ISPreview has today published our biannual UK summary of fixed broadband coverage for H2 2024, which found that “full fibre” (FTTP) ISP networks have grown to reach 73.53% of premises (up from 67.68% in H1) and 85.87% are within reach of “gigabit” speeds (up from 83.39%). Continue on to see details for England, Wales, Scotland and N.Ireland.
Just to recap. Virtually all the new gigabit-capable (1000Mbps+ or 1Gbps+) connectivity added during 2024 has come from Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based networks via Openreach (BT), Nexfibre (Virgin Media), Hyperoptic, CityFibre, Netomnia (YouFibre), KCOM, Gigaclear and many other alternative networks (Summary of Full Fibre Builds).
The reason why “gigabit” coverage is currently still higher than FTTP is down to the 14.3 million premises covered by Virgin Media’s older Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) network, which uses gigabit-capable DOCSIS 3.1 technology (there’s a lot of FTTP overbuild with this in urban areas).
In addition, most of the progress on gigabit-capable builds during 2024 is still down to commercial investment in FTTP (commercial builds have already delivered the first 80%+ of gigabit cover), often with only a little support from the Government’s various voucher schemes. But the £5bn Project Gigabit scheme and its subsidised rollouts are starting to have an impact on this, albeit focused on the hardest to reach premises (e.g. rural) that typically take longer to cover.
H2 2024 Broadband Coverage Figures
Listed below is the latest independent modelling from Thinkbroadband for early January 2025 (H2 – 2024). We should point out that the figure for ‘Under 10Mbps‘ doesn’t reflect 4G mobile coverage (we only look at fixed line broadband), 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 coverage, especially in terms of a specific performance level.
Fixed Broadband Network Availability H2 – 2024
| Area | 30Mbps+ | Full Fibre | Gigabit | % Under 10Mbps |
| England | 98.42% (98.24%) | 73.63% (67.41%) | 86.66% (84.15%) | 0.53% (0.59%) |
| UK | 98.22% (98.01%) | 73.53% (67.68%) | 85.87% (83.39%) |
0.70% (0.79%) |
| Wales | 97.42% (97.04%) | 73.13% (67.38%) | 77.72% (73.65%) | 1.43% (1.60%) |
| Scotland | 96.73% (96.31%) | 65.49% (61.33%) | 79.62% (77.64%) | 1.84% (2.09%) |
| N.Ireland | 98.61% (98.29%) | 96.06% (95.19%) | 96.46% (95.73%) | 0.76% (0.98%) |
NOTE: It’s very important to remember that Government / political coverage targets, like the previous “85%” for gigabit by 2025, reflect a national average, which can of course be better or worse for some areas (e.g. some counties may achieve higher coverage, while others could be well below that).
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.
Rival altnets were found to have covered 39.38% of the UK with FTTP by the end of H2 2024 (up from 35.28% in H1). This breaks down as 41.50% in England (up from 37.16%), just 16.89% in Wales (up from 14.23%), 32.05% in Scotland (up from 29.71%) and 39.29% in Northern Ireland (up from 34.44%). But the overall coverage improvement delivered from this will be reduced due to overbuild between so many networks, particularly in urban areas.
As stated earlier, this data is an estimate and should be taken with a pinch of salt, not least because it won’t always reflect the very latest real-world position. 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 several months behind that of TBB’s).
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). The government are currently still examining support options for remote premises and are also preparing to review the broadband USO (here), which may bring some changes in the future, particularly with the new change in leadership (here).
Failing that, consumers could either try waiting to see if the problem gets resolved or consider exploring the option of a LEO satellite service (Starlink is good, if you can afford it). We would also recommend that consumers check via Three UK, Vodafone and O2 (VMO2) 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.