UK Coverage of Fixed Line Superfast Broadband Hits 93% – Q2 2017

The latest independent data for June 2017 has estimated that fixed line “superfast broadband” (24Mbps+) networks are now available to 93% of premises across the United Kingdom (96.1% if you include all “fibre based” lines, such as sub-24Mbps services), although some parts are lagging behind.

The independent data from Thinkbroadband suggests that the current Government is still on course to achieve their overall target, which aims to put fixed line “superfast broadband” networks within reach of 95% of premises by the end of 2017 (this might slip a little into 2018) and then possibly around 97% by 2020.

We should point out that across the UK the first 70% or so of coverage has been largely achieved purely by the private sector (Openreach (BT) and Virgin Media + some smaller altnets), while the final 30% is benefiting from around £1.6bn of public investment via the Broadband Delivery UK programme. Recently a further £600m has also been earmarked to support future “full fibre” (FTTP/H) deployments (here).

Below you can see the latest data for June 2017 (Q2) and we’ve stripped out some of the more confusing aspects in order to make it easier to understand. We’ve also left in the 10Mbps figures as this will be a useful gauge for understanding the scale of the proposed Universal Service Obligation (USO), which could be fully introduced by 2020 (note: by then the size of the problem area will be even smaller).

NOTE: The term “fibre based” below includes fibre optic and hybrid fibre solutions, such as FTTP, FTTC (VDSL2) and Cable (DOCSIS), albeit without any definition of service speed (e.g. some FTTC lines deliver speeds well below 24Mbps). Elsewhere nearly all of the below “ultrafast” coverage will currently be coming from Virgin Media’s cable network.

We should remind readers that each devolved region has its own policy and targets, which all feed into the central UK target. For example, Wales has proposed a new aspiration to reach “every property” with 30Mbps+ capable broadband by 2020 (here) and Scotland hope to do the same by 2021 (here). The ‘Highlands and Islands‘ and ‘Rest of Scotland‘ areas above represent the two halves of Scotland’s overall roll-out programme.

TBB’s data is of course only an estimate and while imperfect it’s still one of the best gauges that we have for checking against official Government data. However, estimates should be taken with a pinch of salt, not least because they don’t always reflect the real-world reality. This is particularly true where issues like faulty lines, poor home wiring, slow WiFi and other problems can result in a much slower speeds than expected.

The TBB data is often also a tiny bit more pessimistic than the official progress reports from local authorities and BDUK, although the difference is fairly negligible and in any case we always prefer a bit of pessimism in coverage data (it’s often closer to reality). The Government and Ofcom often report figurse that are 1-2 percentage points higher than TBB or thereabouts.