Welcome to the seventh edition of our State of Broadband Report, providing unique insight and the latest statistics on UK broadband rollout.
This report is slightly delayed due to time pressures on other projects but remains based on the April 2026 data for comparisons unless otherwise stated.
Summary
Key Stats – Full Fibre (FTTP) is now available to over 85% of premises (Jul 2026, 80% Sep 2025 and 75% Mar 2025) across the UK, with Gigabit services being available to 91% of premises, slightly up from a year ago. The slowdown in Gigabit coverage increasing compared to full fibre does highlight slower rollouts in those areas with no existing Gigabit options and where Virgin Media’s DOCSIS coax network is being overbuilt.
As usual, we have updates on the Nations and regions of the UK with a breakdown of the Altnet infrastructure.
Postcode Subscriptions
A reminder for anyone who missed this some months back, we now offer a free service where users can monitor up to five postcodes and receive notifications when coverage changes in their area. Within a day of our database being updated, you can be notified of changes by e-mail and view the history on our site.
Please visit labs.thinkbroadband.com/local for the most up-to-date data for your area. We also now have address-level data in our broadband maps, including Project Gigabit OMR Status and Project Gigabit Contract Status. You can find this in our interactive UK Broadband Map.
Sebastien Lahtinen Director, thinkbroadband.com
State of the Nations
(As of April 2026)
Current UK FTTP (“full fibre”) coverage:
84.1%
(vs 79.3% Aug 2025) – not including DOCSIS 3.1 cable
FTTP 85% Projection
Jun 2026 (Delay from Mar 2026)
FTTP 95% Projection
Dec 2027 (Delay from Apr 2027)
Current UK Gigabit Coverage:
90.6%
(vs 88.4% Aug 2025) – includes DOCSIS 3.1 cable
Data: Apr 2026; includes households and business premises. We refer to the ‘projection’ to meet various targets (e.g. FTTP 85%) rather than ‘prediction’ as this reflects where the date will be if the trend of the previous period continues. As progress continues towards 100%, it is likely to slow down as we see harder-to-reach areas being added.
UK Nations
Nation
Superfast (30Mbps+)
Full Fibre
Gigabit
85% FTTP Projection
95% FTTP Projection
Altnet FTTP
Multiple FTTP
England
98.6%
84.3%
91.0%
Jun 2026
Dec 2027
48.5% (+2.8%)
40.6%
Wales
97.6%
86.1%
88.1%
Achieved (Mar 2026)
Apr 2027
21.9% (+3.1%)
27.4%
Scotland
97.6%
77.4%
85.6%
Apr 2027
Jul 2028
35.0% (+0.4%)
29.9%
Northern Ireland
98.9%
97.0%
97.3%
Achieved
Achieved
42.3% (+1.0%)
50.7%
Notes: For this purpose, altnets means networks other than Openreach, KCom (Hull), Virgin Media RFOG and nexfibre. Multiple FTTP includes RFOG.
English Regions Breakdown
Authority Name
Superfast (30Mbps +)
Full Fibre (“FTTP”)
Gigabit
85% FTTP Projection
95% FTTP Projection
Altnet FTTP
Multiple FTTP
South East
98.4%
80.0%
87.8%
Dec 2026
Apr 2028
47.7%
34.3%
London
98.7%
80.6%
92.7%
Feb 2027
Dec 2028
55.2%
39.7%
North West
99.0%
91.4%
94.4%
Achieved
Nov 2026
47.0%
49.3%
East of England
98.7%
81.4%
89.1%
Oct 2026
Mar 2028
44.3%
35.3%
South West
98.1%
79.0%
84.4%
Feb 2027
May 2028
39.7%
26.1%
West Midlands
99.0%
85.4%
92.7%
Achieved
Dec 2027
52.3%
43.8%
Yorkshire and The Humber
98.7%
92.4%
94.8%
Achieved
Dec 2026
58.0%
57.8%
East Midlands
98.6%
87.3%
91.8%
Achieved
May 2027
46.1%
40.5%
North East
98.6%
83.6%
93.4%
Jun 2026
Jun 2027
40.9%
42.1%
More broadband data by Local Authority, Constituency, Borough, Council and various other groupings can be viewed on our Broadband Data site
We also include layers for individual altnets as well as altnet coverage across the UK.
