Openreach Publish Tweaked 2026 Update on UK FTTP Broadband Build Plan
National network operator Openreach (BT) has published a new March 2026 update on their roll-out of Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based gigabit broadband ISP technology. The update reflects all the recent changes and progress with their existing locations (doesn’t add new areas) and has also tweaked their info. to give people “clearer information about when to expect full fibre build to start“.
Just to recap. The operator is currently investing up to £15bn to expand the coverage of their new “full fibre” network to 25 million premises by December 2026 (here), which will include around 6.2m in rural or semi-rural areas. On top of that, they’ve also expressed an ambition to reach up to 30m by 2030 (there are c.33m in the UK), although this is partly dependent upon a favourable outcome from Ofcom’s next Telecoms Access Review 2026 (TAR) and government policy (planning and taxation etc.).
The new network is currently capable of delivering download speeds of up to 1.8Gbps (uploads of 1Gbps are also possible in some Project Gigabit build areas) via older GPON technology. But Openreach are also about to trial real speeds of up to 8.5Gbps via their new XGS-PON based full fibre network across tends of thousands of premises around Guildford (here and here).
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In terms of their network deployment. Openreach has already announced their commercial roll-out plan up to the December 2026 target – reflecting 3,525 exchanges (towns, cities, boroughs, villages and hamlets). The latest March 2026 Build Plan (and Interactive Map) thus largely represents a progress update for those locations. But take note that this only covers their commercial builds and there are some big exclusions (i.e. new sites/retro new-sites and other smaller scale programmes or infill and publicly subsidised builds under the government’s BDUK linked contracts are sadly all excluded).
Transparency improvements
In addition, Openreach has also informed ISPreview that they’re updating how they describe the status of their full fibre commercial build programmes – and will continue to review as the build progresses – to give the people who use their network “clearer information about when to expect full fibre build to start“.
Previously, any exchange where build activity had begun, was generally labelled “We’re building in this exchange now”. However, because their full fibre programmes can run over several years, that label covered a wide range of build stages. Openreach has simplified this so that “only exchanges with confirmed activity scheduled in the near term” will be shown as either “We’re building in this exchange now” or “We’re building in this exchange soon.”
The change is designed to give people more transparency on when they can expect full fibre to be delivered in their area and it doesn’t change their actual build plan. “As part of our Q4 Transparency Update, published on 13 March 2026, the status of all 3,525 exchanges which have been selected for commercial build has been refreshed to reflect this new approach,” said a spokesperson for the network operator.
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Just remember that build plans like this are always tentative (subject to change). Some areas may be added in the next 12 months, while others may move to later phases or possibly even be removed (e.g. if found to be too expensive due to complications). Such is normal for all network operators. Inclusion should also NOT be considered as equating to 100% coverage of each area.
At present it seems unlikely that Openreach will announce a big list of new FTTP build locations / coverage expansions, such as for their future plan for going from 25m to 30 million premises by 2030, until after or around when Ofcom is due to publish their final telecoms market review proposals (final statement is due this month). Even then they’ll probably announce it gradually, rather than all at once.
Openreach currently has 15,000 people focused on their UK deployment of full fibre technology and the average per premises build cost continues to hover around the £300 mark (roughly £1.2bn per year). 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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Something seems wrong with this. At least 5 exchange areas I’ve just checked where they’re currently actively building have changed back from “we’re building now” to “We’re building in the future” on the document. While on the map they now show either “no plans” or “most homes can order”. So their attempt at clarity has muddied the waters even more!
I’ve been checking postcodes around our exchange and can see streets where OR are literally installing fibre now, right next to streets they have just finished. The completed installations are listed as available to order now, but the streets being worked on still say “We’ll be building in this area in the next year”.
From my perspective, “We’re building in this area now” and “Available to order soon” just aren’t used. It seems that an install jumps from “…in the next year” to be available to order.
Hoping you are correct as Kintbury was “We’ll be building here … services available in the next 12 months” back to sometime in the future, which is strange as they currently have the main road closed for 4 days.
