The completion of the roll-out of the cable DOCSIS 3.1 service at the end of 2021 boosted the UK gigabit coverage level from 60% on 12th November to 67.6% by New Years Eve and now the many full fibre roll-outs have pushed the coverage level to 70.20% of UK premises. The 70.2% figure is based on a premises count in our database of 31.4 million.
The UK and figures for the all area areas of the UK are available on our stats micro-site which was updated at 8:20am.
Many will assume the majority of the Gigabit footprint is down to the Virgin Media O2 DOCSIS 3.1 switch on, but full fibre is catching up in footprint size and on the morning of 30th August is at 39.91%. We expect to hit 40% in the next couple of days. 17.6% of UK premises can get both Virgin Media and at least one full network.
The UK Government target is to reach 85% Gigabit coverage by the end of 2025 and this is dependant on how fast the full fibre (FTTP) roll-outs progress. Obviously a lot of those roll-outs are overlapping with the Virgin Media O2 cable network but the Gigabit figures are rising at between 0.5 and 0.8 points a month, so the next 15 points of coverage could be 30 months away or might be as soon as 19 months. So all looks good if you do a simple extrapolation but we want to sound a cautionary note that the current pace may change, especially as full fibre roll-outs complete in the easier to roll-out areas and there is the uncertainty around what impact inflation will have. On the issues around inflation it is not just about the costs of the fibre and associated hardware, but labour costs and transport costs to name two other elements in the puzzle, if the current high inflation rate is a short term blip then no worries but if this continues it may slow roll-outs down and could affect some commercial investment decisions.
The distribution of Gigabit technology across the UK is far from uniform the national summary (full figures are published on 7th of each month). Ordered by descending number of premises.
- UK 70.20% Gigabit, 39.91% full fibre
- England 71.19% Gigabit, 38.85% full fibre
- Scotland 64.58% Gigabit, 36.54% full fibre
- Wales 53.92% Gigabit, 37.26% full fibre
- Northern Ireland 86.87%, 85.9% full fibre
The top 10 local authorities for Gigabit coverage levels are:
- City of Kingston upon Hull 99.73% Gigabit, 99.73% full fibre
- Belfast 97.18% Gigabit, 94.1% full fibre
- Coventry District 96.45% Gigabit, 90.63% full fibre
- Worthing District 96.01% Gigabit, 69.25% full fibre
- City of Derby 95.45% Gigabit, 64.69% full fibre
- City of Bristol 94.98% Gigabit, 69.71% full fibre
- Epsom and Ewell District 94.42% Gigabit, 74.79% full fibre
- London Borough of Camden 94.09% Gigabit, 72.24% full fibre
- Broxtowe District 93.74% Gigabit, 54.06% full fibre
- Middlesbrough 93.67% Gigabit, 10.55% full fibre
If you want to see where your local council ranks for Gigabit coverage we have a simple table you can sort by various columns to see how you compare.
The vast bulk of the Gigabit and full fibre roll-outs are commercial, but there will be some late stage BDUK phases with FTTP and voucher scheme FTTP appearing in the figures. LFFN schemes will only feature where surrounding residential and SME premises count by the standard definition of passed by FTTP, i.e. FTTP manifolds have been built to the pavement outside the property and can be ordered at standard pricing without recourse to a voucher.
The Government has Project Gigabit that is still in the procurement stages and while procurement seems to be taking forever the pace is not unlike the original BDUK contracts of a decade ago i.e. a couple of years from inception to first areas actually going live. Project Gigabit is attempting to target areas where commercial operators have no plans to build and this should be rural areas.
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Not sure how true this is. The Virgin Media gig1 website says that gigabit is available across their entire network. This is a lie. I can give you a bunch of postcodes where you cannot order it.
They’re lying. And everyone is like oooh virgin media said X .. must be true then.
We have a few hundred premises where you cannot get Virgin Media Gig1 and the count takes that into account i.e. its not a blanket assumption.
If you can email with details then we see if these match or is another small cluster we’ve missed previously.
KT64LW and surrounding streets. SW20 0AE entire block. A few in MK40 and MK41. SG156UP and surrounding. I notice now they’ve put up a few asterisks and a clause that says “*Subject to availability, network capacity and credit check.” I think it’s been really unfair for them to say it’s available on their entire network when there are dozens of postcodes that I alone can find that cannot order it and can only order 350/500 etc. They had advertised it like everyone who has VM could order it, but it’s far from the case. I don’t believe their numbers of gigabit capable homes one bit.
What’s the percentage of availability in Essex just out of interest?
@Bryer you can get the broadband availability information on ThinkBroadband under Information & Data. For example to see the Essex data you would get to here https://labs2.thinkbroadband.com/local/E10000012
On SW20 0AE and KT64LW and SG156UP Virgin Media claim 1000 Mbps service is available. Other areas we know of e.g. some MK42 does still show the 350 Mbps service as maximum though.
The data given to Ofcom also says 1000 Mbps, so if you have proof then a fine could be incoming to Virgin Media for supplying regulator false data you will need to contact them. In meantime email the proof so can see what the evidence is and update accordingly here.
Virgin says KT2 available I see cable manhole covers in various streets but I can’t get it at my postcode kt2 5qb. So they are being misleading.
Andrew, where are you getting your stats for those postcodes?
Direct, from Virgin media’s website :
KT6 4LW maximum you can order 500 . Screenshot: https://i.imgur.com/MNA9jIt.png
SW20 0AE maximum you can order 500. Screenshot: https://i.imgur.com/muejc4w.png
So how come you can see 1000 available?
Sorry. I just noticed the enormous Gig1 fibre thing at £60 a month ….
I can assure you it was not there before.