Progress Towards Government Targets
Progress towards 85% Gigabit and 85% FTTP targets
Source: labs.thinkbroadband.com; theoretical projection is based on performance in the past 9 months.
Show accessible data
UK (whole)
Jan 2024 Projection
85% Gigabit
Oct 2024
85% FTTP
Sep 2025
Jul 2024 Projection
85% Gigabit
Sep 2024
85% FTTP
Sep 2025
Feb 2025 Projection
85% Gigabit
Achieved Oct 2024
85% FTTP
Jan 2026
Aug 2025 Projection
85% Gigabit
Achieved Oct 2024
85% FTTP
Mar 2026
May 2026 Projection
85% Gigabit
Achieved Oct 2024
85% FTTP
Jun 2026
England
Jan 2024 Projection
85% Gigabit
Aug 2024
85% FTTP
Sep 2025
Jul 2024 Projection
85% Gigabit
Aug 2024
85% FTTP
Aug 2025
Feb 2025 Projection
85% Gigabit
Achieved Aug 2024
85% FTTP
Dec 2025
Aug 2025 Projection
85% Gigabit
Achieved Aug 2024
85% FTTP
Mar 2026
May 2026 Projection
85% Gigabit
Achieved Aug 2024
85% FTTP
Jun 2026
Scotland
Jan 2024 Projection
85% Gigabit
Sep 2025
85% FTTP
Jul 2026
Jul 2024 Projection
85% Gigabit
May 2025
85% FTTP
Mar 2026
Feb 2025 Projection
85% Gigabit
Apr 2026
85% FTTP
Mar 2027
Aug 2025 Projection
85% Gigabit
Feb 2026
85% FTTP
Dec 2026
May 2026 Projection
85% Gigabit
Achieved Mar 2026
85% FTTP
Apr 2027
Wales
Jan 2024 Projection
85% Gigabit
Jul 2025
85% FTTP
Jul 2025
Jul 2024 Projection
85% Gigabit
Oct 2025
85% FTTP
Dec 2025
Feb 2025 Projection
85% Gigabit
Oct 2025
85% FTTP
Dec 2025
Aug 2025 Projection
85% Gigabit
Dec 2025
85% FTTP
Feb 2026
May 2026 Projection
85% Gigabit
Achieved Dec 2025
85% FTTP
Achieved Mar 2026
Northern Ireland
85% Gigabit
Achieved May 2022
85% FTTP
Achieved Jul 2022
Largest Full-Fibre Networks
The UK has many alternative network operators, or altnets, which compete with incumbent networks such as Openreach and KCom in Hull. Despite being smaller in size, these altnets play a vital role where incumbent FTTP services are not available, providing an alternative commercial proposition, which can offer consumers a superior experience. Despite being less known, these smaller networks are an essential part of the UK’s broadband infrastructure and provide a critical lifeline for local communities desperate for fast broadband.
Largest Full Fibre Networks (Source: labs.thinkbroadband.com/local) — April 2026
* Virgin Media / nexfibre / Netomnia is the projected combined figure taking into account overlap of the Virgin Media RFOG + Mustang / nexfibre / Netomnia if the merger completes.
Total FTTP UK Premises:
28.0m
FTTP coverage of UK Premises:
84.1%
Total UK Premises:
33.3m
Show accessible data
Network
Premises
Coverage
Openreach FTTP
22.4m
67%
Virgin Media / nexfibre / Netomnia
9.8m
29%
CityFibre (all areas)
4.4m
13%
Netomnia
3.2m
10%
nexfibre XGS-PON
2.5m
7%
Virgin Media RFOG*
1.7m
5%
Community Fibre
1.5m
5%
Hyperoptic
1.4m
4%
Gigaclear
642k
2%
Full Fibre/Zzoomm
604k
2%
Fibrus
455k
1%
Trooli
448k
1%
FreedomFibre/Truespeed
355k
1%
Grain Connect
316k
1%
AllPoints Fibre
300k
1%
F&W Networks
296k
1%
KCom Lightstream
290k
1%
Toob
288k
1%
G.Network
257k
1%
Source: labs.thinkbroadband.com. * Note: This refers to ‘full fibre’ (FTTP) networks and not gigabit-capable networks. As such, the current Virgin Media DOCSIS 3.1 footprint (capable of delivering gigabit broadband) is not included. We are seeing Virgin Media progressively upgrade its old coax network to XGS-PON under Project Mustang. Once both new and existing customers see coax removed from the home and full fibre installed, we will start to show the Project Mustang figures. Figure for combined Virgin Media / nexfibre / Netomnia includes VM Project Mustang. Data is based on our database which tracks ‘available to order and deliver within a standard order timeframe’ (usually a couple of weeks). If a site requires additional wayleaves, this would not be considered live. Our criteria for inclusion are strict and therefore may not match information claimed by operators in press releases or financial results, however, the methodology we use is consistent.
