August 2019 update on broadband availability across the UK, nations and regions
Our regular updates on the levels of broadband coverage across the United Kingdom continue and while the headline is about the 9.02% full fibre coverage the levels of superfast coverage are continuing to increase.
The rise to 9% full fibre coverage has happened in two months but with the projections still suggesting 2032 to hit 50% coverage and 2047 for 100% full fibre coverage it is clear that the amount being built needs to increase dramatically. Our figures do take into account that some full fibre deployments do overlap e.g. a new build apartment where both Openreach and Hyperoptic full fibre, plus maybe Virgin Media RFOG are available will only count as 1 property towards the total.
Other than the commercial full fibre rollouts Wales has remained pretty static and while we are still waiting on the contract signing for the Scottish R100 contract(s) the original Digital Scotland contracts are still delivering and increasingly it is FTTP being rolled out.
thinkbroadband analysis of Superfast, USC, USO and Full Fibre Broadband Coverage across the UK, its nations and regions for premises In descending order of superfast coverage - figures 7th September 2019 (change since 7th August 2019) | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Area | % full and partial fibre based i.e. VDSL2, G.fast or FTTP or Cable | % superfast 24 Mbps or faster | % superfast 30 Mbps or faster | % Ultrafast 100 Mbps or faster FTTP, cable, G.fast | % Full Fibre All Providers Openreach and KCOM FTTP | % Under 2 Mbps download | % Below USO 10 Mbps download 1 Mbps upload We do not count ADSL2+ as USO compliant |
East Midlands | 99.2% | 97.7% (+0.1) | 97.4% | 62.7% (+0.3) | 5.32% (+0.47) 2.78% (+0.40) |
0.3% | 1.4% (=) |
1,156,479 Premises | 1,147,054 | 1,130,083 | 1,126,213 | 725,612 |
61,550 |
3,467 | 15,965 |
North East | 98.6% | 97.6% (+0.1) | 97.4% | 56.5% (+1.0) | 1.96% (+0.28) 0.79% (+0.04) |
0.2% | 1.8% (-0.1) |
966,738 Premises | 952,795 | 943,939 | 941,858 | 545,937 | 18,923 7,665 |
1,895 | 17,449 |
South East | 99% | 97.6%(=) | 97.2% | 58.2% (+0.3) | 6.68% (+0.16) 2.81% (+0.06) |
0.2% | 1.4% (-0.1) |
2,263,334 Premises | 2,241,828 | 2,208,821 | 2,200,210 | 1,316,893 | 151,091 63,551 |
4,587 | 32,305 |
West Midlands | 98.7% | 97.5% (+0.1) | 97.2% | 68.6% (+0.4) | 7.23% (+0.58) 4.83% (+0.44) |
0.2% | 1.8% (=) |
2,909,139 Premises | 2,871,482 | 2,835,587 | 2,828,799 | 1,995,117 | 210,377 140,413 |
6,726 | 52,737 |
London | 98.2% | 97.4% (+0.1) | 97.2% | 75.3% (+0.4) | 12.55% (+0.69) 4.89% (+0.23) |
0.1% | 2.1% (-0.1) |
4,657,345 Premises | 4,571,892 | 4,537,160 | 4,529,001 | 3,505,687 | 584,681 227,858 |
4,427 | 96,909 |
North West | 98.8% | 97% (=) | 96.7% | 54.5% (+0.5) | 7.26% (+0.46) 5.36% (+0.38) |
0.5% | 2.1% (=) |
4,077,847 Premises | 4,027,428 | 3,955,018 | 3,941,245 | 2,222,665 | 295,881 218,759 |
18,968 | 85,013 |
England | 98.5% | 96.8% (+0.1) | 96.5% | 60.7% (+0.3) | 8.82% (+0.45) 5.19% (+0.26)(includes KCom Lightstream) |
0.3% | 2.2% (-0.1) |
25,135,997 Premises | 24,751,990 | 24,330,752 | 24,246,158 | 15,269,770 | 2,217,653 1,304,118 |
86,939 | 559,541 |
Great Britain | 98.4% | 96.5% (+0.1) | 96.1% | 58.4% (+0.3) | 8.56% (+0.44) 5.09% (+0.24)(includes KCom Lightstream) |
