This is our regular update on fixed broadband availability in the UK, tracking the progress between the end of March 2024 and the end of June 2024. The analysis is based on the ThinkPoint broadband availability dataset which includes 1.7m postcodes. More granular, postcode level broadband availability updates by ISP and technology, are available to our ThinkPoint customers.
Note: There will generally be a lag to the operator announcements for premises passed at the time since it takes us time to properly track and audit any new deployments, unless the operators tell us about them. Also, we report RFS (ready for service) premises, while some operators and ISPs include premises where customers can pre-order a broadband service.
Also, we have implemented planned updates to include new Census geographies as well as demographic data, which led to small changes to our historic data. For full details see the attached document (Point Topic – 2024 Demographics Geographics Update.pdf).
Key headlines
At the end of Q2 2024, the overall FTTP coverage was 22.3m premises (67.7% of the UK total). This metric was up from 64.6% in Q1 2024.
Nearly 7.7 million premises had access to 2 or more FTTP networks, and 1m were covered by 3+ fibre networks.
The FTTP coverage was 50% or higher in 77.5% of local authorities, up from 71.8% of LAs three months earlier.
The largest number of FTTP premises added was in Birmingham (+24K), Wigan (+21K) and Dudley (+16K).
Lincoln saw the most marked increase in the proportion of premises passed with FTTP – from 58.4% in Q1 2024 to 80.8% in Q2 2024.
Nationwide 1.6m premises could choose between two or more fibre altnets. Almost 124K premises were served by 3+ alternative fibre networks.
Openreach full fibre now covers 43.4% of all UK premises.
Openreach and FTTP in general
In Q2 2024, we recorded nearly 1m additions in the full fibre premises passed by Openreach. Our total recorded Openreach FTTP footprint stood at 14.3 million premises, up 7.2% quarter-on-quarter (Table 1). Openreach full fibre now covers 43.4% of all UK premises.
In turn, the decline in the number of Openreach ADSL, FTTC and Gfast only premises continued – their number went down by 959K, almost equivalent to the FTTP additions. Once again, the largest decline (-821K premises) was in FTTC only coverage, as this technology is being replaced by FTTP. Non-fibre platforms still covered 18.1 million premises in the UK, with this number having decreased by 5% in Q2 2024.
Table 1. Openreach footprint by technology, Q2 2024. Source: Point-Topic.
In terms of the proportion of total LA premises passed by Openreach FTTP, regions and locations outside London and the South East dominate, with Northern Ireland enjoying particularly extensive FTTP coverage from Openreach. Belfast remains the leading local authority in terms of the availability of Openreach fibre, with 95.68% of its premises passed, an increase from 95.43% in Q1 2024. Similarly to the past few quarters, among the top 20 LAs by this measure, ten are in Northern Ireland (Figure 1 ). Exeter got pushed out of the top 20 by Oldham this quarter.
Figure 1. Top 20 LAs by the proportion of total premises passed by Openreach FTTP, Q2 2024. Source: Point Topic.
During Q2 2024, Openreach added most FTTP premises in Shropshire (+16K). Wakefield and Havering saw +15K and +14K new Openreach fibre premises respectively. Overall, among the top ten LAs, we recorded the largest additions in the northern parts of the UK, with the North West dominating the league table. Havering Borough of London and Luton in the East of England bucked the trend in this respect (Table 2).
Table 2. Top ten LAs by Openreach FTTP premises added in Q2 2024. Source: Point-Topic.
At the end of Q2 2024, the overall FTTP coverage, including Openreach FTTP network, altnets, Virgin Media O2’s RFOG network and KCOM was 22.3m premises (67.7% of the UK total, compared to 64.6% in Q1 2024). The number of FTTP-enabled premises was up 4.7% q-o-q, with the steady growth continuing. Nearly 7.7 million premises had access to 2 or more FTTP networks, and just over 1m were covered by 3+ fibre networks.
Table 3. FTTP network overbuild (all FTTP networks). Source: Point Topic.
Table 4 lists the bottom ten UK local authorities (LAs) by FTTP coverage in Q2 2024. Once again, it is encouraging to see that the list this quarter features higher percentages – 6% to 24.5%, as opposed to 5.2% to 18.8% in the previous quarter, as FTTP covers more premises in more local authorities. Compared to Q1 2024, Shetland Islands have climbed out of the bottom of the ranking, with an additional 211 premises now having FTTP. South Tyneside saw the largest increase in premises with FTTP access (+3,201) among the bottom ten, though it has become a new entrant to the list this quarter.
Table 4. Bottom local authorities by percentage of premises covered with FTTP (any network). Source: Point Topic.
