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.

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:

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 117%)
➤ 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.