Ofcom Spring 2025 Data – Gigabit Broadband Covers 27.24 Million UK Premises
Ofcom has today published its Spring 2025 update on UK fixed broadband and mobile coverage, which reveals that “full fibre” (FTTP) lines now reach 74% of homes (up from 69% in July 2024), while 86% are within reach of a gigabit network (up from 83%) and 62-85% of premises can get an outdoor 5G signal (up from 61-79%).
The regulator’s latest report is based on coverage and service availability information that has been received from both fixed line ISPs and mobile network operators as of January 2025, which is several months more recent than the July 2024 data used in their last update.
Overall, the UK’s coverage of fixed “superfast broadband” (30Mbps+) remains unchanged at 98%, while 23.68 million premises (74% of homes) can now order a Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) service via various networks (up from 69%). Meanwhile, gigabit-capable broadband (1Gbps+) services are now available to 86% of UK homes or 27.24 million premises (up from 83%).
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The above figure for gigabit coverage is higher than the FTTP figure because a lot of recent gigabit connectivity has also flowed from Virgin Media’s upgrade to their existing Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) network via DOCSIS 3.1 technology – there’s a lot of overbuild between HFC and FTTP in dense urban areas. Ofcom also splits their “premises” (inc. business) and “homes” figures on fixed lines, which can be a bit confusing (gigabit cover is 84% if you look at all premises).
All of this work will help to support the UK Government’s £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 10-20% of hardest to reach premises (i.e. helping to extend gigabit coverage “nationwide” or c.99% by 2030).
However, the number of premises that cannot get a “decent broadband” (10Mbps+) service – when you include delivery via wireless connections (i.e. 4G, 5G and fixed wireless access) – is currently 48,000 (0.1% of the UK), which is down from 58,000 at the last update. The download speed of 10Mbps (1Mbps upload) also represents the core specification for the UK’s Universal Service Obligation (USO) for broadband.
As for mobile networks, 4G has seen geographic coverage across all network operators (EE, Three UK, O2 and Vodafone) rise slightly to 88-90% (up from 88-89%). The new £1bn Shared Rural Network (SRN) agreement should be starting to improve this, but it’s a very slow burn. As for 5G, some 62-85% of UK premises can now get outdoor coverage (up from 61-79%), which falls to just 22-44% when looking at outdoor coverage by all operators combined (up from 19-38%). Suffice to say, there’s still plenty of work to do.
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Spring 2025 Coverage Data by Region
The following table summarises the latest mobile and fixed broadband coverage figures for Scotland, Wales, England and Northern Ireland individually, although you can get a bit more detail by checking the full Spring 2025 Update.
UK Fixed Broadband Coverage (Residential)
| Access to full fibre | Sep-23 | Jan-24 | Jul-24 | Jan-25 |
| UK | 57% | 62% | 69% | 74% |
| England | 56% | 62% | 69% | 75% |
| Northern Ireland | 91% | 92% | 93% | 94% |
| Scotland | 53% | 58% | 62% | 67% |
| Wales | 55% | 61% | 68% | 74% |
| Take-up of full-fibre services as a percentage of premises with access to full fibre | May-23 | Jul-24 | Jan-25 |
| UK | 28% | 35% | 38% |
| England | 27% | 33% | 37% |
| Northern Ireland | 39% | 53% | 58% |
| Scotland | 28% | 35% | 39% |
| Wales | 31% | 39% | 44% |
| Access to a gigabit-capable service | Sep-23 | Jan-24 | Jul-24 | Jan-25 |
| UK | 78% | 80% | 83% | 86% |
| England | 78% | 81% | 84% | 86% |
| Northern Ireland | 92% | 94% | 94% | 95% |
| Scotland | 72% | 75% | 77% | 79% |
| Wales | 64% | 69% | 74% | 78% |
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| Access to a superfast fixed line service (at least 30 Mbit/s download speed) | Sep-23 | Jan-24 | Jul-24 | Jan-25 |
| UK | 97% | 97% | 98% | 98% |
| England | 98% | 98% | 98% | 98% |
| Northern Ireland | 98% | 98% | 98% | 99% |
| Scotland | 95% | 96% | 96% | 96% |
| Wales | 96% | 96% | 96% | 97% |
| Access to a fixed line service with at least 10 Mbit/s download speed | Sep-23 | Jan-24 | Jul-24 | Jan-25 |
| UK | 99% | 99% | 99% | 99% |
| England | 99% | 99% | 99% | 99% |
| Northern Ireland | 99% | 99% | 99% | 99% |
| Scotland | 98% | 98% | 98% | 98% |
| Wales | 98% | 98% | 98% | 98% |
UK Mobile Network Coverage (4G)
| Geographic area – coverage range across MNOs | Sep-23 | Jan-24 | Sep-24 | Jan-25 |
| UK | 80-87% | 81-88% | 88-89% | 88-90% |
| England | 92-95% | 92-95% | 94-96% | 94-96% |
| Northern Ireland | 88-92% | 89-92% | 89-95% | 89-96% |
| Scotland | 59-76% | 60-78% | 77-80% | 78-80% |
| Wales | 73-85% | 74-87% | 83-89% | 84-90% |
UK Mobile Network Coverage (5G)
| Premises (outdoor) – coverage range across MNOs (High Confidence) | Sep-23 | Jan-24 | Sep-24 | Jan-25 |
| UK | 48-78% | 51-74% | 61-79% | 62-85% |
| England | 51-81% | 53-75% | 65-81% | 66-86% |
| Northern Ireland | 26-62% | 28-68% | 36-90% | 37-93% |
| Scotland | 39-70% | 42-71% | 54-76% | 56-81% |
| Wales | 11-69% | 12-74% | 16-80% | 22-85% |
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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90% mobile coverage… why don’t I believe that…
I’m in Hatfield Hertz , still waiting even to be planned
Says between now and 2026 xD
> 62-85% of premises can get an outdoor 5G signal
What kind of statistic is that? Why is it such a wide range?
Ofcom do love their ranges, which in this case reflects the ranges across the different operators and their order of confidence. You could also just play it safe and say 62% for geographic 5G coverage.
Currently in Glen Nevis, just outside of Fort William, very solid 5G signal. However every man and his dog are constantly uploading to Insta, Facebook and TikTok. Seriously considering exchanging my motorhome for a Bushmaster with all the drones flying. ;-P
Last week was the “Six Day Scottish Trials” Couldn’t get over Mb all week. Now a slow Monday and I can get 65.9 down and 4.29 up. That will last until the weekend when the day trippers and weekend motorhome campers crowd are back. Fortunately my primary is Starlink but even that suffered last week when the pro teams all had Starlink mounted on their team trailers.
Still a luck man to be able to do this and most weekends when I am not on call we drive off into the wilderness to wild camp.
Still no interest or plan from Project Gigas-it in rural Kent, despite contract award of the lot. Very much consistent with the language of unreliable auctions.
4G 94%
5G 66%
Is already equal to FTTC from OR with FTTP looking irrelevant as 5G build continues competition between the three remaining Networks in UK.
Of course metropolitan over build should not be a priority when so little of rural FTTP coverage exists.
How not to deliver a national fibre utility…