February 2021 update on broadband availability across the UK, nations and regions
Another month with a good amount of FTTP found and added to our systems and broadband stats with the UK full fibre coverage rising from 20.04% to 20.77%. Hopefully at some point in 2021 we will start to see a full percentage point added in a single month as more of the roll-outs shift from press releases to roadworks and actual completion so the public can order.
One side effect of the numerous roll-outs is that there has been in a rise in the percentage of properties that have two or more full fibre network options from 1.433% to 1.545%. The percentage may look small but this amounts to 473,511 premises. We know there is a strong case to say that this is a waste when so relatively few have access to FTTP anyway, but in the longer term giving the public choice is important, since if any single infrastructure operator dominates an area for FTTP in 20 years people will be at the risk of both unfair pricing and potential neglect leading to higher latency and poor speeds at peak time.
The superfast coverage did not increase as much in the last month, mainly because we have finished one of our periodic big sweeps across the not spots looking for improved service availability. We will continue to look for superfast improvements but unlike the previous couple of months this is not the top priority - of course if people contact us to let us know that they can suddenly get a superfast service and we've not recorded it already in our systems we will get it added usually within 24 hours.
| thinkbroadband analysis of Superfast, USC, USO and Full Fibre Broadband Coverage across the UK, its nations and regions for premises In descending order of Gigabit coverage - figures 7th March 2021 (change since 7th February 2021) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Area | % full and partial fibre based i.e. VDSL2, G.fast or FTTP or Cable | % superfast 30 Mbps or faster | % Ultrafast 100 Mbps or faster FTTP, cable, G.fast | Gigabit | % Full Fibre All Providers Openreach and KCOM FTTP | % Under 2 Mbps download | % Below USO 10 Mbps download |
| Northern Ireland | 99.4% | 89.6% (=) | 70.5% (+0.6) | 70.28% | 62.01% (+1.51) 56.42% (+2.01) |
3.9% | 6.7% (=) |
| 850,504 Premises | 845,027 | 761,991 | 599,838 | 597,748 | 527,397 479,892 |
33,436 | 56,898 |
| London | 98.4% | 97.6% (=) | 79.6% (+0.2) | 64.74% | 22.98% (+0.59) 9.74% (+0.36) |
0.1% | 0.5% (=) |
| 4,730,286 Premises | 4,656,840 | 4,617,114 | 3,766,254 | 3,062,584 | 1,087,109 460,820 |
4,109 | 21,635 |
| West Midlands | 99.1% | 97.9% (+0.1) | 74.4% (+0.2) | 50.25% | 18.52% (+1.02) 13.51% (+1.04) |
0.2% | 0.7% (=) |
| 2,951,238 Premises | 2,924,208 | 2,888,176 | 2,195,395 | 1,483,144 | 546,533 398,569 |
5,447 | 19,954 |
| Scotland | 98.1% | 94.6% (=) | 57.8% (+0.4) | 46.38% | 19% (+0.62) 10.98% (+0.29) |
1.1% | 3.0% (=) |
| 2,761,783 Premises | 2,710,174 | 2,612,805 | 1,596,952 | 1,280,819 | 524,620 303,249 |
31,303 | 83,536 |
| Yorkshire and Humber | 98.9% | 97.3% (=) | 68.5% (+0.2) | 38.46% | 27.04% (+0.96) 17.76% (+0.84) (includes KCom Lightstream) |
0.4% | 1% (=) |
| 2,721,124 Premises | 2,691,872 | 2,647,181 | 1,863,350 |
1,046,623 | 735,816 483,176 |
9,586 | 27,123 |
| United Kingdom | 98.8% | 96.7% (=) | 65.2% (+0.2) | 38.78% | 20.79% (+0.75) 13.09% (+0.62) (includes KCom Lightstream) |
0.5% | 1.4% (=) |
| 30,647,999 Premises | 30,279,833 | 29,626,611 | 19,988,764 | 11,884,015 | 6,371,551 4,011,223 |
147,086 | 413,789 |
| Great Britain | 98.8% | 96.9% (=) | 65.1% (+0.3) | 37.88% | 19.61% (+0.73) 11.85% (+0.58)(includes KCom Lightstream) |
0.4% | 1.2% (=) |
| 29,797,495 Premises | 29,434,806 | 28,864,620 | 19,388,926 | 11,286,267 | 5,844,154 3,531,331 |
113,650 | 356,891 |
| North West | 99.1% | 97.2% (=) | 61.7% (+0.2) | 37.25% | 18.34% (+0.45) 13.73% (+0.31) |
0.4% | 1.1% (=) |
