July 2026 Contract Progress of UK Project Gigabit Broadband Rollout
The Government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency has today released their July 2026 update on the delivery progress of contracts awarded under the £5bn Project Gigabit broadband rollout scheme. The update reveals that some 287,510 contracted premises (up from 271,460 in Jun 2026) have so far been covered out of a planned total of 838,490 (34% complete).
Just to remind. The figures in this update are not directly comparable to the figures published in BDUK’s annual statistics releases. This is because today’s report tracks the number of contracted premises to which a supplier has delivered a gigabit-capable connection under the main Gigabit Infrastructure Subsidy (GIS) programme, whereas the general statistics also include gigabit premises delivered via any public / BDUK subsidy (i.e. that includes other schemes too, like gigabit vouchers and contracts that pre-date Project Gigabit).
So far, most of the country’s gigabit-capable broadband coverage has been delivered by commercial deployments (predominantly focused on urban and semi-urban areas), while Project Gigabit focuses on the final bits that they fail to reach (usually rural areas). The project has already committed most of its budget up to 2030, but there are still some contracts yet to be awarded and others that have been scaled-back or switched suppliers (e.g. here, here, here, here, here and here).
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Otherwise, it’s worth remembering that these contracts were all awarded at different times and are thus at very different stages of development (some started several years apart). A few of the listed contracts have already completed their delivery, such as Wessex Internet’s build for North Dorset and GoFibre’s roll-outs for County Durham and North Northumberland. Meanwhile, others, such as Openreach’s new contract for Cheshire (here), were only added in the April 2026 update.
Suffice to say, it’s important to understand the context behind each contract before judging delivery progress, since a face-value assessment will often overlook key realities. Speaking of which, some of the contracted figures may differ from the original announcements, which reflects the usual modifications (i.e. the scope of delivery can increase or decrease, such as due to commercial builds by rival operators going further than expected or builds costing more than expected etc.).
Please take note that the ebb and flow of a build can vary a lot from month to month as different phases start and finish, with some appearing to stop one month and surge the next. In addition, the table doesn’t include two of GoFibre’s Project Gigabit contracts in Scotland, or Fibrus’ contract for Northern Ireland, which is due to those Type A contracts being partly led by the devolved authorities (there’s presently a lack of sufficient data sharing with BDUK and so they can’t be included, yet).
Otherwise there are no big developments this time, just gradual progress with 16,050 extra premises being reached over the past month (up from 14,780 last month).
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Project Gigabit – Contracted and Built Premises by Contract (July 2026)
| Contract | Supplier | Contracted Premises | Built Contracted Premises (Jul 2026) | Monthly Change | % Complete |
| Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire and Milton Keynes | CityFibre | 5,890 | 4,820 | 160 | 82% |
| Bucks, Herts and East of Berks | CityFibre | 6,090 | 4,050 | 240 | 67% |
| CO1 Lancashire, West Berkshire, Staffordshire, Surrey, Hertfordshire, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire | Openreach | 60,180 | 17,170 | 0 | 29% |
| CO2 Devon, Mid Wales and South East Wales | Openreach | 41,140 | 10,600 | 790 | 26% |
| CO3 North Herefordshire, North Wales, Shropshire and South West Wales | Openreach | 65,120 | 2,570 | 1,330 | 4% |
| CO4 South Devon, Mid Devon and North Somerset | Openreach | 37,110 | 3,840 | 690 | 10% |
| CO5 Essex and North East England | Openreach | 35,300 | 2,260 | 1,380 | 6% |
| CO6 Rest of Scotland | Openreach | 77,640 | 5,680 | 0 | 7% |
| CO7 Worcestershire | Openreach | 22,980 | 1,010 | 840 | 4% |
| CO8 Cheshire | Openreach | 18,460 | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| Cambridgeshire | CityFibre | 18,230 | 12,030 | 1,190 | 66% |
| Central Cornwall | Wildanet | 6,940 | 6,940 | 0 | 100% |
| Cornwall and Isle of Scilly | Wildanet | 14,430 | 4,190 | 530 | 29% |
| Cumbria | Fibrus | 53,540 | 35,040 | 210 | 65% |
| Derbyshire | Connect Fibre | 12,880 | 1,550 | 350 | 12% |
| Dorset and South Somerset | Wessex internet | 19,560 | 5,030 | 510 | 26% |