Relative Market Share of the Big Retail Providers
Q4/2024
Q1/2025
Q4/2025
Q4/2025 Market Share
BT Group
8.8m
8.8m
8.8m
30%
Sky
5.8m
5.8m
5.8m
20%
VMO2
5.7m
5.7m
5.7m
20%
TalkTalk
3.0m
2.9m
2.5m
9%
Vodafone
1.5m
1.6m
1.8m
6%
Altnets
2.5m
2.8m
3.6m
12%
Other Providers
1.7m
1.4m
1.3m
4%
Total Retail Connections including all ISPs (e.g. KCom, ‘Others’, etc.)
29.0m
28.9m
29.0m
Source: Point-Topic UK Plus Data Set. These figures include estimates as not all providers publish information in a consistent manner. Only ‘consumer’ fixed broadband (excluding fixed wireless access) services are included. We note that BT Business has a significant lead in the business segment. The historical figures are re-stated due to adjustments in data collection; BT Group have begun publishing Consumer connections from Q1/2024 so historical figures are adjusted to reflect net adds/losses by BT.
Average Consumer Fibre Pricing
We track average broadband prices by speed category for major providers to provide market guidance. There are always offers available as well as a wider selection of broadband providers, so these prices are only guidelines and not intended to be used for selecting a provider.
50-80 Mbps
£26
(£27 before)
150 Mbps
£26
(£24-29 before)
500 Mbps
£30
(£26-35 before)
1 Gbps
£33
(£32-38 before)
IMPORTANT NOTE: Please be aware that big providers often have offers available, which can include cashback and special promotions for a short period not included below.
Most fibre-based services require a 12 to 24 month contract. The prices above are based on 24-month contracts.
Category
Package
Download Speed
Upload Speed
Contract
Cost / month
50-80 Mbps
Sky Superfast
67 Mbps
20 Mbps
24 months
£22 £27
Sky Full Fibre 75
75 Mbps
19 Mbps
24 months
£25
TalkTalk Full Fibre 65
77 Mbps
20 Mbps
24 months
£26 £27
BT Fibre 1
50 Mbps
9 Mbps
12 months
£33 £28
BT Fibre 2
73 Mbps
18 Mbps
24 months
£30
BT Full Fibre 2
74 Mbps
20 Mbps
24 months
£30 £31
150 Mbps
Virgin Media M125
132 Mbps
20 Mbps
24 months
£24
Sky Full Fibre 150
150 Mbps
28 Mbps
24 months
£24 £25
BT Full Fibre 150
150 Mbps
30 Mbps
24 months
£30 £29
TalkTalk Full Fibre 150
152 Mbps
30 Mbps
24 months
£24 £26
Virgin Media M125
132 Mbps
20 Mbps
1 month
£54
BT Full Fibre 150
150 Mbps
30 Mbps
12 months
£35 £38
500 Mbps
Sky Full Fibre 500
500 Mbps
60 Mbps
24 months
£28
TalkTalk Full Fibre 500
525 Mbps
72 Mbps
24 months
£30 £35
Virgin Media M500
516 Mbps
52 Mbps
24 months
£25 £26
Virgin Media M500
516 Mbps
52 Mbps
1 month
£72
BT Full Fibre 500
500 Mbps
73 Mbps
24 months
£36 £35
BT Full Fibre 500
500 Mbps
73 Mbps
12 months
£41 £40
1 Gbps
TalkTalk Full Fibre 900
900 Mbps
110 Mbps
24 months
£36 £38
Sky Full Fibre 900
930 Mbps
100 Mbps
24 months
£30
BT Full Fibre 900
900 Mbps
110 Mbps
24 months
£39 £38
Virgin Media Gig1
1,130 Mbps
104 Mbps
24 months
£27 £32
BT Full Fibre 900
900 Mbps
110 Mbps
12 months
£44 £46
Methodology: Comparisons on 21/05/2026 based on provider websites for comparable products, noting that variations apply. We have not included promotions which include an initial period at a lower price, unless this is substantially less over contract length, as the purpose of this report is to outline broad prices rather than recommend individual services. No bundling of other services (telephone, TV, mobile) is included. Pricing for services is likely to increase mid-contract in most cases annually, around April, by £3 to £4 on average. Where speed ranges are quoted, we will use the marketed average figure or a mid-point rounded figure, so caution is advised on minor variations (e.g. 74 vs 78 Mbps) as these are likely to be on the same underlying technology. This simplification has been provided for ease of comparison. Pricing may vary by location; however, our lookup is based on the same address on what we believe indicates the market for full fibre services. Pricing is rounded up to the nearest pound where it is close. Virgin Media 30-day rolling contract is not available in all areas.