@Ben that’s what happened on my street back in 2024. It went from “By the end of 2026” to available to order overnight. They don’t update the checker for intermediate steps. CityFibre were the same to be fair! Of course those of us with any interest in such things can see what’s going on in the street. 🙂
Same has happened at MRBOL (Bollington).
Just over a year ago, we had the status as “We’re planning to build in this area”.
Then it suddenly went to “We’re building in this area now”, and true to their word, the various Openreach vans were out here blowing fibre up the road and attaching a spool of unterminated fibre to each pole.
Then some more openreach vans turned up and installed passive splitters at the top of each pole and terminated the fibre.
Great, here we go I thought.
Checked the openreach website to find “We’ll be building in this area in the next year”.
Been like that for a month ors o.
I assume they haven’t synced the checker, map and PDF document up yet.
In an exchange area that I am acutely interested in, the PDF says “building now” (new change with asterisk), the checker says “building in this area within the next year” (which it did before), the map says “we’ve completed the majority of the build in this area”.
The postcode in question isn’t for some random ultra rural property that might be missed off (they actually probably have FTTP already), it’s a fairly densely populated road
I’m in the same boat. I’ve just checked the map and for this exchange it says “As of now, we don’t have any plans to build more in this area under our major build programmes…”. But they are building in some areas covered by the exchange right now. When I check my specific postcode it says we should expect fibre in the next year. There are a few hundred properties in our area of the exchange in London, so again not some minor development.
looks like someone’s kicked something – that postcode now says “building now”. hurrah!
might be worth checking yours again.
in my area – they’re not even using “building now”. Everything is listed as “building in the next 12 months” – and then goes straight to “available now” when done!
The downloadable document now includes the status around the Exchange Exit programme, which wasn’t there on the previous file download. Some appear to have this set to “Yes” [Lundin Links was one i found at random].
Also looks like the exchange map has cleaned up some of the bugged statuses [around “we’re building here in 12 months”] by just moving them back to a “we haven’t built anything here”, which is preferable.
It does seem to have introduced new bugs though.
Portsmouth Central is one example “Some homes may be able to order. At the moment we don’t have any confirmed plans to build more.”
The pdf document says “We’ll be building in this exchange in the future” which is a change from “we’re building now” last time the document came out.
And yet roadworks and building taking place all over the area!
Winchester build declared over by the map, “We’ll be building in this exchange in the future” on the pdf, actively ongoing in reality.
Just one of many examples where the statuses don’t add up and or match reality.
Worth looking into ISP Review team?
Looks like my exchange changed to “We’ll be building in this exchange in the future” which translates as – we’ve done all the easy parts of town but the stuff that is left we don’t know what to do with or haven’t got the money to sort it.
This also explains why there has been a high amount of Virgin Media sales reps out and about getting people to sign up with their XGS-PON service.
Sadly Openreach are clueless when it comes to ensuring they use the correct official address when building their FTTP network.
Just found out that they used Room 1 for FTTP(Full Fibre) when my Part Fibre is on Flat 1.
An absolute mess.
Get your current isp to raise an Ordi – 5 working day fix
Update I have successfully got BT to send a request to Openreach to override the URPN from local council and align correct address with Royal Mail PAF.
So after 5 days I should be able to upgrade to Full Fibre.
There seems to be a lot of confusion for my area. My exchange (Shepherds Bush / LWSHE) is due to be closed and merged with Hammersmith (LWHAM), yet FTTP rollout has only just started.
The interactive map and postcode checker both show a couple (very limited) postcodes that have FTTP available, yet the document states “we will be building in the future”. BIDB and General Kelly/OR van activity has picked up in the area since the new year too.
But no sign of general rollout especially as my ward is one of the most deprived in the UK and yet seemingly one of the last tranches of London to be included in the 25m build target. Very strange.
Worth checking bidb.uk. From what I can see, the place is crawling in roadworks so I would expect they will get to you soon.
I’m adjacent in Acton and there is a little bit of work going on, but it’s a few streets so may take a while before they get here.
We have no plans to build Full Fibre to this property yet