New Map Shows Project Gigabit Broadband Status in England and Wales
A new interactive map has today been published by Thinkbroadband that rather handily provides a visual overview of the government’s £5bn Project Gigabit broadband roll-out across England and Wales, which drills down to premises level by factoring in a total of 30 million Unique Property Reference Numbers (UPRN).
As part of this programme, the Government’s executive Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency conducts regular Open Market Reviews (OMR), which is used to identify areas that can already access 1000Mbps+ capable broadband and those that are expected to receive it over the next three years. This in turn helps BDUK to figure out which locations may require public investment in the future to help access the same connectivity.
The OMRs are conducting several times a year and typically place individual properties into a set of four categories – labelled as White, Grey, Black and Under Review. BDUK will only subsidise build to premises which have been designated as White.
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- White – indicates premises with no gigabit network infrastructure and none is likely to be developed within 3 years.
- Grey – indicates premises where a qualifying gigabit infrastructure from a single supplier is available, or is to be deployed within the coming 3 years.
- Black – indicates premises with two or more qualifying gigabit infrastructures from different suppliers being available, or will be deployed within the coming 3 years.
- Under Review – indicates premises where suppliers have reported current or planned commercial broadband coverage, but where claimed current gigabit coverage has not been verified, or, in respect of planned build, where evaluators are confident that gigabit infrastructure will be delivered, but some risks to delivery remain, or there are some gaps in evidence.
The new map from TBB takes the data from BDUK’s most recent September 2024 OMR – for England and Wales – and attempts to visualise it, albeit with different colour coding (i.e. Yellow dots for ‘White’ premises [no gigabit services existing or planned], Blue dots for ‘Under Review’ premises and Grey dots for premises where one or more Gigabit services are already delivered or planned). Some other caveats also apply (details).
Overall, this is a very useful tool and one that enables people, using the latest available data, to quickly see where they are within the government’s project by zooming down to a ‘per premises’ level. You can even click your home to uncover more info. on the relevant contract lot and status etc. Big credit to TBB for producing this and making it available to the public.
Take note that there’s ongoing OMR activity within Scotland and Northern Ireland, so similar data isn’t yet available for those two.
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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Its great to see such data made available, given BDUK don’t, kudos to TBB.
I’m not sure about the accuracy of some of the source data – for example Openreach have announced our exchange will have a commercial full fibre build (more than 12 months away), but the map shows half the village “under review” in blue and half the village “white”/”yellow”. The ordering is somewhat random – for example one road has the properties at the end of a cul de sac (all on one pole) shown as blue, but other houses in the same road on other poles and underground ducts as yellow, despite OR having to pass those properties to get to the end of the cul de sac. I guess this is duff source data…
Underlying data is from BDUK
thanks Andrew!
Plus point for being more accurate than other data I’ve seen. Most of our neighbours can get gigabit, but we’re “Under review” which better reflects that we can’t.
But, I’m pretty sure other neighbours such as the houses immediately next door on either side who are marked as serviced can’t get gigabit either. I suspect we’re marked as such because Virgin Media’s data says we can, but when we tried we were turned down because the cost of digging up 10m of tarmac between us and the road was deemed too much to be economical. The same would apply to our neighbours.
Mine is Grey dots for premises where one or more Gigabit services are already delivered or planned. Openreach checker say Build planned between now and Dec-2026
Maybe you are covered by Virgin Media DOCSIS?
Perhaps put your details into bidb.uk and see what you find?
So I’m yellow or white on that map which indicates that nothing will be available within 3 years. This really has ruined my day!
The interesting thing is that Cityfibre has built to my address but isn’t live so surely that disputes those findings? Looking at the CF website today and it’s still planned so they look to be coming…
Also, does it put a nail in the coffin for Nexfibre coverage for example? Does this report know specifically where they are deploying, or do they get the weird shaded vague template we get?
Already seen areas where I’ve mapped nexfibre in white areas – so being a white/yellow is not the end of the road
Plans change, data from providers may not be right and many other permutations.