Do not use this table to select a provider for your personal circumstances – this list is provided as a guide to understanding market pricing only. Please visit thinkbroadband.com and compare deals specific to your location and requirements.
Altnet Pricing
The UK has many ‘altnets’, or so-called ‘alternative network operators’, which typically refers to challengers to the incumbent (BT Openreach and Virgin Media nationally). They often offer faster services at lower prices, so we have included a separate table of prices to track.
Category
Package
Download Speed
Upload Speed
Contract
Cost / month
100 – 150 Mbps
Community Fibre 100
100 Mbps
100 Mbps
24 months
£17 £19
Community Fibre 100
100 Mbps
100 Mbps
12 months
£25
Hyperoptic Superfast
150 Mbps
150 Mbps
24 months
£30 £19
Hyperoptic Superfast
150 Mbps
150 Mbps
12 months
£37 £25
Hyperoptic Superfast
150 Mbps
150 Mbps
1 month
£37 £45
YouFibre 200
200 Mbps
200 Mbps
12 months
£25
YouFibre 200
200 Mbps
200 Mbps
1 month
£35
Vodafone Full Fibre 150 (CityFibre)
150 Mbps
150 Mbps
24 months
£25 £23
Zzoomm 200
200 Mbps
200 Mbps
24 months
£20
300 – 500 Mbps
Community Fibre 300
350 Mbps
350 Mbps
24 months
£19 £21
Community Fibre 300
350 Mbps
350 Mbps
12 months
£28
Hyperoptic Ultrafast
500 Mbps
500 Mbps
24 months
£35 £23
Hyperoptic Ultrafast
500 Mbps
500 Mbps
12 months
£40 £29
Hyperoptic Ultrafast
500 Mbps
500 Mbps
1 month
£43 £34
Gigaclear Ultrafast 300
300 Mbps
300 Mbps
18 months
£16
Gigaclear Ultrafast 500
500 Mbps
500 Mbps
18 months
£20 £26
G.Network Ultrafast
300 Mbps
100 Mbps
24 months
£29 £24
G.Network Ultrafast
300 Mbps
100 Mbps
12 months
£35 £30
Vodafone Full Fibre 500 (CityFibre)
500 Mbps
500 Mbps
24 months
£28 £27
1 Gbps
Community Fibre 1Gbps
1 Gbps
1 Gbps
24 months
£23 £25
Community Fibre 1Gbps
1 Gbps
1 Gbps
12 months
£32
Hyperoptic Hyperfast
1 Gbps
1 Gbps
24 months
£39 £25
Hyperoptic Hyperfast
1 Gbps
1 Gbps
12 months
£45 £31
Hyperoptic Hyperfast
1 Gbps
1 Gbps
1 month
£48 £36
YouFibre 1000
1 Gbps
1 Gbps
12 months
£30 £34
YouFibre 1000
1 Gbps
1 Gbps
1 month
£40 £44
Gigaclear Hyperfast 900
820 Mbps
820 Mbps
18 months
£24 £49
B4RN Residential
1 Gbps
1 Gbps
12 months
£35 £33
G.Network Gigafast
1 Gbps
300 Mbps
24 months
£39 £30
G.Network Gigafast
1 Gbps
300 Mbps
12 months
£45 £36
Vodafone Full Fibre 900 (CityFibre)
910 Mbps
910 Mbps
24 months
£25 £27
3Gbps+
Community Fibre 2.5Gbps
2.5 Gbps
2.5 Gbps
24 months
£30 £39
YouFibre 8000
7 Gbps
7 Gbps
18 months
£100
YouFibre 8000
7 Gbps
7 Gbps
1 month
£130
B4RN 10Gbps
10 Gbps
10 Gbps
12 months
£150 + £360 setup
Date Collected: 21/05/2026. Methodology- see previous section. Do not use this table to select a provider for your personal circumstances – This list is provided as a guide to understanding market pricing only. Please visit thinkbroadband.com and compare deals specific to your location and requirements.
