Gigabit Broadband Covers 89 Percent of UK Premises – Ofcom Spring 2026 Data
Ofcom has released its Spring 2026 update on UK fixed broadband and mobile coverage, which reveals that “full fibre” (FTTP) lines now reach 82% of homes (up from 78% in July 2025), while 89% are within reach of a gigabit network (up from 87%) and 76% – 94% of premises can get an outdoor 5G signal (up from 64-89%).
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 Janaury 2026, which is several months more recent than the July 2025 data used in their last update (Connected Nations 2025).
Overall, the UK’s coverage of fixed “superfast broadband” (30Mbps+) remains unchanged at 98%, while 24.9 million home (82% of homes) can now order a Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) service via various networks (up from 78%). Meanwhile, gigabit-capable broadband (1Gbps+) services are now available to 89% of UK homes (up from 87%) or 27.1 million.
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The gigabit coverage figure is higher than the FTTP one 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 urban areas. Ofcom also splits their “premises” (inc. business) and “homes” figures on fixed lines, which can be a bit confusing (gigabit cover is 87.8% 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 public subsidies to target connectivity improvements toward the final 10-20% of hardest to reach premises (i.e. helping to extend gigabit broadband’s coverage “nationwide” or c.99% by 2032 – delayed from the original 2030 target – here).
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 39,000 (0.1% of the UK), which is down from 44,000 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, 5G coverage outside premises has increased by at least five percentage points for each mobile operator, with individual operator coverage now ranging between 76% and 94%. Coverage outside premises from all MNOs has increased from 47% to 64%. Meanwhile, 4G has seen geographic coverage across all network operators (EE, Three UK / Vodafone and O2) rise to 84% (up from 81%) – the new £1bn Shared Rural Network (SRN) agreement has helped to improve that.
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Spring 2026 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 2026 Update. At this point we’d normally include Ofcom’s summary tables below, but at the time of writing the relevant link is not working. We’ll update again soon.
UK Fixed Broadband Coverage (Residential)
| Access to full fibre | Jan-24 | Jul-24 | Jan-25 | Jul-25 | Jan-26 |
| UK | 62% | 69% | 74% | 78% | 82% |
| England | 62% | 69% | 75% | 79% | 82% |
| Northern Ireland | 92% | 93% | 94% | 95% | 95% |
| Scotland | 58% | 62% | 67% | 71% | 75% |
| Wales | 61% | 68% | 74% | 78% | 82% |
| Access to a gigabit-capable service | Jan-24 | Jul-24 | Jan-25 | Jul-25 | Jan-26 |
| UK | 80% | 83% | 86% | 87% | 89% |
| England | 81% | 84% | 86% | 88% | 89% |
| Northern Ireland | 94% | 94% | 95% | 96% | 96% |
| Scotland | 75% | 77% | 79% | 81% | 84% |
| Wales | 69% | 74% | 78% | 81% | 85% |
| Access to a superfast fixed line service (at least 30 Mbps download speed) | Jan-24 | Jul-24 | Jan-25 | Jul-25 | Jan-26 |
| UK | 97% | 98% | 98% | 98% | 98% |
| England | 98% | 98% | 98% | 98% | 98% |
| Northern Ireland | 98% | 98% | 99% | 99% | 99% |
| Scotland | 96% | 96% | 96% | 97% | 97% |
| Wales | 96% | 96% | 97% | 97% | 97% |
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| Take-up of full-fibre services as a percentage of premises with access to full fibre | Jul-24 | Jan-25 | Jul-25 | Jan-26 |
| UK | 35% | 38% | 42% | 47% |
| England | 33% | 37% | 41% | 46% |
| Northern Ireland | 53% | 58% | 62% | 65% |
| Scotland | 35% | 39% | 43% | 47% |
| Wales | 39% | 44% | 49% | 53% |
UK Mobile Network Coverage (4G)
| Geographic area – coverage range across MNOs | Jan-24 | Sep-24 | Jan-25 | Jul-25 | Jan-26 |
| UK | 81-88% | 88-89% | 88-90% | 89-90% | 89-93% |
| England | 92-95% | 94-96% | 94-96% | 95-96% | 95-97% |
| Northern Ireland | 89-92% | 89-95% | 89-96% | 90-96% | 90-97% |
| Scotland | 60-78% | 77-80% | 78-80% | 79-81% | 80-85% |
| Wales | 74-87% | 83-89% | 84-90% | 84-90% | 85-93% |
UK Mobile Network Coverage (5G)
| Premises (outdoor) – coverage range across MNOs (High Confidence) | Jan-24 | Sep-24 | Jan-25 | Jul-25 | Jan-26 |
| UK | 51-74% | 61-79% | 62-85% | 64-89% | 76-94% |
| England | 53-75% | 65-81% | 66-86% | 67-91% | 79-95% |
| Northern Ireland | 28-68% | 36-90% | 37-93% | 38-95% | 42-98% |
| Scotland | 42-71% | 54-76% | 56-81% | 59-84% | 70-89% |
| Wales | 12-74% | 16-80% | 22-85% | 23-89% | 27-92% |
| Geographic area covered by at least one operator (High Confidence) | Jan-24 | Sep-24 | Jan-25 | Jul-25 | Jan-26 |
| UK | 50% | 60% | 62% | 65% | 73% |
| England | 67% | 76% | 79% | 81% | 88% |
| Northern Ireland | 53% | 71% | 76% | 86% | 93% |
| Scotland | 23% | 33% | 34% | 37% | 48% |
| Wales | 46% | 52% | 55% | 57% | 62% |
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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The uptake in NI is brilliant