August 2026 Contract Progress of UK Project Gigabit Broadband Rollout

The Government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency has today published their August 2026 update on the delivery progress of contracts awarded under their £5bn Project Gigabit broadband rollout scheme. The update reveals that some 296,770 contracted premises (up from 287,510 in Jul 2026) have so far been covered out of a planned total of 846,770 (35% 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).

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.

Lest we forget that the ebb and flow of a build can also vary a lot from month to month as different phases start and finish, with some appearing to stop one month and surge the next. 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 – making public investment unnecessary – or builds costing more than expected etc.).

In terms of the August 2026 update, there are a number of key caveats to be made aware of this month. Firstly, BDUK have finally added their contract with Fibrus for Northern Ireland to the list, thus the monthly change should be taken with a pinch of salt as we don’t have official prior data for this one (we’re using a separate data source for July as a change reference).

For several other contracts, BDUK recorded a reduction in reported built premises in this release. This is driven by supplier data resubmissions, where earlier delivery records have been removed and is due to be replaced with revised data in the future. As such it’s not easy to compare like-for-like with the prior data for July 2026.

• 4,220 premises removed from Lancashire, West Berkshire, Staffordshire, Surrey, Hertfordshire, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire. To be re-added at a later date.
• 1,160 premises removed from Devon, Mid Wales and South East Wales. To be re-added at a later date.
• 10 premises removed from Worcestershire. To be re-added at a later date.
• 40 premises removed from Hampshire. To be re-added at a later date.
• 20 premises removed from North East Staffordshire. To be re-added at a later date.
• 930 premises removed from North Oxfordshire. To be re-added at a later date.
• 360 premises removed from South Oxfordshire. To be re-added at a later date.

“These revisions reflect updates to underlying administrative data rather than a change in delivery performance. These are net changes which include increased delivery and invalidations, users should therefore exercise caution when comparing these contracts with previous publications,” explained BDUK.

In addition, the table below doesn’t include two of GoFibre’s Project Gigabit contracts in Scotland, which are due to those Type A contracts being partly led by the devolved authorities (there’s presently a lack of sufficient data sharing with BDUK).

Project Gigabit – Contracted and Built Premises by Contract (August 2026)

For some extra context, you can check out the previous figures for July 2026 (here)