| Durham | GoFibre | 4,440 | 4,440 | 0 | 100% |
| East Gloucestershire | Gigaclear | 3,550 | 1,980 | 180 | 56% |
| East and West Sussex | CityFibre | 12,760 | 3,020 | 50 | 24% |
| Hampshire | CityFibre | 29,420 | 7,150 | 180 | 24% |
| Kent | CityFibre | 8,750 | 2,530 | 0 | 29% |
| Leicestershire and Warwickshire | CityFibre | 22,480 | 10,740 | 430 | 48% |
| Lincolnshire and East Riding | Quickline | 46,970 | 21,840 | 1,230 | 46% |
| New Forest | Wessex internet | 12,730 | 10,400 | 10 | 82% |
| Norfolk | CityFibre | 32,670 | 13,310 | 540 | 41% |
| North Dorset | Wessex internet | 6,480 | 6,170 | 0 | 95% |
| North East Staffordshire | Connect Fibre | 5,960 | 2,860 | 450 | 48% |
| North Oxfordshire | Gigaclear | 4,180 | 3,860 | 110 | 92% |
| North Shropshire | Freedom Fibre | 3,410 | 3,410 | 1,510 | 100% |
| Northern North Yorkshire | Quickline | 34,490 | 11,880 | 900 | 34% |
| Northumberland | GoFibre | 3,830 | 3,830 | 0 | 100% |
| South Oxfordshire | Gigaclear | 5,120 | 3,200 | 0 | 63% |
| South West Cornwall | Wildanet | 6,400 | 6,400 | 0 | 100% |
| South Wiltshire | Wessex internet | 18,790 | 7,650 | 420 | 41% |
| South Yorkshire | Quickline | 13,290 | 9,320 | 50 | 70% |
| Suffolk | CityFibre | 38,350 | 18,560 | 600 | 48% |
| West and Parts of North Yorkshire | Quickline | 28,950 | 18,200 | 1,150 | 63% |
| TOTAL | 838,490 | 287,510 | 16,050 | 34% |
For some extra context, you can check out the previous figures for June 2026 (here)
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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Are they publishing any take-up figures for these projects? It would be nice to know that they were successful beyond the build numbers, especially if they are getting big takeup the government gets the money back to some extent.
Not yet, which is something I’ve asked for before and will nudge again.
Lots of zeros in the % change list. Is there a penalty for these rollouts taking extended amounts of time,
It may have made sense a few years ago, but probably 100% of these properties can now receive a decent satellite service of 100Mbps or more not burdening the taxpayer. Even worse let’s hope that the properties connected (not built) do not end up switching from fibre over to Leo or 5G solution when price competition and bundles hot up between Starlink, Amazon and MNOs.
Sat services arent a reasonable long term alternative to fixed fibre. Its expensive, requires constant redeployment to remain in service, Even with competition its never going to be competetive with a fixed fibre solution. 5g isnt going to be a Rural solution either the range is too low and the power and ongoing maintenance and power needs of towers would be massive in comparison to a fibre link.
Probably not a take that will be popular with many rural dwellers. LEO satellite services are unworkable for some (tree cover; planning restrictions on the placement of external antennas). Rural 4/5G masts will have limited capacity meaning performance can vary wildly with local demand. For those of us still stuck with internet connectivity that would have been considered sub-par 15 years ago let alone now, fibre is the only fully satisfactory answer. I hope the recent Project Gigabit descopes aren’t a prelude to some rural communities being abandoned entirely by the rollout. Government plans made on the back of universal internet access (Freeview -> Freely) are going to generate considerable backlash if rural areas are left as an afterthought, and with good reason.
Nice to finally see some meaningful progress in the CO5 Essex/North East contract. We finally have Openreach roadworks scheduled for August to bring fibre down our lane, the vast majority of the exchange area was done in 2021.
In the past 10 days we have had an email saying fibre is coming then another to say it’s not coming and today apparently it’s coming again.
Having waited this long I will believe it when I see the CBT on my pole and look forward to placing my order and using the Starlink as back up.
Bravo, finally making some headway in Worcestershire, with a 1000 premises hooked up.
That’s interesting- I live in the North East and am under the same contract. I also was advised a few days ago that Openreach had dropped their plans for my property completely and yet yesterday got an email to say FTTP would be available to order soon. No idea what is going on, but I’m not holding my breath!
Openreach have started my build in rural East Lothian but 95% of households gave up waiting and are happy with Starlink! So I don’t know how much take up of fibre there will be, guess it depends on the ‘Musk support’ factor. At least we’ll have a choice now, finally