Category: Broadband

The Openreach Fibre First programme saw its first 100 premises built in May 2018 and has come a long way since then. It still has a long way to go so we take a peek at where it is.

Another month has passed and the Gigabit and FTTP figures continue to grow and while basic superfast coverage continues to improve the resolution of slow spots is a lot slower.

Rural areas of England and Wales have always lagged behind in terms of superfast coverage but was perversely leading in FTTP roll-outs it was leading but that lead has now vanished.

The trend for more and more new homes to have FTTP available continues, retro build programmes are also seeing coverage rates improve in other recent build years.

The full fibre footprint in the UK has grown to 23%, or if you prefer the number without access to FTTP has shrunk slightly to 77%.

Another month and the numerous FTTP roll-outs continue to add a decent amount of coverage each month. The increased FTTP roll-out also means more overlaps between the various networks.

Following on from Salisbury the second PSTN switch off location has had a stop sell notice placed for the old copper based products.

40% of UK premises now have the option of access to an FTTP connection or Virgin Media DOCSIS 3.1 connection.

Being online and actually able to do things like shopping has been critical in the last year so the latest figures from Ofcom showing the digital divide has narrowed is very welcome.

The benefits of full fibre may seem obvious to those who have been building it for years, but the scale of the benefits from much higher coverage than today does need restating.