H2 2022 – Full Fibre Broadband Covers 98% of New Build UK Homes

The latest H2 2022 study into the broadband coverage of UK new build homes reveals that 98.3% of houses constructed by the end of 2022 were covered by a fixed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network (unchanged from H1 2022), which falls slightly to 98.1% when only looking at the latest early data for 2023.

The data, which flows from Thinkbroadband‘s latest independent model (examination of new build postcodes), suggests that gigabit-capable network coverage of new build sites is no longer a major issue. But we’d still recommend that those purchasing a new build home always get the property developer to confirm, in writing, what kind of service you can expect to receive before handing over any money.

Most large home builders (e.g. Home Builders Federation) have already entered into partnerships with operators (e.g. Openreach, Virgin Media, Hyperoptic and various altnet ISPs) to better facilitate the roll-out of full fibre broadband. Openreach have also made it even cheaper to deploy their FTTP network into some of the smallest developments (here). On top of that, new rules are coming to make all of this a requirement (here and here).

Despite this, some property developers still say that deploying full fibre services can, in some areas, be prohibitively expensive (e.g. remote rural locations), although this hasn’t always stopped many of those same companies from raking in big annual profits. Nevertheless, more and more new homes are arriving with full fibre availability as standard, and the impact of this is pretty clear.

New Build Broadband Cover by Speed and Technology (H2 2022 Data)

NOTE 1: Virgin’s Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) impact is naturally in decline above (most HFC stems from older developments) as FTTP takes over. We should add that Openreach’s FTTP accounts for 80%+ of new build homes.

NOTE 2: Some small / individual developments (e.g. personal single house projects) or property conversions may be missed by this data.

NOTE 3: The historic figures may change as the related data is frequently being revised / updated, although the % totals rarely shift by much.

NOTE 4: The availability of postcode data tends to lag deployments, which is why we only get a partial view of the current year in this update.

NOTE 5: A growing number of new build and existing sites constructed with fibre ducts from GTC (OFNL / BUUK) will also be able to carry Virgin Media’s (VMO2) services (here and here).

This will be the last time that we report on the progress of full fibre coverage for new build homes in the UK, since the core problem has now been largely resolved and any biannual changes seem likely to be statistically insignificant. The figure seems to also be stabilising around 98%+ and that’s up from 90.6% all the way back in 2019. But we will update again if there are any remarkable changes.