{"id":47409,"date":"2026-08-24T11:22:25","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T10:22:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/?p=47409"},"modified":"2026-08-24T12:11:03","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T11:11:03","slug":"august-2026-contract-progress-of-uk-project-gigabit-broadband-rollout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/08\/august-2026-contract-progress-of-uk-project-gigabit-broadband-rollout.html","title":{"rendered":"August 2026 Contract Progress of UK Project Gigabit Broadband Rollout"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Government\u2019s Building Digital UK<\/a> (BDUK) agency has today published their August 2026 update on the delivery progress of contracts awarded under their \u00a35bn 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).<\/p>\n

Just to remind. The figures in this update are not directly comparable to the figures published in BDUK\u2019s annual statistics<\/a> 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<\/strong> (GIS) programme, whereas the general statistics also include gigabit premises delivered via any public \/ BDUK<\/abbr> subsidy (i.e. that includes other schemes too, like gigabit vouchers and contracts that pre-date Project Gigabit).<\/p>\n

NOTE:<\/strong> Project Gigabit aims to help extend gigabit broadband (1000Mbps+) ISP networks to \u201cnationwide<\/em>\u201d coverage (c.99% of UK premises) by 2032, focusing mostly on the final 10-20% in hard-to-reach areas. Some 91% of premises can already access such a network (here<\/a>) and Ofcom<\/a> are forecasting this could reach up to 95% by January 2029 (here<\/a>).<\/div>\n

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<\/a>, here<\/a>, here<\/a>, here<\/a>, here<\/a> and here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Otherwise, it\u2019s 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<\/a>\u2019s build for North Dorset and GoFibre<\/a>\u2019s roll-outs for County Durham and North Northumberland. Meanwhile, others, such as Openreach<\/a>’s new contract for Cheshire (here<\/a>), were only added in the April 2026 update.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s important to understand the context behind each contract before judging delivery progress, since a face-value assessment will often overlook key realities.<\/p>\n

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.).<\/p>\n

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<\/a> for Northern Ireland<\/strong> 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).<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n