Openreach Publish Updated Dec 2024 UK FTTP Broadband Build Plan
Network operator Openreach (BT) has today updated the build plan for the ongoing roll-out of their 1.8Gbps Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP technology, which is the first update since May 2024 when they added 517 new UK locations to their deployment. But this update mostly just reflects changes and progress with their existing locations.
Just to recap. Openreach are currently investing up to £15bn to expand the coverage of their new full fibre network to reach 25 million UK premises by December 2026 (here), which includes around 6.2m premises in rural or semi-rural areas. On top of that, they’ve also expressed an ambition to reach up to 30m by 2030, which will partly depend upon a favourable outcome from Ofcom’s next Telecoms Access Review 2026 (TAR).
The last update to Openreach’s build plan, which occurred in May 2024 (here), was particularly significant because the locations it introduced effectively completed their roll-out plan to 2026 (i.e. the 25 million premises target). Overall, this meant that around 3,500 towns, cities, boroughs, villages and hamlets were now included in the build programme, and we aren’t likely to see any major additions until the direction of Ofcom’s TAR becomes clearer.
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Suffice to say that today’s December 2024 Build Plan (and map) seem to largely represent a progress update for the locations they’ve already announced. Unfortunately, the format adopted by the operator makes it difficult to identify any new additions to the tentative list, or even removals, although we have asked Openreach if they can clarify such changes and will report back when they respond.
However, ISPreview has previously been told that this update might include locations for their recent Project Gigabit contract wins (here), which we’ll recap below. Both contracts – worth £288 million (state aid) – aim to connect approximately 96,600 extra homes and businesses in hard-to-reach parts of England and Wales.
Openreach’s August 2024 Project Gigabit Contract Awards
Type C (Call Off 1): Lancashire (Lot 9C), North Wiltshire and South Gloucestershire (Lot 30C) , West and Mid -Surrey (Lot 22C), Staffordshire (Lot 19C), West Berkshire (Lot 13C) and Hertfordshire (Lot 26C)
Premises: 54,300
Value: £149.7mType C (Call Off 2): West and North Devon (Lot 6C) , North West Wales, Mid Wales (Lot 43C) and South East Wales (Lot 44C)
Premises: 42,200
Value: £139.1m
The new service, once live, can be ordered via various ISPs, such as BT, Sky Broadband, TalkTalk, Vodafone and many more (Openreach FTTP ISP Choices) – it is not currently an automatic upgrade, although some ISPs have started to do free automatic upgrades as older copper-based services and lines are slowly withdrawn.
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, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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I’m assuming the answer is “no”, but is there anyway to get more detailed rollout plans? Both OR and CityFibre have been building in my town, even down the road from me, but haven’t gone any further in the last year. I have no idea whether they will continue or not.
Better internet dashboard
If you put your postcode in, it tells you where and when they are starting it’s not 100% accurate but it’s far better than the were planning in your Area by December 2026 from OR.
So openreach say i can have 1.6gb speed but bt wholesale say 1000mb. Totally confused with this as Zen say they can only supply the 1gb
The 1.6Gbps is the “pipe”‘s capacity, but ISPs are offering lower rates due to how they scale their networks. The 1.6Gbps is probably available to businesses though.
Don’t listen to Keith. You can get 1.6Gb from EE. BT don’t sell it on purpose.
Openreach are supplying the fibre to your house, and will give whoever is connecting to it, a 1.8Gbps connection.
Big ISPs like EE and Vodafone are direct customers of openreach, and offer a 1.6gbps package to customers.
Small ISPs need to a middleman to provide them backhaul, such as BTWholesale, or Zen Wholesale.
BTw don’t currently offer ISPs a 1.6/1.8gb package.
Zen Wholesale do offer a 1.6gb package, but don’t have coverage of them entire openreach footprint.
Zen Retail offer broadband services to the entire openreach footprint, but if they don’t have their own equipment in your exchange, they can’t use their backhaul, so sell you service via BTw, therefore limited to 1Gbps.
@Fara82Light Curious where you learned that from, especially the part about that it’s due to how ISPs scale their networks. Are you a capacity planner within an ISP?
If you’ve tried https://www.openreach.com/fibre-checker then that’s as much as OR are going to say.
Hi
I am sorry but Bt & openreach
keep telling lies about connecting fiber in BARNET
Now it is almost 7 years since they have promised fiber by 2024 but still we are using ADSL “Stone age”
Now they are saying we can get fiber by 2026.
Why hasn’t an altnet come along to Barnet?
Some parts of Barnet do have altnets, such as Community fibre have some presence, as do OpenInfra.