0.4% | 2.5% (-0.1) |
29,300,848 Premises | 28,829,049 | 28,269,150 | 28,166,571 | 17,120,004 | 2,509,088 1,491,664 |
130,432 | 732,926 |
Yorkshire and Humber | 98.1% | 96.5% (+0.1) | 96.2% | 60.1% (+0.3) | 14.2% (+0.55) 10.66% (+0.27)(includes KCom Lightstream) |
0.4% | 2.6% (-0.1) |
2,682,122 Premises | 2,631,444 | 2,588,050 | 2,579,230 | 1,612,431 | 380,790 286,002 |
11,064 | 69,981 |
United Kingdom | 98.4% | 96.3% (+0.1) | 95.9% | 58.1% (+0.3) | 9.02% (+0.46) 5.55% (+0.30) (includes KCom Lightstream) |
0.4% | 2.6% (-0.1) |
30,125,904 Premises | 29,639,281 | 29,008,276 | 28,899,250 | 17,504,569 | 2,716,284 1,670,566 |
164,289 | 788,204 |
East of England | 98.5% | 96.2% (+0.1) | 95.6% | 54.6% (+0.2) | 4.52% (+0.27) 1.97% (+0.05) |
0.4% | 2.4% (-0.1) |
2,735,389 Premises | 2,694,652 | 2,630,273 | 2,616,011 | 1,493,515 | 123,736 53,952 |
11,672 | 65,791 |
Wales | 97.8% | 95.2% (=) | 94.8% | 37.2% (+0.1) | 9.4% (+0.3) 8.01% (+0.77) |
0.7% | 3.5% (=) |
1,440,530 Premises | 1,408,731 | 1,371,325 | 1,365,152 | 535,918 | 135,357 115,445 |
10,532 | 50,445 |
South West | 98% | 95% (+0.1) | 94.5% | 50.2% (+0.2) | 10.59% (+0.30) 7.42% (+0.24) |
0.7% | 3.3% (-0.1) |
3,687,604 Premises | 3,613,415 | 3,501,821 | 3,483,591 | 1,851,913 | 390,624 273,799 |
24,133 | 123,391 |
Scotland | 97.6% | 94.2% (+0.1) | 93.8% | 48.2% (+0.4) | 5.73% (+0.45) 2.65% (+0.12) |
1.2% | 4.5% (-0.1) |
2,724,321 Premises | 2,659,328 | 2,567,073 | 2,555,261 | 1,314,316 | 156,078 71,101 |
32,961 | 122,940 |
Northern Ireland | 99.3% | 89.6% (+0.1) | 88.8% | 46.6% (+1.0) | 25.11% (+0.93) 21.68% (+0.69) |
4.1% | 7% (-0.1) |
825,056 Premises | 819,232 | 739,126 | 732,679 | 384,565 | 207,196 178,902 |
33,857 | 57,937 |
For those worried about the Openreach FTTP figures we will cover those in more detail in a few days but the change since 7th August there has been an increase of 77,801 premises. The increase in the Openreach FTTP footprint averaged out over the four and half weeks gives a rate of 17,289 premises each week which is slower than the 20,000 a week Openreach state they are building at and as this is slower than the previous month this is a bit worrying given they are talking of ramping up to delivering 30,000 premises of FTTP every week. The end of July saw the announcement of the next batch of Fibre First exchanges and we suspect that what is happening is that Openreach is building the FTTP passing premises but they are only appearing for actual public order some weeks or months later.
Comments
Hi Broadband Watchers.
Please remember that there are various customers to each Post Code so they have a controlling power if only a few to retuning a result.
There is something a little odd in comparing <24Mps with <30Mbps. The <24Mbps for UK&NI is 486k premises while the <30Mbps ballons to 1.1m premises a difference of 630k premises. The issue in NI is particularly pronounced as <24Mpbs is merely 5k for <24Mps versus 85.9k for 30Mps.
The 24mbps (it is more than ADSL) versus 30Mbps (a once EU estimate for 4g rural) has little to do with the user experience. Is there something in the stats driving this or it actual premise count? Against original objectives BDUK is 98.5% coverage.