Fibre Overbuild
When a network operator builds in an area already covered by another network, this is known as ‘overbuild’. An operator may choose to do this if they want to compete, and competition/diversity can be good for consumers and businesses alike; however, it makes it a more challenging investment for investors in altnets who need to see a return on the capital they inject. It can therefore also be inefficient and frustrating for those without access to even a single full fibre network.
This report includes the overbuild statistics by UK Nations and Regions. These show that Yorkshire and The Humber have now passed Northern Ireland in terms of premises covered by two full fibre networks, with 44% of premises having access to two or more networks. Northern Ireland has also increased and is now seeing 42% of premises covered by two full fibre networks.
Show accessible data
Premises with 1 or more FTTP network
84% (+5%)
Premises with 2 or more FTTP networks
32% (+5%)
Premises with 3 or more FTTP networks
6% (+1%)
Premises with 4 or more FTTP networks
0.7% (+0.2%)
Premises with 5 or more FTTP networks
<0.1% (around 28,000 premises)
Overbuild by Nation
A look at each nation and the percentage of premises with multiple FTTP networks available.
Nation
1+ FTTP Network
2+ FTTP Networks
3+ FTTP Networks
4+ FTTP Networks
5+ FTTP Networks
England
84%
33%
6%
1%
0%
Wales
86%
26%
4%
0%
0%
Scotland
77%
26%
4%
0%
0%
Northern Ireland
97%
42%
9%
0%
0%
UK Total
84%
32%
6%
1%
0%
Overbuild by English Region
A look at each English Region and the percentage of premises with multiple FTTP networks available.
Nation
1+ FTTP Network
2+ FTTP Networks
3+ FTTP Networks
4+ FTTP Networks
5+ FTTP Networks
South East
80%
28%
5%
1%
0%
London
81%
33%
6%
0%
0%
North West
91%
41%
7%
1%
0%
East of England
81%
27%
6%
1%
0%
South West
79%
21%
4%
0%
0%
West Midlands
85%
36%
6%
0%
0%
Yorkshire and The Humber
92%
44%
11%
2%
0%
East Midlands
87%
32%
6.6%
1%
0%
North East
84%
33%
8%
1%
0%
Fibre Overbuild by Provider
Overbuild by Network
Source: thinkbroadband.com availability database (https://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local) on 30/04/2026
*Virgin Media Fibre / nexfibre / Netomnia is the full projected merged-business fibre coverage for Virgin Media, including RFOG/Mustang/nexfibre and Netomnia
Show accessible data
The accessible version of this matrix shows the list of providers, and for each one groups which providers are overbuilding that provider in the following categories: –
A — Over 50%
B — 20 to 49%
C — 10 to 19%
D — 1 to 9%
Any other entries are under 1% and omitted for brevity.
