UK full-fibre coverage edges past 10 per cent

A study from UK consumer broadband advice site ThinkBroadband.com has revealed that just over 10 per cent of UK homes now have access to full-fibre broadband. Full-fibre, “gigabit capable”, broadband runs at speeds of 1,000Mbps+.

The landmark number was passed last week with the increase, to 10.01 per cent, representing a sharp rise from just 5.47 per cent at the end of 2018 and 8.13 per cent at the end of June this year.

ThinkBroadband’s data is perhaps cautious, however, only factoring in premises with confirmed live full-fibre coverage and not including projects which have potentially been completed, but don’t as yet have confirmed coverage.

Andrew Ferguson, editor of ThinkBroadband, said that some areas have wider coverage than others. According to the report, coverage is only available to over 10 per cent of homes in 100 of the UK’s 420 council regions.

Of these regions, Kingston-Upon-Hull has the widest access, at 98.7 per cent, followed by Belfast with 53 per cent and York with 52 per cent.

In comparison, 96 per cent of UK homes have access to superfast broadband coverage, which runs at speeds of 24Mbps+, and 59 per cent have access to ultrafast broadband, which runs at 100Mbps+.

Ferguson added that, while reaching the first 10 per cent of coverage had taken around a decade, he expected the next 10 per cent to be achieved within the next 12-18 months. However, reaching that target, Ferguson said, was “dependent on how fast the builds go” and that “a bad winter may slow things down.”

The overall build pace of full-fibre broadband is expected to continue to rise over the next year as broadband operators continue to ramp-up their deployment of gigabit capable coverage. Coverage currently comes from a few of the UK’s major operators.