What is the impact on OR system size of c25.5m?
What is this OR system size 25.5 million, since bears no relation to any figure I am aware of.
UK & NI does not exist, it is just UK. And difference between >24 Mbps and 30 Mbps definitions is just 109,026 in the table. Believe you have used the wrong columns and are confusing yourself.
The original BDUK objective was 90%, then became 95% and now a hope to reach 97 to 98%. Where is the official declaration that 98.5% is an actual objective?
My error on the columns.
The objective was to go as far as possible.
You can pick up the OR system size from the annual accounts. Your site reports availability for Openreach, so I assume it is based on their published system size.
And final question. The premise total minus number in second column number. Total UK premise 30.1m less 29.6m who cannot access some upgraded service leaves 486k premises where no one has attempted to upgrade? Are these active ELO's? London has 85K of these lines. For clarity can you describe what they might be?
We are not doing what you seem to be implying, i.e. working to a system size and deriving the figures. The superfast openreach footprint is larger than your figure in terms of premises, so you might want to check the source of your 25.5 million figure.
On the ELO, one assumes you mean exchange only lines, yes some will be in there, some won't as others offer a service to them e.g. Virgin Media, Hyperoptic etc. There are still cabinets out there without a VDSL2 twin too.
Anyone know roughly Openreach's pricing update for FTTP will take place?
FTTP is now available and I don't know if it's worth waiting a week or two for it hopefully going down by then to make the 330 package to be around £38.
My current FTTC package runs out early October so I'll need to take in count of the 'up to 14 working days' for the line to be installed otherwise I'll be stuck on 4g in the meantime.
"The good news is that full fibre is now available to 9% of UK premises, . . ." or putting it another way, 91% of UK premises do not have access to Full Fibre connections.
While true, a few weeks ago it was 92% that did not have access to full fibre, so its good news it is at least moving in the right direction.
Andrew, OR operational KPI stats last quarter show 25.1m premises connected to Openreach. I am not implying anything but it is good to understand. What proportion of these connected lines can and cannot get superfast?
25.1m connected, but there are more who count as passed but are not taking any Openreach services, e.g. street has Openreach copper but home has had Virgin Media services for years.
https://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local/ has some help for 91% of UK premises have option of a superfast Openreach connection and 91% of 30,125,904 premises is ???
There are then more who cannot get superfast but passed by network and if you agree to quote the source in your report will let you have the figure.
Andrew - Openreach say 28m can connect to superfast service, but do not specify how many cannot.
Happy to quote source. Trying to get to a better understanding of the outstanding rural (<24Mbps, <30Mbps) number which might be better stated as a function of the OR network in rural.
The latest Ministial evidence (EFRA SC) used quoted Jan 2019 and used 1.57m non superfast of which 245k were urban, 323k suburban, 842k rural and another '162k' in most rural areas.
If we take off what was contracted but outstanding (400k) and minus off the phase 3,4+ NI R100 then this is getting small indeed.
If worrying about not having Superfast then you need to look at the figures since, obsessing about Openreach alone is just part of the story.
I guess you are asking for a news item to update the figures from our previous one
https://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/8312-picture-of-current-rural-and-urban-broadband-divide-in-great-britain
1.57m suggests 95% superfast - so probably older than Jan 2019 data
Of course if you remove what is contracted the numbers shrink, but we don't do that because our aim is to see if contracted targets are being met, i.e. what is available for people to order.
Andrew,,, missed that one. Thank you.
Andrew - I'm sure this is a frequent question, but you've got 788,204 premises below USO, while Ofcom's Connected Nations update for May 2019 says:
"The number of premises that cannot get decent broadband continues to fall, and is currently around 578,000 premises, not including Fixed Wireless Access. Decent broadband is defined as a download speed of at least 10Mbit/s and an upload speed of at least 1Mbit/s."
Hi Broadband Watchers.
With many Post Codes not showing a black spot (TBB) it it showings that Openreach is giving correct data and may be not confusing the Public as to their results it is very easy to switch the Bt Checker information as required to the demand on provision.
I feel it is up to the ISPs (500) to respond to this objective if not they I feel they will lose out in this competitive market each post Code is very important in my view to the uk objective to be the best in EU.