AllPoints Fibre
A — Openreach FTTP
B — Virgin Gig1, nexfibre, Virgin Media Fibre/nexfibre/Netomnia
C — Gigaclear
D — Full Fibre/Zoom, F&W Networks, Lightspeed, Trooli, Virgin RFOG/FTTP
D — nexfibre, Virgin Media Fibre/nexfibre/Netomnia, Virgin RFOG/FTTP
Netomnia/YouFibre/BRSK
A — Openreach, Virgin Gig1, Virgin Media Fibre/nexfibre/Netomnia
D — Grain Connect, ITS, nexfibre, Virgin RFOG/FTTP
nexfibre
A — Openreach, Virgin Gig1, Virgin Media Fibre/nexfibre/Netomnia
D — AllPoints Fibre, CityFibre, Community Fibre, Fibrus, Freedom Fibre/LilaConnect/Truespeed, FullFibre Ltd/Zzoomm, F&W Networks, Gigaclear, Lightspeed, Netomnia/YouFibre/BRSK, Trooli
OFNL/IFNL
D — Hyperoptic, Openreach, Virgin Gig1, Virgin Media Fibre/nexfibre/Netomnia
Openreach FTTP
A — Virgin Gig1
B — Virgin Media Fibre/nexfibre/Netomnia
C — CityFibre, Netomnia/YouFibre/BRSK
D — Community Fibre, Fibrus, Freedom Fibre/LilaConnect/Truespeed, FullFibre Ltd/Zzoomm, Gigaclear, Grain Connect, Hyperoptic, Trooli, Virgin RFOG/FTTP
Toob
A — Openreach, Virgin Gig1
D — CityFibre, F&W Networks, Hyperoptic, Netomnia/YouFibre/BRSK, Virgin Media Fibre/nexfibre/Netomnia, Virgin RFOG/FTTP
Trooli
A — Openreach
C — nexfibre, Virgin Gig1, Virgin Media Fibre/nexfibre/Netomnia
D — AllPoints Fibre, CityFibre, Community Fibre, FullFibre Ltd/Zzoomm, Gigaclear, Lightspeed, Netomnia/YouFibre/BRSK, Virgin RFOG/FTTP
Virgin Gig1
A — Openreach, Virgin Media Fibre/nexfibre/Netomnia
C — CityFibre, Netomnia/YouFibre/BRSK, nexfibre
D — Community Fibre, Freedom Fibre/LilaConnect/Truespeed, FullFibre Ltd/Zzoomm, F&W Networks, Grain Connect, Hyperoptic, Toob, Virgin RFOG/FTTP
Virgin Media Fibre/nexfibre/Netomnia
A — Openreach, Virgin Gig1
B — Netomnia/YouFibre/BRSK, nexfibre
C — CityFibre, Virgin RFOG/FTTP
D — Community Fibre, Freedom Fibre/LilaConnect/Truespeed, FullFibre Ltd/Zzoomm, F&W Networks, Grain Connect, Lightspeed, Virgin RFOG/FTTP
Virgin RFOG/FTTP
A — Openreach, Virgin Gig1, Virgin Media Fibre/nexfibre/Netomnia
C — CityFibre, Netomnia/YouFibre/BRSK
D — Community Fibre, FullFibre Ltd/Zzoomm, F&W Networks, Hyperoptic
Altnets – The Financial Backers
Major investors in UK broadband alt-nets include private equity firms, infrastructure funds, and strategic investors recognising the growth potential in the sector. Investment into networks is often debt funding, which means an increase in interest rates has increased the debt repayments, limiting funding available to network operators. This means it is quite likely that acquisitions/mergers will be a significant tool for growth for network operators rather than cash purchases or greenfield build projects, at least in some cases. The backers below may reflect equity investors, debt financing and other financial arrangements.
Company
Footprint
Backers (equity)
Debt (publicly disclosed)
CityFibre
4.4m
Antin Infrastructure Partners; West Street Infrastructure Partners (Goldman Sachs); Mubadala Investment Company; Interogo Holding
ABN AMRO; BBVA; Crédit Agricole CIB; ING; Intesa Sanpaolo (IMI CIB); Lloyds; UKIB; NatWest; SEB; Société Générale. 2025 financing: £960m expansion of existing committed debt facilities, plus an £800m accordion facility. The wider £2.3bn package also included £500m of new shareholder equity.
YouFibre / Netomnia (Substantial Group)
3.2m
Advencap; DigitalBridge; Soho Square Capital – Pending acquisition by nexfibre
Senior: HSBC UK; ING; NIBC; RBC; Standard Chartered; UKIB (+ accordion adding Barclays; Alpha Bank; Nord/LB). Junior: I Squared Capital; Palistar Capital; Rand Merchant Bank; Bain Capital
nexfibre
2.5m
JV between Liberty Global; Telefónica; InfraVia Capital Partners
UKIB; multi-bank facilities incl. ING; ABN AMRO; Lloyds; NatWest; NIBC
Gigaclear
642k
Lender-led consortium
Near £1bn before April 2026 recapitalisation. Lenders reportedly accepted a haircut of up to 40%. £80m of new capital committed. Ownership transferred to a lending consortium including the National Wealth Fund, ABN AMRO and NatWest.
