Swansea Bay City Region Update on Broadband and Mobile Coverage

The Swansea Bay City Region’s Digital Infrastructure Programme, which includes various broadband and other digital infrastructure upgrades as part of the much wider £1.3bn region deal, has today posted an update on both fixed broadband and mobile network coverage across the area covered by their programme.

The data, which uses figures from both Ofcom (Connected Nations) and Thinkbroadband, helps to highlight how digital connectivity has improved across the Swansea Bay area over the past few years. But it is very important to reflect that most of this has change has come from separate commercial builds / upgrades and projects, with only a little bit of that being influenced by the aforementioned city deal.

For example, the coverage of full fibre (FTTP) broadband in Swansea is now said to be reaching 90% of premises, exceeding the Welsh average of 87%, while Neath Port Talbot has reached 87%, Carmarthenshire 78% and Pembrokeshire 77%. This represents a substantial uplift compared to 2024 levels, when coverage ranged from around 50% to just over 60% across the region.

The largest increase has been seen in Neath Port Talbot, where FTTP coverage has increased by more than 30%, highlighting the rapid pace of infrastructure deployment. Mobile connectivity also remains strong, with 4G coverage now available from at least one mobile network for 98–99% of premises across the region and improving availability across all three operators. But they ignore 5G.

Full fibre broadband

4G Coverage – at least one MNO

4G Coverage – all MNO’s

Jonathan Burnes, Swansea Bay City Deal’s Portfolio Director, said:

“The scale of improvement we are seeing across the Swansea Bay City Region is remarkable. In just a few years, full fibre and mobile connectivity have improved significantly, including in many rural communities that have traditionally been harder to reach.

This progress reflects the strength of the partnerships we have built across the region. By bringing together local authorities, the Regional Digital Infrastructure Team, telecommunications providers and both Welsh and UK Governments, we have been able to attract investment, address gaps in coverage and deliver the digital infrastructure needed to support communities, businesses and public services.

While there is still more to do, particularly in some of our most rural areas, these results demonstrate the real difference that collaborative working can achieve.”

As above, the city deal team clearly recognise that there’s more work left to do, both for them and other projects like the ongoing 4G expansion via the Shared Rural Network (SRN) programme, not to mention the UK government’s £5bn Project Gigabit scheme and the Welsh Government’s £70 million Extending High Speed Broadband Project.