Gigabit Broadband Coverage Reaches 91 Percent of the UK in H1 2026
We’ve today published our biannual summary of fixed broadband coverage for the first half (H1) of 2026, which reveals that “full fibre” (FTTP) ISP networks have grown to reach 85.05% of UK premises (up from 81.89% in H2 2025) and 91% are within reach of “gigabit” 1000Mbps+ speeds (up from 89.6%). Read on to see details for England, Wales, Scotland and N.Ireland.
All the new gigabit-capable network coverage added during the first half of 2026 has largely come via Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based networks from Openreach (BT), CityFibre, Quickline, Netomnia (YouFibre), Grain and a few other alternative networks (Summary of UK Full Fibre Builds). However, the overall deployment pace has slowed, when compared with prior years, due to wider market pressures.
The reason why “gigabit” coverage is currently still a few points higher than FTTP is down to homes that continue to be covered by some of Virgin Media’s older infrastructure, which uses gigabit-capable DOCSIS 3.1 technology via a Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) network (there’s a lot of overbuild with FTTP in urban areas). Virgin is currently upgrading all of that to FTTP, but that’s a very slow multi-year process.
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In addition, most of the progress on gigabit-capable builds seen during 2026 is still down to private investment (commercial builds have already delivered the vast majority of deployments), often with only a little support from the Government’s subsidy schemes. But Project Gigabit, and its subsidised rollout contracts with various providers, is having an impact on this, albeit primarily via the hardest to reach rural premises that typically take longer to cover.
H1 2026 Broadband Coverage Figures
Listed below is the latest independent modelling from Thinkbroadband to the end of June 2026 (H1 – 2026). We should point out that the figure for ‘Under 10Mbps‘ doesn’t include any mobile (4G/5G) coverage (we only looked at fixed line services), which plays a part in the official Universal Service Obligation (USO) but isn’t included in TBB’s mapping. Sadly, it’s incredibly difficult to do an accurate model for mobile networks, especially in terms of a specific performance level.
Fixed Broadband Network Availability H1 – 2026
| Area | 30Mbps+ | Full Fibre | Gigabit | % Under 10Mbps |
| England | 98.65% (98.58%) | 85.15% (82.11%) | 91.33% (90.15%) | 0.46% (0.49%) |
| UK | 98.54% (98.44%) | 85.05% (81.89%) | 90.98% (89.58%) |
0.58% (0.62%) |
| Wales | 97.96% (97.78%) | 87.36% (82.75%) | 89.19% (85.13%) | 1.22% (1.30%) |
| Scotland | 97.68% (97.40%) | 78.82% (74.45%) | 86.52% (84.18%) | 1.31% (1.48%) |
| N.Ireland | 98.95% (98.83%) | 97.10% (96.74%) | 97.37% (97.06%) | 0.57% (0.64%) |
NOTE: It’s very important to remember that Government / political coverage targets, like the current c.99% for gigabit by 2032, reflect a national average – this will of course be better or worse for different regions / areas.
Take note that each region (Scotland, Wales etc.) may also have its own policy and targets, which will feed into the central UK coverage figure. Furthermore, it’s worth highlighting how much of an impact newer alternative networks (altnets) are having on all this – excluding coverage by Openreach, KCOM (Hull) and Virgin Media.
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Altnets were found to have covered 46.13% of the UK with FTTP by the end of H1 2026 (up from 44.79% in H2 2025). This breaks down as 48.84% in England (up from 47.36%), just 21.91% in Wales (up from 20.87%), 35.25% in Scotland (up from 34.81%) and 42.42% in Northern Ireland (up from 41.65%). But the overall coverage improvement delivered from this will be reduced due to overbuild between networks, particularly in urban areas.
As stated earlier, this data is a modelled estimate, not least because it won’t always reflect the very latest real-world position of every single network. But it’s still one of the best and most up-to-date gauges that we have for checking against official claims (Ofcom’s own data tends to be many months behind the latest developments, so TBB’s data is usually more current).
Solutions for Slow Broadband Areas
Finally, those still stuck in sub-10Mbps speed areas will, at least for now, be left with little option but to try harnessing the flawed 10Mbps Universal Service Obligation (USO) via BT (UK-wide) or KCOM (Hull-only). Many of those who have pursued the USO say they were offered a mobile broadband (4G or 5G) connection via EE, but those considered “delivered” under the USO itself usually get full fibre (FTTP) lines.
However, the reality is that some people will find they live in areas where not even the USO can cover the colossal upgrade costs of getting FTTP (here and here). Ofcom currently puts the figure for those unable to get 10Mbps+ by any terrestrial means at 39,000 premises (here). The previous government was in the process of examining support options for remote premises and had also been preparing to review the broadband USO (here), which may bring some changes in the future (back in 2017 the Labour Party called for a 30Mbps USO). But we haven’t seen any solid updates on this since 2024.
