | 52% | 55% | 57% | 62% |
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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The uptake in NI is brilliant
Meanwhile I can choose between 2mbps fixed broadband, or an extremely leggy 12mbps (peak time) 4G via Three
All while people who can get 1-2GBPS are talking about getter 2-5GBPS
Both Project Gigabit & the U.S.O. have been a debacle from start to finish. While urban areas with perfectly acceptable broadband connection are being upgraded left right & center. Properties with no usable service are being left to fester while the supposed U.S.O. does nothing to help as despite having a 4/5g service there is no reliable metrics for assessing it’s usability. We’ve been deemed out of scope for U.S.O. due to the availability of a 4g service but the reality is despite it being available network congestion means during peak times the best we can get is well below the 10mb threshold. Openreach in true form have been out to asses the site while they were upgrading our area & have designated it not commercially viable so we’re back on the waiting list till 2030.
All in all it’s another fine example of the Government failing it’s country & caving in to capitalistic greed.
The USO rules are arguably far more generous than they ought to be in today’s competitive world. What other provider is forced to put up several thousand pounds in build costs to serve you when they won’t even make that back in revenue, let alone profit, before you can jump to a competitor. BT (not Openreach) is forced to do that. Have you been told what FTTP might cost and what you’d be asked to contribute?
10Mbps is a perfectly adequate measure for basic service. Remember that this replaced a telephone USO that didn’t even guarantee that a dialup modem would work well, but allowed you to make and receive voice calls.
Urban areas, and actually a lot of rural Britain too, can get upgraded relatively quickly and cheaply so it is unsurprising that this is where the priority is. Capitalism has nothing to do with it, you’d see the same if it was still government owned (look at the rail and road networks as an example)
Neither Project Gigabit nor the USO have finished so fhey can’t be a failure from start to finish. Arguably the USO is now obsolete with the advent of Starlink.
FTTP can’t be installed everywhere instaneously but it’s rolling out rapidly as the above report shows.
Good to see Scotland at the bottom in all categories. Says it all really, R100 lol Im more likely to reach 100