August update on state of broadband coverage across the UK and regions
Another month has flown by and that means its time to look at the changes in broadband coverage across the UK and see how much of an impact all the work is having compared to the number of press releases that are issued.
The same number of regions are included in the data this month, but we have now included the number of premises in each region and the breakdown for the various speed points too, thus making it easier to get an idea of what sort of change each 0.1% in the overall figure actually means.
| thinkbroadband calculation of Superfast, USC, USO and Fibre Broadband Coverage across the UK, its nations and regions for premises In descending order of superfast coverage - figures 6th August 2017 (change since 7th July 2017) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Area | % fibre based VDSL2 or FTTP or Cable | % superfast 24 Mbps or faster | % superfast 30 Mbps or faster | % Ultrafast 100 Mbps or faster | % Openreach FTTP | % Under 2 Mbps USC | % Under proposed 10 Mbps USO |
| North East | 97.7% | 96.3% (+0.1) | 96% | 52.8% (+0.1) | 0.06% | 0.2% | 1.3% |
| 927,552 Premises | 905,759 | 893,634 | 890,447 | 489,965 | 600 | 2,169 | 12,094 |
| London | 97.2% | 96.1% (+0.2) | 95.9% | 71.1% (+0.1) | 1.90% | 0.1% | 0.8% |
| 4,397,679 Premises | 4,272,897 | 4,224,452 | 4,215,213 | 3,124,889 | 83,368 | 6,563 | 36,791 |
| East Midlands | 98.2% | 95.9% (+0.1) | 95.4% | 58.7% (+0.1) | 0.14% | 0.5% | 1.9% |
| 1,101,327 Premises | 1,081,586 | 1,055,946 | 1,051,212 | 645,955 | 1,498 | 5,613 | 20,570 |
| South East | 98.1% | 95.7% (+0.1) | 95.2% | 52.4% (=) | 1.22% | 0.3% | 1.6% |
| 2,154,786 Premises | 2,113,165 | 2,063,073 | 2,052,302 | 1,129,449 | 26,216 | 7,237 | 34,850 |
| West Midlands | 97.7% | 95.4% (+0.1) | 95% | 64.4% (+0.1) | 0.28% | 0.4% | 1.9% |
| 2,767,345 Premises | 2,702,906 | 2,641,404 | 2,628,726 | 1,781,983 | 7,854 | 11,345 | 52,155 |
| North West | 97.6% | 94.8% (+0.1) | 94.3% | 48.5% (+0.1) | 0.99% | 0.7% | 2.6% |
| 3,895,746 Premises | 3,801,455 | 3,692,854 | 3,672,825 | 1,887,588 | 38,714 | 28,239 | 100,225 |
| England | 96.7% | 94.1% (+0.2) | 93.6% | 55.7% (=) | 1.76% | 0.6% | 2.5% |
| 23,891,665 Premises | 23,105,672 | 22,472,665 | 22,350,644 | 13,313,043 | 420,025 | 135,215 | 602,189 |
| United Kingdom | 96.5% | 93.4% (+0.2) | 92.8% | 52.8% (=) | 1.61% | 0.8% | 3.1% |
| 28,515,090 Premises | 27,522,375 | 26,619,513 | 26,452,838 | 15,057,164 | 458,814 | 229,100 | 888,860 |
| Rest Of Scotland | 95.5% | 92.5% (+0.5) | 91.8% | 47% (+0.1) | 0.12% | 1% | 4% |
| 2,338,003 Premises | 2,231,953 | 2,161,972 | 2,147,373 | 1,098,494 | 2,833 | 23,718 | 92,540 |
| East of England | 95.8% | 92.3% (+0.3) | 91.6% | 51.6% (=) | 0.59% | 0.7% | 3.5% |
| 2,602,529 Premises | 2,492,069 | 2,401,162 | 2,384,473 | 1,342,575 | 15,241 | 19,153 | 90,202 |
| Wales | 95.5% | 91.5% (+0.2) | 90.5% | 32.2% (+0.1) | 2.48% (+0.14) | 0.9% | 4.9% |
| 1,321,385 Premises | 1,262,556 | 1,208,819 | 1,195,809 | 426,027 | 32,715 | 12,351 | 64,937 |
| Yorkshire and Humber | 93.9% | 91.5% (+0.3) | 91% | 53.1% (+0.1) | 5.1% (includes KCom Lightstream) | 0.6% | 3.9% |
| 2,557,428 Premises | 2,401,146 | 2,339,403 | 2,327,882 | 1,357,200 | 130,305 | 16,172 | 100,606 |
| Scotland | 94.7% | 90.8% (+0.5) | 90% | 42.7% (+1.9) | 0.11% | 1.4% | 5.3% |
| 2,575,926 Premises | 2,440,157 | 2,338,504 | 2,318,638 | 1,100,508 | 2,848 | 34,913 | 137,145 |
| South West | 95.6% | 90.6% (+0.1) | 89.7% | 44.6% (+0.1) | 3.33% | 1.1% | 4.4% |
| 3,487,273 Premises | 3,334,689 | 3,160,737 | 3,127,564 | 1,553,749 | 116,229 | 38,724 | 154,696 |
| Northern Ireland | 98.3% | 82.6% (+0.4) | 80.9% | 30% (=) | 0.44% | 6.4% | 11.6% |
| 726,114 Premises | 713,990 | 599,525 | 587,747 | 217,586 | 3,226 | 46,621 | 84,589 |
| Highlands and Islands (HIE) | 87.2% | 73.4% (+0.8) | 71.1% | 0.08% (=) | 0.08% | 4.9% | 19.6% |
