Update on broadband coverage in Ofcom defined Area 2 and 3

For those who might be looking back in a couple of years to gather historical data, we have to caution that any change figures shown in this table are two months of change rather than our more usual monthly change. This is a simple reality of missing the 28th December 2022 update and not realising until 2023 had started.

The difference between the two Ofcom areas with Area 2 being postcode sectors where it is expected that little or no help to get reach the Gigabit targets out is needed and Area 3 are those that include the usually more rural postcode sectors and are most likely to need help under Project Gigabit. This means these two areas are a good way of tracking how well public money via Project Gigabit is contributing to the targets – though with so many full fibre networks being built in the is a lot of commercial work e.g. Openreach FTTP is available to 2.99 million premises in Area 3 to date.

Another way of looking at Area 3 and Area 2 is that Area 2 is areas with a high amount of Virgin Media cable, 69.9% versus a much lower 5.8% in Area 3. The DOCSIS 3.1 network is why the urban parts of the UK are ahead of the Gigabit target or very close.