FTTP Availability Skewed Towards Newer Housing

As of August 2022, 39% of UK properties can get full-fibre broadband (FTTP).

ThinkBroadband, a news site that painstakingly tracks the FTTP roll-out, found that the age of your property makes a huge difference to how likely you are to be able to order FTTP: 

Source: ThinkBroadband, 12/08/2022. Postcode introduction date is imputed from ONS data.

The FTTP roll-out is progressing rapidly, with the percentage of properties able to order FTTP growing by just over 1% each month. That's logistically impressive, if somewhat belated. However, the roll-out can feel painfully slow if you're in the 61% that can't get FTTP yet.

The pace of the fibre roll-out is expected to fall materially once the focus shifts to lower-density areas and older housing stock.

Why Your Company Should Care About the UK's FTTP Roll-out

• With hybrid working now the norm, homes have become a significant place of work. FTTP will fix a lot of technical support issues caused by hybrid workers having lousy broadband speeds at home. FTTP offers far higher speeds than ADSL and FTTC. It also offers more reliable connections, as fibre-optic cable is used for the entire path from the user to the broadband provider's core network.
• FTTP will provide an ideal backup connection to mid-sized office's leased lines - a connection that's significantly faster than ADSL, FTTC and G.FAST, quick to install and affordable.
• You don't have a choice. The traditional phone system is being decommissioned from December 2025. 80% of telephone exchanges are marked for closure. Once coverage is sufficient locally, there will be forced migrations away from ADSL, FTTC and G.Fast to FTTP, so BT no longer has to maintain its legacy network of copper wiring.
• You'll be able to recruit for white-collar positions from a wider geographic area as rural locations stop being connectivity backwaters.
• Axing 80% of exchanges and switching to a more-reliable fibre network will slash Openreach's costs. In time, those savings will be passed on to ISPs and their customers.
• There will be more wholesale competition from full-fibre network builders, leading to keener prices in areas with three or more competing networks in the ground.  

So whether your employees are in new properties or old, FTTP is likely coming their way and will bring significant benefits. Some of your staff may just have to wait a few years longer than others.

hSo supplies a full range of business broadband connections, including FTTP connections, where available, and remote working tools.