| 4,141,875 Premises | 4,104,286 | 4,025,973 | 2,554,043 | 1,542,735 | 759,481 568,619 |
16,917 | 45,132 |
| England | 98.9% | 97.2% (=) | 67.1% (+0.2) | 37.60% | 19.7% (+0.78) 11.76% (+0.61)(includes KCom Lightstream) |
0.3% | 0.9% (=) |
| 25,532,221 Premises | 25,249,762 | 24,820,271 | 17,142,351 | 9,600,043 | 5,029,305 3,001,474 |
71,885 | 236,522 |
| South East | 99.3% | 97.7% (=) | 66% (+0.1) | 32.54% | 18.8% (+1.08) 8.18% (+0.84) |
0.2% | 0.6% (=) |
| 2,301,859 Premises | 2,285,876 | 2,249,742 | 1,520,029 | 749,123 | 432,766 188,403 |
3,772 | 14,622 |
| Wales | 98.1% | 95.2% (=) | 43.2% (+0.1) | 26.96% | 19.3% (+0.11) 15.07% (+0.11) |
0.7% | 2.4% (-0.1) |
| 1,503,491 Premises | 1,474,870 | 1,431,544 | 649,623 | 405,405 | 290,229 226,608 |
10,462 | 36,883 |
| East of England | 99% | 96.9% (=) | 60.3% (+0.2) | 21.54% | 14.06% (+0.55) 8.58% (+0.49) |
0.3% | 1% (=) |
| 2,779,116 Premises | 2,752,490 | 2,693,022 | 1,674,536 | 598,638 | 390,856 238,482 |
8,113 | 28,435 |
| South West | 98.6% | 95.7% (+0.1) | 56.7% (+0.2) | 20.88% | 19.8% (+0.32) 12.97% (+1.16) |
0.5% | 1.7% (=) |
| 3,756,790 Premises | 3,702,574 | 3,594,637 | 2,131,639 | 784,448 | 743,996 487,115 |
19,666 | 64,605 |
| East Midlands | 99.4% | 97.9% (=) | 68.5% (+0.2) | 17.29% | 17.29% (+2.05) 10.42% (+2.06) |
0.2% | 0.6% (=) |
| 1,173,485 Premises | 1,166,619 | 1,149,286 | 803,293 | 202,856 | 202,856 122,322 |
2,374 | 7,423 |
| North East | 98.8% | 97.8% (=) | 64.9% (+0.9) | 13.3% | 13.3% (+1.72) 5.53% (+0.83) |
0.2% | 0.8% (=) |
| 976,448 Premises | 964,997 | 955,140 | 633,812 | 129,892 | 129,892 53,968 |
1,901 | 7,593 |
The changes in the levels of Gigabit coverage have been driven by the full fibre roll-outs as it has been a couple of months since Virgin Media switched on another DOCSIS 3.1 area. If Virgin Media was to enable DOCSIS 3.1 today and we found no more FTTP the UK would suddenly jump to 62.68% Gigabit coverage.
Comments
I would very much like the choice of at least one superfast fixed line service. I don't really care which one it is.
@sheephouse, I tend to agree but then you see some of the comments in these forums about the service provided by some of the altnets and it is rather worrying to think that the local council may team up up with one of the poorer ones. One has been discussed in these forums recently. The altnet in question is not cheap, doesn't offer very fast speeds,is reported to have close to zero customer service and poor speeds. It is worrying to think that development of your local area may effectively be made unattractive to others by the entry of such an operator.
@JHo1, personally I think the risk of having a poor superfast service is preferable to the certainty of having none.
I do agree that having a choice is even better, and for many people that is increasingly the case - and it is increasing many times faster than the reduction in sub-superfast availability, which has practically stalled now the emphasis is on gigabit.
Comments in article were more about areas with 1 FTTP option, rather than going from ADSL (or nothing) to superfast. In the case of 2 Mbps almost anything will be better, for those with say 9 Mbps it is a slightly different matter, so long as not trying to do lots of home working/zoom calls when the higher uploads of superfast options will be more needed.
- andrew
- about 1 month ago
Re "... in the longer term giving the public choice is important, since if any single infrastructure operator dominates an area for FTTP in 20 years people will be at the risk of both unfair pricing and potential neglect leading to higher latency and poor speeds at peak time."
I agree - on your results my area of Romsey in Hampshire looks good - Virgin cable is available but Openreach only offer ADSL2/VDSL - anyhow 0.5MB up and 10MB down - and it has already been like that for 20 years. It is preventing TalkTalk and Sky from making their competitive offering which I would choose. Romsey Cab#7