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Failing that, consumers could either try waiting to see if the problem gets resolved or consider exploring the option of a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) based satellite service (Starlink is good, and they will be joined by Amazon’s Leo network this year). We would also recommend that consumers check via the other mobile operators (Vodafone / Three UK and O2) to see if any of those deliver better 4G or 5G mobile coverage than EE in your area (ideally by conducting your own tests, since official coverage maps are fairly useless) – see our guide to external antennas.
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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New figures that include work done on Sat, Sun, Monday will be live in the next hour or so
I’d question these figures. According to openreach/virgin I’ve FTTP but in reality I’ve neither. Virgin didn’t cross the street where I live, and openreach won’t upgrade the old BT pole that gives me copper broadband. Ofcom claim I had those FTTP options, contradicting emails direct from both suppliers explaining I don’t. Worse yet neither have current plans to upgrade. I’m not alone with 20+ neighbours around me in similar limbo. If that happens everywhere it skews these figures considerably. At least the article highlights increasing competition/options from LEO connections that provide an option. For openreach there’s added cost to upgrade a pole (and potentially find it needs replaced) which they tend to avoid where possible.
I have only 15 immediate neighbours without fibre. We are on the edge of a large town, 200K+, but are told that there are no plans to bring fibre here. 50 yards away, but over a bridge, they have fibre and, in the other direction, a new build of 20+ houses have fibre. We have about 10mbs over copper, if you use a landline.
You don’t have to be in a rural location to be left out. However, we are served by 2 good ‘phone masts, so mobile broadband is quite good.
Resources on https://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local will let you check what we believe is available to a postcode and maps go down to address level.
Welcome corrections and feedback
I’m sceptical that the figures above reflect reality for many. We were turned down for USO support because “it appears you can already get a 10Mbps or above connection”. We absolutely cannot, at least not from our DSL line that can sometimes barely hold sync. Not worth the fight anyway, because our independent FTTPoD quote was >£100,000. We have a 4G router, but at busy times average download speeds drop to the levels we were seeing from dial up 30 years ago. It”s so bad we’ve stopped using it for most things. We can’t use LEO satellite services on our site, and were are not in scope for any commercial or Project Gigabit funded fibre rollout.
To describe our place as “remote” or “hard to reach” would be a stretch. There is Openreach fibre a few hundred yards from us in two different directions. As we are deemed ineligible for USO or Project Gigabit support, chances are we won’t be reflected in the 39,000 figure. Quite a few others locally are in the same boat. The 2026 reality of accessing the internet in a rural location 40 miles from central London.
The comments here about places deemed ineligible for USO and similar would seem to suggest that some sort of judicial review would be the way forward (I wonder if it is possible to do that as a group action where there are common excuses for ineligibility).
Not cheap, but maybe the way forward.
Perhaps ISPreview could facilitate a campaign (helping people to get in touch with each other to form a group to jointly engage legal advice, nothing more). May be as simple as an pinned thread in the forums that leads to something more private elsewhere where people can securely exchange details, with a self appointed committee
That would be unduly excessive.
@mark
I feel the external antenna article is due an update for currently available equipment, and also to reopen the comments section, since more people may be interested in 4G/5G as a resolution to USO challenges.
I have a specific question I want to ask as a comment to external antennas article: is it sensible to connect both directional and omni directional to a router at the same time, and if the router doesn’t have enough antenna connections, can “y” connecters be used (one polarisation of a directional paired with one output from a 2×2 Omni, and so on)? Example if the router has 2 x anntenas ports and you want to blend 2 x directional with a 2×2 Omni (the latter likely more as a fallback)
Also the relative merits of the Three router with supplied external antenna vs. a router (Three with 2 antenna ports or self-owned MIMO capable router) with 3rd party external antennas
Really? No sign of it around here!
What we think Ofcon might be spinning the figure for better ‘political’ credibility (untruths), surely not.
91% of the UK, implies 91% of land as potentially as well as buildings, or people. Hmm, go withthe principle, If one building contained 50% of the population, and 99 buildings the rest, some (spin merchants) might say by doing 1 building you’d achieved 50% coverage, despite not covering 99% of the buildings…
So 91% of the UK (land, buildings, or ‘users’ ), strange thay do nto clearly state coverage for each to be transparent and honest?
Perhaps there should be an OfHon, Office of Honesty (that fine any ambiguity in organisations spin/claims/marketing ‘interpretation’…