Hmm! Perhaps I’m reading it wrongly, but my premises is given as a blue dot (i.e. under review), whereas it is a ‘white’ property that Full Fibre Ltd have the contract for (in West Herefordshire and Forest of Dean) signed off in April 2024, which as of today is still in the planning stage.
Just replicates the information I already have. I mapped the area myself, sad or what!
It confirms the lot we are in, but nothing planned, so essentially now more information than I have today. The end date so far away may or may not happen. Looks better than my paper map but that’s it!
The BDUK data is from September so is already months out of date. The status of premises changes all the time.
This is the first time, so far as I am aware, that BDUK has published premises (UPRN) level data publicly. This has allowed Thinkbroadband to produce their rather fine map.
Previously, BDUK infrequently released data at the postcode level along with horrid spotty useless maps.
Personally, I wouldn’t place too much stock in the status of a particular property. The only sure fire indication is when your property is actually ready for service.
None of the regional contract winners publish detailed maps or schedules of their builds. This is frustrating but they have their reasons, some of them good ones.
The problem is that so many things can affect who gets built to, or not, and when;
At any point, a commercial builder can declare their intention to build within a regional procurement. If this happens then the subsidy may be withdrawn and your build could be affected.
An engineering issue may delay things or prevent service being delivered at all.
A crucial wayleave may not be forthcoming.
Etc. Etc.
In my own case, Openreach announced last week we are now in their commercial build plans although they haven’t stated when this is likely to happen. We were included in the regional procurement plan so who will get here and when is anybody’s guess.
The ‘Under review’ category is a bit vague and has several meanings. Sadly, the reason why a property is ‘Under review’ is not part of the public data. Quoting from BDUK:
‘indicates premises where suppliers have reported current or planned commercial broadband coverage, but where claimed current gigabit coverage has not been verified, or, in respect of planned build, where evaluators are confident that gigabit infrastructure will be delivered, but some risks to delivery remain, or there are some gaps in evidence’
So I see that there are a number of properties in my village that are yellow (White) but the majority of them are blue (under review).
From reading the article, I deduce that this means that because I’ve been pushing about Project Gigabit to many multiple companies and departments, including the local contract agency (Connecting Devon & Somerset) within the county council for BDUK, Openreach and Airband (who have decided to cancel the rollout in my area), they are simply aware of my physical locality and have been reviewed by them and been marked against my property that there is nothing within the next three years but, because my immediate Neighbours **haven’t** been in touch with anyone officially about fibre, it’s still marked as under review?!
This actually, to my mind, gives me some encouragement that I do come under the BDUK’s Project GigaBit, moving forward, because it says those that are white (yellow) come under the BDUK plan for project gigabit so I still stand a chance!?
Within this OMR outcome (Sept 24), any property in Airband’s CDS contract that is no longer being delivered would become Gigabit White (Yellow Dot on TBB).
If you remain in Airband CDS plans
or
If you are in the Lot6 Type C Openreach contract (Call Off 2 or 4)
or
You have a Gigabit Voucher issued, but not completed
or
A provider has outlined Commercial Plans for your property but has not evidenced these satisfactorily.
Then you would be Under Review (Blue on TBB)
If you are live
or
If a provider has outline commercial plans to build to you in 3years and evidenced this
or
If you are in confirmed build plans under a Project Gigabit Contract
Then you would be Gigabit Grey. (Grey on TBB) or if 2+ live / RFS Supplier (Gigabit Black)
Where it can get complex is the Project Gigabit contracts have “in Scope” and “Under review”, that is a different “Under Review” to the OMR outcome but bears some common ground.
The only absolutes are to look at the UPRN within a suppliers system (planning no guarantee in wont change), or for a supplier to tell you you are open to order (ie RFS).
TBB are great. I wish they’d update their forum software though, it’s straight out of 1990 and hard to follow
I’m puzzled by the map and the speeds and availability in that my premises has a grey dot, the postcode gives a rating of 2.5MB/s down and 0.4MB/s up. An actual speed test gives 104Mb/s down and about 10MB/s up. I have had Openreach FTTP for a couple of years now. I hope the speedtest has been added to the TBB table, though I know I do not have (or need at this time) a faster ‘net connection which is available. The local council average is about 160MB/s down.