FullFibre / Zzoomm
604k
Basalt Infrastructure Partners; Oaktree Capital Management
NWF; ING; LBBW; ABN AMRO; NatWest; Sabadell. £320m committed debt, approximately £200m current and committed equity, and £325m government funding as reported in August 2024. FY2024/25 financing activity included £20m of fresh equity, £61m of senior debt and a £100m facility extension.
Trooli
448k
Agnar UK Infrastructure (Vauban / Natixis)
Historical: ~£67.5m senior facility (2021); £5m NatWest (2020); current lender line-up not disclosed post Agnar acquisition
Freedom TrueSpeed Group
355k
Aviva Investors; Infrabridge; Equitix
Stated as virtually unlevered (debt-free) post-merger completion.
Grain Connect
316k
Equitix; Albion Capital, Pinnacle Group
HPS Investment Partners £212m debt facility; Historical: Nord/LB. An additional £13m of Equitix equity accompanied the 2025 HPS financing.
AllPoints Fibre
300k
Fern Trading Limited, managed by Octopus Investments
No external debt publicly disclosed; Fern stated that its fibre businesses were operating without debt in November 2025
F&W Networks
296k
Foresight Group
Santander (£25m, 2022)
KCom
290k
Macquarie Group (MEIF6), but up for sale
£425m of £445m bank facilities drawn down as at 31st March 2025
Toob
288k
Amber Infrastructure Group
£160m debt from Ares Management, upsizable to £300m
G.Network
257k
FitzWalter Capital
Debt free following administration
ITS
201k
Aviva Investors
Avenue Capital Group (£100m); Aviva Investors (£145m)
Actual usage may be less and more likely to be affected by other usage during the call.
Online Gaming (real-time multiplayer)
Varies by game. This will vary a lot, and it’s less about the raw speed for the game but about avoiding latency/jitter associated with saturating the line if you’re doing more than one thing or your household has multiple users.
Fortnite: “Gigabit fibre with [..] symmetrical upload and download speeds absolutely smashes those requirements out of the arena”
Twitch Streaming / Broadcasting
3-10 Mbps
20 Mbps
Some recommendations suggest upload speeds of 25 Mbps
Web Browsing, E-mail & Social Media
1 Mbps
5 Mbps
Once a connection is above 40 Mbps, unlikely to see much improvement as DNS lookups likely to be more of a factor than raw speed
Downloading Games and Large Content
–
100 Mbps
100 Mbps or faster is ideal, but users should balance cost against download time
Larger Households
For real-time simultaneous use, you need to multiply the above. E.g. two people watching Netflix at 4K might need up to 40 Mbps; a third is probably not going to be watching at the same time.
Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line, which means broadband through your phone line. The speed is determined by the distance between your property and the telephone exchange (usually up to a few kilometres) and the quality of your line. Asymmetric means the download speed is usually much faster than the upload speed, common in all consumer broadband. There are variants such as ‘Annex M’ which allow you to sacrifice some download speed for faster uploads. These were typically ‘up to 8 meg’ or ‘up to 24 meg’ type services depending on generation, but speeds vary wildly based on the quality and length of the line.
“FTTC” or “VDSL2” or commonly called “fibre broadband” (actually “part fibre”)
Broadband where the fibre optic cable ends at the street cabinet, which is likely to be some distance from your house. A phone line is then used for the final link to your house, similar to ADSL. VDSL is the underlying technology, “Very High Speed Digital Subscriber Line”, which allows faster speeds than ADSL, but it is more limited by distance – a few hundred metres rather than kilometres.
“FTTP”, “FTTH”, “FTTB” or “full fibre”
Fibre to the premises, home or building means that the entire connection to the property uses fibre.. There may in some cases be copper wiring inside the building depending on the setup. The speed is usually not limited by the distance where you can get FTTP, as this is delivered over a fibre optic wavelength.
“FTTx”
Combination of the ‘fibre to the…’ services, i.e. fibre to the home and fibre to the cabinet.