Surprised we don’t see more about OpenInfra here, they’re live in some parts of NW7, and offer residential packages upto a whopping 8Gbps at a reasonable price. Nothing on ThinkBB maps either.
Barnet? As in London Borough of? According to impartial stats 0.8% of it is stuck on ADSL, 49% has access to full fibre, 73.5% access to gigabit.
Openreach absolutely haven’t promised to deliver full fibre to every property anywhere outside of small scale trials and haven’t promised ubiquitous coverage to any London Borough. Small pockets of the city are very expensive to cover and traffic and pedestrian management alone can cost tens of thousands before a single flag is lifted or tarmac cut.
I am with BT/EE and was advised, when I renewed my broadband contract in August, that I would get an automatic upgrade to FTTP once the service has been rolled out in my neighbourhood.
Yes this happened with a mate of mine. He renewed his FTTC contract in March and when FTTP when live in September he was offered a free upgrade to 150Mb (which he took).
@Big Dave: Thanks. I was beginning to think that they had given me that promise just to get me to renew.
“However, ISPreview has previously been told that this update might include locations for their recent Project Gigabit contract wins”
From the notes in the doc
“It doesn’t show FTTP deployment related to BDUK, new sites/retro new-sites and other smaller scale programmes or infill”
BT and open reach can’t even connect a simple basic broadband connection to my caravan, which is 10 meters across grass from the junction box, the order was placed in September and I’m still waiting, so they have no chance of completing this work
This is about the network build. It’s an entirely separate activity, in a totally separate department in a massive organisation, from connecting premises to the network passing near the property, be that fibre or copper.
IMHO, the Uncertainty dynamic is again being applied here, whether by design or circumstance, mirroring the personal transport, healthcare, education, etc and whoever is orchestrating this effect is using commercialism in excess to re-inforce it.
Compare and contrast the North-Sea Gas conversion in the late 1960s and 1970s.
The alternative being?
In September 2020, the Openreach FTTP network covered 3.5 million properties. It has now reached 15.5 million properties (50% of the UK), with 4 million built in the last year alone. At this rate, they’re pretty much on track to deliver their 25m goal by Dec 2026.
This is a transformation within a decade.
I would assume that this gas conversion that you keep mentioning had to be done like that since they weren’t laying a new set of pipes for natural gas. This is obviously not a problem Openreach has with their ability to run both networks in parallel.
The overall gas comparison doesn’t work because there were and are huge swathes of the country that aren’t on mains gas but have (or will get) FTTP.
Nick, take your head out of the oven. The Openreach FTTP run rate far outstrips the gas conversion. More premises, shorter time.
Compare and contrast what? Full fibre with a totally different project done exclusively on the taxpayer’s tab?
You’re entitled to your opinion but, based on this and your previous comment, you aren’t entitled to have that opinion taken seriously. You have no idea what the full fibre project entails, the constraints it’s being delivered under or how it’s being delivered.
Why are you so obsessed with the gas conversion project from the 60s/70s that you keep going on about it? You commented on seeing vans everywhere and trying not to trip over trenches but that can’t be it, surely? I’ve seen projects happen but doesn’t mean I feel qualified to claim other projects I’ve no idea about should follow that one because I watched it happen.
So I take it if it’s not within the next 12 months it’s right to assume by the end of 2026 still or have the goalposts been moved again?
Openreach UK FTTP coverage will grow from 50% (now) to ~80% by Dec 2026.
Therefore, roughly speaking, if you don’t have it now, there’s a 3-in-5 chance you’ll have it by Dec 2026.
If you’re one of the unlucky 2-in-5, then you may have to wait until 2030 or beyond. If you can’t wait that long then there’s always 4G/5G or Starlink.
It’s a case of who knows. Even Openreach don’t know. They told me in 2020 that my road would be done in 12 months and it’s still not been done.
Its now April 2025, I doubt this will happen as work hasn’t even started to build the network.
@NE55 There isn’t “always” Starlink or 4G/5G. Starlink requires a location that can offer a good view of the sky, unobstructed by trees, buildings or topography. It may not be possible to achieve that – if I didn’t have friendly neighbours, I’d be stuffed because I’m halfway down a very steep S-facing valley side. Even then, I had to work hard to find a decent location. 4G/5G requires a base in range, obvs.
@NE555 or an altnet, they will most likely fill in what OR can’t.
@MikeP, true. Your name rings a bell, local to Branscombe by any chance? 🙂
Its a simple con.the have’s Full Fibre are getting subsidised by the Not Full Fibre(copper/Part fibre).Its would be fairer to all that ALL providers should have the rates charged capped so that those still on “copper only” or “part Fibre” dont pay more per Mbit as those on “full fibre”-e.g. I pay £25 for 25mb yet some are paying £30 for 100mb-so my £1 buys 1mb while FTTH gets 3.5mbs per £1.