| 226,458 Premises | 197,578 | 166,175 | 161,009 | 173 | 173 | 11,168 | 44,368 |
A week ago we were quoting 904,000 premises as needing work under the proposed Universal Service Obligation and that has now dropped to 888,860 premises as a result of the roll-outs and this reflects the importance when costing solutions or studying proposals to implement the USO that the impact of the continuing roll-outs of superfast broadband is considered.
These figures do not include the contribution that fixed wireless is making to the superfast coverage levels from AirBand in Devon or UK Broadband in Swindon yet, they are on the to-do list to be integrated into the coverage analysis.
Scotland has crossed a milestone this month as it has reached the coveage level of 90.01% for premises (and for those not aware premises comprises homes + businesses) at the 30 Mbps and faster level and it will be interesting to see how long current pace of roll-out can be maintained. Northern Ireland also appears to have woken up from a relative slumber with more cabinets, infill cabinets and little bits of native GEA-FTTP appearing.
Comments
Andrew, Thanks, your <10MBps premise count is about half that of Ofcom/DCMS for the USO. Is there a specific reason for this? Ofcom/AM sometimes off a premise count of 30m and sometime higher.
@Wurzkw, cos I can get virgin at an alledged 300mbps USO doesn't apply to my 5mb adsl line. It would be nice if USO could apply to real figures 24/7.
0.9m is not half of the Ofcom 1.4m. Biggest reason for difference ours includes areas gone live in last few weeks, Ofcom data is Apr/May 2016 and rollouts keep rolling out stuff
- andrew
- 10 months ago
Do not sign up to TalkTalk under any circumstances as they are utterly useless and even worse if you have to complain by telephone.I have spent over 3 hours to date trying to find out why I cannot get more than .89 mgbt when I am paying for fibre at 10mgb.
Can anyone suggest easy switch
This does show the continuing impact of BDUK on the size of the 10mbps USO gap. I've seen 1.5m properties quoted too many times when it seems obvious to me that when the BDUK rollout extensions complete it's going to be much lower - perhaps less than 0.5m. Throw in LR-VDSL and we might be down to a rump of 0.3m. That puts the OR estimate of £600m into some perspective.
I suspect a 20mbps USO would widen that gap markedly though.
https://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local has a sub 15 Mbps figure for those who think the USO should be a bit higher.
- andrew
- 10 months ago
Hi Broadband Watchers.
As Surrey County Council has always calculated 15 meg target to the post code in its spending so to achieve a target of 99.7%. Dorking Meeting with approx 1400 under 15. ( 10 and 2 ) after the clawback money has been spent with Openreah.
The famous Dorking meeting if they stated 1,400 under 15 Mbps as goal, then a long way to still at over 12,000 under 15 Mbps currently.
What people say at a meeting as an ambition is very different compared to what was signed for in a contract.
- andrew
- 10 months ago
To Francis 23. I suggest you engage Talktalk via the chat line, you will be put through to a technical team which will help you. I've done this a few times and have received 1st class service. The option of saving your chat in case of followup is all so good. I'm not a techie but 1st of all connect your pc either direct to your router or through a wireless power adaptor connected to the router, which should be connected to your master socket (the router should be sited away from any sources of interference). If you still have a problem get on to the chat line. Hope this helps. martinsetal
Both Openreach & Plusnet say I get 10Mbps, I actual get 9.5Mbps. Not a lot of difference - but I bet they include me ( and all my neigbours) as getting the required 10 in their reports! So we have no chance of getting superfast, based on false information.