Top 10 Best and Worst UK Cities for Ultrafast Broadband Penetration

A recent report from the Centre for Cities think-tank has revealed the top ten best and worst cities for coverage of fixed “ultrafast broadband” (100Mbps+) connectivity across the United Kingdom, which sees Luton rank top with 95% of homes and businesses being within reach and sadly Aberdeen came bottom on 2.3%.

According to the report, more than half of UK premises (56.1%) now have access to order “ultrafast broadband” speeds. In 55 out of 63 cities tested the proportion of properties with access to ultrafast speeds exceeded the UK average (rural areas will drag the national average down). Meanwhile 6 out of the top 10 cities were located in the South of England, whereas only 2 cities in the bottom 10 were in the South (Southend and Milton Keynes).

At present the vast majority of “ultrafast” coverage in urban areas will be due to Virgin Media’s soon-to-be 500Mbps capable hybrid fibre coax (cable) and “full fibre” (FTTP) based network, although Openreach, Hyperoptic, Cityfibre and others ISPs are currently in the process of rapidly expanding the availability of Gigabit capable FTTP networks. Not to mention rising levels of G.fast technology.

In fact the pace of progress is so rapid that the table below is already out of date, despite being based on fairly recent Thinkbroadband sourced data from the end of 2018. For example, bottom dwelling Aberdeen (Scotland) is listed as having 2.3% coverage in the table but they’re now up to 5%, thanks in no small part to Cityfibre’s work to expand “full fibre” with ISP partner Vodafone (note: Virgin Media has no presence in the city).

Similarly the 32.1% figure for Milton Keynes has since jumped to around 40%. Meanwhile we assume that Hull must have just missed out on being included in the top ten table, although KCOM has in fact nearly completed their deployment to cover the entire city.