Home
 » ISP News » 
Sponsored Links

Ofcom Finds Full Fibre Broadband Now Available to 5% of UK Premises

Tuesday, Oct 2nd, 2018 (12:24 pm) - Score 1,995

The telecoms regulator has today published their latest Q2 2018 update to last year’s Connected Nations report, which uses more recent data from April 2018 to provide the latest coverage statistics for UK mobile and fixed line broadband networks. For example, “full fibre” (FTTP) coverage has risen to 5% (1.4 million premises).

The original report was published in December 2017, although it was largely based off data that had been captured in May 2017 (fixed broadband coverage) and June 2017 (mobile coverage). Thankfully a more recent update was posted during the Spring (here), although this still used data from January 2018. By comparison today’s report has jumped forward another quarter and is based on data captured during April 2018.

All this is very useful because fixed line broadband and 4G mobile networks are still being deployed and this report helps to reflect that on-going progress. The Government also tends to make use of Ofcom’s data to support their assessments of the market, which is another reason to keep a close eye on what the regulator observes.

The key changes since Ofcom’s Spring report are that “ultrafast broadband” coverage (defined by the regulator as speeds of 300Mbps+) has risen from 45% to 48% of the UK (14 million premises), while “superfast broadband” (30Mbps+) coverage remains on 93% after only increasing slightly to cover 27.3 million premises.

Most of the ultrafast coverage will be coming from the expansion of Virgin Media’s cable network, although Openreach has also been very busy deploying both G.fast and FTTP technology. Not to mention that a growing number of alternative network providers are also spreading FTTP at an increasingly rapid pace (see our ‘UK Summary of Full Fibre Broadband Plans and Investment‘).

The improved fixed line broadband coverage also means that the number of premises that cannot get a decent broadband service has continued to fall. Around 860,000 UK premises (3%) cannot get broadband with a download speed of at least 10Mbps and an upload of at least 1Mbps (a fall of 70,000 since the last report), which is the specification for the UK Government’s proposed broadband Universal Service Obligation (USO).

April 2018 Coverage Figures

The following table summarises the latest mobile and fixed broadband coverage figures for the United Kingdom, although you can get a similar report for each of the UK’s primary regions (England, Scotland, N.Ireland and Wales) by downloading the full October 2018 Update (PDF) and scrolling toward the bottom.

NOTE: Ofcom use a much stricter definition for geographic coverage of mobile networks (e.g. they measure by coverage provided by all operators rather than only one with the best cover), which is why their figure is so much lower than those put out by Three UK, Vodafone, O2 and EE.

ofcom_2018_april_broadband_and_mobile_coverage_uk_data

Take note that that UK government defines “superfast broadband” as starting at the slightly slower speed of 24Mbps+, which is partly why their own statistics for the national Broadband Delivery UK programme have already been able to achieve the 95% coverage target in January 2018 (here).

Mark-Jackson
By Mark Jackson
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 and .
Search ISP News
Search ISP Listings
Search ISP Reviews
Comments
3 Responses
  1. Avatar photo 5G Infinity says:

    Anything else Ofcom can find, ie indoor mobile coverage exceeded outdoor mobile coverage because we are all using WhatsApp and WiFi on our phones as true mobile coverage is way off what Ofcom says it is?

  2. Mark-Jackson Mark Jackson says:

    “Mobile” above only means 2G, 3G and 4G. WiFi sits in a different category.

  3. Avatar photo VeniVidiVictum says:

    Most internal areas are huddled together in cities. Geographical coverage includes all the empty moorlands and mountains where hardly anyone lives. Imagine 99 people living in one small town on a large island, mostly fields. 1 person living on a farm. The mobile network covers the town only – 99% population coverage, 96% interval coverage (some have thick walls), 1% geographical coverage.

Comments are closed

Cheap BIG ISPs for 100Mbps+
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Virgin Media UK ISP Logo
Virgin Media £24.00
132Mbps
Gift: None
Plusnet UK ISP Logo
Plusnet £27.99
145Mbps
Gift: None
Zen Internet UK ISP Logo
Zen Internet £28.00 - 35.00
100Mbps
Gift: None
Sky Broadband UK ISP Logo
100Mbps
Gift: None
Large Availability | View All
Cheapest ISPs for 100Mbps+
Gigaclear UK ISP Logo
Gigaclear £15.00
150Mbps
Gift: None
YouFibre UK ISP Logo
YouFibre £19.99
150Mbps
Gift: None
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
BeFibre UK ISP Logo
BeFibre £21.00
150Mbps
Gift: £25 Love2Shop Card
Hey! Broadband UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Large Availability | View All
The Top 15 Category Tags
  1. FTTP (5445)
  2. BT (3497)
  3. Politics (2513)
  4. Openreach (2285)
  5. Business (2242)
  6. Building Digital UK (2227)
  7. FTTC (2040)
  8. Mobile Broadband (1956)
  9. Statistics (1771)
  10. 4G (1650)
  11. Virgin Media (1603)
  12. Ofcom Regulation (1447)
  13. Wireless Internet (1384)
  14. Fibre Optic (1384)
  15. FTTH (1380)
Promotion
Sponsored

Copyright © 1999 to Present - ISPreview.co.uk - All Rights Reserved - Terms , Privacy and Cookie Policy , Links , Website Rules , Contact
Mastodon