Ofcom Spring 2021 – Full Fibre Covers 21% of UK and Gigabit 37%

Ofcom’s latest Spring 2021 update for UK broadband and mobile networks has revealed that “full fibre” (FTTP) coverage has grown to 21% (up from 18% in Sep 2020) and 37% or 10.8 million homes are within reach of a gigabit-capable (1000Mbps) network (up from 27%). But sadly 4G coverage has not improved and there’s no mention of 5G.

Once again, this interim report is based on coverage and service availability information received from both ISPs and mobile network operators as of January 2021, which is thus four months more recent than the September 2020 data in their previous update.

Overall “ultrafast broadband” availability (defined by Ofcom as 300Mbps+) has increased from 59% to 61% of UK premises since the last update, while “superfast broadband” (30Mbps+) remains unchanged on 96%. On top of that it’s noted how 6 million (21%) premises can now order a Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) service, which is up from 5.1 million (18%) at the last update.

At present most of the growth in ultrafast and gigabit connectivity comes from the expansion and DOCSIS 3.1 upgrade of Virgin Media’s Hybrid Fibre Coax (cable) network, although both they and Openreach are also deploying lots of gigabit-capable FTTP. Similarly, lots of alternative networks (e.g. Cityfibre, Hyperoptic, G.Network etc.) are helping to deploy FTTP at an increasingly rapid pace (Summary of Full Fibre Builds).

All of this work will no doubt help to support the UK Government’s new £5bn Project Gigabit programme, which aims to further improve the picture for gigabit speed connectivity by using state aid to target connectivity improvements toward the final 20% of hardest to reach premises (i.e. helping to extend gigabit coverage to at least 85% of UK premises by the end of 2025).

The improvements in fixed line coverage also mean that the number of premises which cannot get a “decent broadband” (10Mbps+) service should have done down, but Ofcom has just changed the way they measure broadband availability at sites with multiple properties (e.g. blocks of flats and shopping centres) and this has had an impact.

In short, the number of properties (both residential and commercial) that cannot receive a 10Mbps+ broadband service from a fixed line now stands at 650,000 (just over 2%). At this point we’d normally also get an additional figure for how this is impacted when fixed wireless and 4G coverage is included (last time it was 189,000 premises), but Ofcom have yet to complete the work for that.

Just to remind readers, a download speed of at least 10Mbps and an upload of 1Mbps represents the core specification for the UK Government’s new broadband Universal Service Obligation (USO), which began in March 2020.

Speaking of wireless services, 4G mobile networks have seen outdoor coverage by all operators combined (EE, Three UK, O2 and Vodafone) hold steady at 98%, while geographic coverage from all operators is also unchanged on 69%. The new £1bn Shared Rural Network (SRN) agreement will eventually start to change that, but it’s a slow burn. Sadly, the big disappointment today is that Ofcom still aren’t tracking 5G coverage.

Spring 2021 Coverage Data by Region

The following table summarises the latest mobile and fixed broadband coverage figures for Scotland, Wales, England and Northern Ireland individually and you can get more detail by downloading the full Spring 2021 Update (PDF).