Cable & DOCSIS 3.1
Cable broadband (typically meaning Virgin Media) is broadband delivered through the copper coaxial network (in most cases, except for RFoG) used to deliver cable TV services. This has traditionally been capable of delivering faster speeds than phone line-based services. The latest generation, DOCSIS 3.1, can deliver gigabit broadband services.
Satellite
Satellite broadband uses geostationary satellites in space to deliver broadband to hard-to-reach areas. Aside from cost the main disadvantage is latency, which makes satellite broadband services slower to use for very ‘interactive’ applications, such as online gaming. Starlink and Amazon Leo using satellites in Low Earth Orbit can reduce this significantly and provide good broadband speeds. If you’re in an area with limited options, this may be worth considering.
3G / LTE / 4G / 5G / 5G+ (mobile broadband)
These are mobile technologies, evolutions beyond GPRS (2G) and EDGE (2.5G) which were the first types of data used by mobile phones and offered much slower speeds. The later generations like 5G can deliver very fast connections, although the performance varies significantly based on where you are. 5G Standalone (often referred to as 5G+) provides the best performance currently. Using a fixed 4G/5G setup can take advantage of a fixed antenna which will perform better. The difficulty lies when in a congested city environment using a mobile phone, where it’s quite possible for a 5G service to perform slower than a 4G one, so newer isn’t always better (in the real world).
Fixed Wireless
Some broadband providers use wireless technologies such as directional Wi-Fi and microwave links to deliver broadband, often across wide open rural areas, where laying cables could be prohibitively expensive.
Glossary
“meg” or Mbps
Broadband speeds are measured in megabits per second (Mbps). One Mbps is 1,000 kilobits per second, and one Gbps is 1,000 Mbps. A megabit (Mb) is different from a megabyte (MB): one megabyte per second (1MB/s) is equal to eight megabits per second (8Mbps). Sometimes you may see speeds when downloading in a browser expressed as MB/s, but broadband speeds are referred to in Mbps.
“Gig” or “Gigabit” broadband
Broadband that is capable of achieving speeds of 1Gbps (gigabits per second) or thereabouts. In practice this usually means FTTP or DOCSIS 3.1 cable services, although if provisioned with 1 Gbps Ethernet ports, the typical real-world speed can max out at 920 Mbps due to packet overheads. Some providers like to overprovision capacity so that the service can meet 1Gbps of data throughput.
“Premises passed”
Term used to describe a premises which is able to order a broadband service with a given provider.
“Decent” broadband
This is a definition used by Ofcom of a broadband connection capable of delivering 10 Mbps downstream, and 1 Mbps upstream.
“Take-up”
The ratio between premises that order a service and the total ‘premises passed’ (where a service is available). It should be noted that even if full fibre is available, it doesn’t mean all services are provided at 1 Gbps speeds.
About thinkbroadband
thinkbroadband is the UK’s leading source of broadband news and analysis and home to the UK’s largest community of users looking to get the most out of their home broadband. Run by a small team passionate about all things connectivity, we are independent of broadband providers and offer listings to any provider who meets our listing criteria, not based on whether they pay a commission.
Over the past two decades, we have created a wide range of free tools to help consumers understand how to make the most out of their broadband connection including speed tests, broadband maps, local broadband statistics, and our one-second resolution Broadband Quality Monitor.
We have also developed a range of industry-specific solutions, such as our broadband availability API. This tool is designed to assist websites requiring information on broadband service availability in a particular area, enabling them to power their own services and provider their users with accurate comparison listings.
“When we began our journey to deliver broadband information over twenty-five years ago, it was because we were eager to inform the public about the early stages of broadband developments. Since then, the internethas become and integral part of everyday life.
We have always strived to be different. We aren’t another comparison site. Hey, we don’t even consider ourselves a comparison site as most of the time, we aren’t trying to persuade users to switch providers. A lot of the tools we have written are designed to help you troubleshoot your broadband connection. We even work with providers to troubleshoot issues at times.
The thinkbroadband.com site is now over 25 years old and we continue to run it with the same passion as when we started. We are the most up-to-date source of broadband availability and speed information in the UK, and we want to provide the best and most unique tools to help you understand the performance of your Internet connection.
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