Project Gigabyte is another con because it seems that no dept part of this or previous Govt are checking the reliability results – e.g. Some of those providers who recvd a lot of money out of the “pot” are no more than “one man and his dog” outfits. This shows when problems occur there support is non existant and people can be without internet for weeks. Its very similar to the Double Glazing situation during the 70/80/90 – too many cowboy’s!
No-one doing work on Project Gigabit gets paid until they’ve delivered live premises.
The subsidy discussion is far more complex than that. It costs the people building the network the same to build it whether someone buys 40 Mbps or 1800. It’s also a bad one to have. I would be delighted to pay based on what it cost to build FTTP to me and there’s a fair chance your FTTC is more expensive to maintain.
No good news for all those in Somerset (or Devon?) effected by the diabolical situation left by CDSS.
In 2021, Openreach forwarded an email alerting me that that they would soon start work in my neighbourhood to install FTTP. Like the previous 2 emails similarly alerting me to the start of such works it never materialised.
So, in July of this year, I sent a courteous email to Openreach’s CEO. To my surprise, he responded the very next day and promised that he would deal with it. Over the following days several of his subordinates assured me that the issue would be dealt with. Within a week, Openreach operatives were actively surveying my neighbourhood to assess the feasibility of deploying FTTP in my conservation area.
Another week goes by and Openreach confirm their funding to undertake the work, and seek planning permission from the local conservation trust and City Council to dig-up the pavements (as the original BT infrastructure had simply been buried in the road/pavements and wasn’t in ducts).
I received regular updates via emails and phone calls advising of progress. By November their ‘Civils’ team installed the appropriate ducts in the neighbourhood pavements within a couple of weeks. As I was to be the first recipient of FTTP Openreach installed their internal ONT, rather than leaving to my chosen Broadband provider, to ensure the whole local system was working.
After 30 years of being solely restricted to Virgin Media (and the painfully slow ADSL alternative), I’m awaiting delivery of my EE FTTP Modem. So, the point of my posting is that if you’ve been similarly promised FTTP and it hasn’t materialised, it’s worth chasing-up Openreach. I’ve been super impressed by their ability to get things done once they’ve been alerted to the problem.
Islington and Camden are still not in their plans. How can areas of central London be outright overlooked by Openreach is beyond me.
Lots of MDUs. High cost of build in some areas where ducts are congested. Small bits of work are being done on both. Both have availability of gigabit well into the 90s% and full fibre coverage into the 60s%. They’ll probably be okay for a bit while other projects are progressed and surveys done.
Most of Islington is covered. There are a lot of flats in Islington and getting the permission of freeholders can be an issue
Our Openreach FTTP is stuck on the slowest 40/10 service and orders for speed upgrades are automatically rejected, due to capacity issues apparently. Can’t find out if/when this may be resolved. Having not long ago paid them nearly £10k to install FTTP, this is annoying to say the least.. 1.8Gbps in my dreams! Exchange WWBSTW.
I would be talking with your ISP and their wholesale partner if they have one to be honest.
Your FTTP doesn’t go to Bridestowe it goes to Okehampton. From at least Openreach’s point of view Okehampton is good to go for the full range of speeds they sell: at very least Huawei OLT BAADMF has been there since late 2013 with the full Openreach FTTP product range available through it.
Regardless even if you were on the ECI OLT, BAADBN, which you almost certainly aren’t given a very few cabinets went on it then they installed the Huawei the same year and stopped installing new ECI, you would still have access to 330/50.
I can think of exactly one way you’d have ended up paying 10 grand for an FTTP install and 40/10 being maximum makes no sense on it and needs FTTP to have been available locally with you paying a huge excess construction fee due to being so far away from the build.
There has never been fibre from an ECI OLT to any cabinets in WWBSTW: the first cabinet to get FTTC there was on Huawei as part of BDUK CDS phase 12a built in 2015. Subsequent FTTP build would’ve been on that Huawei equipment or new Nokia/Adtran hardware.
I’ve no idea how any restriction could involve Openreach this time around. The wholesaler might have severe issues from Okehampton but should have a 10 Gbit port from Openreach.
Which provider? Was it an FTTPoD order or was the £10k for excess construction charges?
Current ISP is Vodafone. Cost of the install was £22k, £12k was covered by vouchers, £10k by me. Community fibre partnership scheme.
Guy – if I have your address correct the BT wholesale checker says:
WBC FTTP Up to 1000 Up to 220
Yes I’ve seen that, but I’ve now had two speed increase orders rejected (in September and December), Vodafone are telling me only the 40/10 service is currently available.