Nine out of the top ten best covered FTTP areas are Northern Ireland LAs, largely as a result of Openreach’s prominent FTTP presence in the country as well as the likes of Fibrus and nexfibre. The top LA remains Kingston upon Hull (99.31% FTTP coverage), largely due to KCOM’s fibre rollout. (The build in the top ten LAs is more or less complete, and as we see little change in this ranking we do not featured it any more).
It should be noted that these figures do not include Virgin Media O2’s Docsis 3.1 network coverage, which is widely available in some of the LAs. For the combined coverage data see our granular dataset.
Among the LAs, the largest number of FTTP premises added was in Birmingham (+24K), Wigan (+21K) and Dudley (+16K). Except for Birmingham, Dudley and North Yorkshire, other LAs in the top ten ranking are new entrants this quarter. Seven of them are from the North West.
Table 5. Top ten LAs by FTTP premises added in Q2 2024. Source: Point Topic.
As some operators are slowing down their footprint expansion due to cost and labour issues and focus on encouraging service take-up, only 18 local authorities saw 10%+ increase in the percentage of their premises passed with FTTP networks. This quarter, high growth areas are mainly located in the northern regions of the UK.
Lincoln saw the most marked increase in the proportion of premises passed with FTTP – from 58.4% in Q1 2024 to 80.8% in Q2 2024 (Figure 2).
Figure 2. Top ten local authorities by increase in percentage of premises passed by FTTP, Q2 2024. Source: Point Topic.
At the end of Q2 2024, FTTP coverage was lower than 20% of premises in 9 local authorities, down from 10 three months earlier. The FTTP coverage was 50% or higher in 77.5% of local authorities, up from 71.8% of LAs three months earlier.
VMO2 and Nexfibre
In addition to Openreach and altnets, Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) is carrying full fibre network rollout, mainly via their nexfibre venture using XGS-PON technology. It made significant strides in Q2 2024, when nexfibre passed 1.1m premises, up from 831K in Q1 2024 (+27.1%).
nexfibre aims to roll out full fibre to 5 million homes not currently served by VMO2’s network by 2026, with the opportunity to expand to an additional 2 million homes.
In Q2 2024, VMO2’s own RFOG/FTTP premises stood at 1.7m. The operator plans to upgrade its entire network (17.5m premises) to full fibre by the end of 2028. If this goes to plan, nexfibre’s and VMO2’s total fibre footprint could reach 23-25 million premises by that time. As the two companies intend to make their networks available to other providers, they could become a first nationwide alternative to Openreach.
Fibre Altnets
As an increasing number of altnets are exceeding 100K fibre premises passed, we are now focusing on this cohort. At the end of Q2 2024, CityFibre was at the top of the league with 3.3m FTTP premises covered by their network (Ready for Service premises). Vodafone, TalkTalk and Zen remained the largest retail providers using CityFibre’s network, with more than 3m each.
According to our records, Community Fibre passed 1.4m premises, followed by nexfibre with 1.1m, Hyperoptic with just over 1m, Netomnia with almost 1m, and brsk with 0.6m (Figure 4).
Further consolidation in the market is underway. In June 2024, Netomnia and brsk announced a merger which will have a combined network footprint of 1.5 million premises immediately post-merger, with a target of reaching 3 million premises by the end of 2025. If the merger gets regulatory approval, it will create a second largest alternative network operator in the UK.
Meanwhile, In March 2024, CityFibre announced its acquisition of Lit Fibre, in what it described as ‘the first of several deals CityFibre expects to close over the next two years’.
(Until the deals are approved and completed, we are still reporting brsk and Lit Fibre as separate entities).
Figure 3. Premises passed by altnets, Q2 2024 (more than 100K premises). Source: Point Topic.
Overbuild by FTTP altnets has increased further, as multiple network operators are increasingly competing for the same customers. This will put further pressure on take-up rates, profit margins and lead to further consolidation in the market. (We are now reporting the figures for network operators (altnets) only, while in our previous reports we included retail ISPs using their networks).
In Q2 2024, 80 local authorities had three overlapping fibre altnets, up from 63 in the previous quarter. Tendring in the East of England and Kingston upon Hull in Yorkshire and the Humber led by the percentage of premises served by three altnets, with 11.97% and 9.8% respectively. Five out of the top ten LAs in this category were in London and the South East, where higher population density and average household income do play a part. Among all the 80 LAs with three fibre altnets present, 32 were in these southern regions.
Table 6. Top local authorities by % of premises served by three fibre altnets overlapping, Q2 2024. Source: Point Topic.
As many as 269 local authorities had two fibre altnets overlapping, up from 248 in Q1 2024. Cheltenham and Causeway Coast and Glens saw the highest percentage of premises served by two fibre altnets, at 34.9% and 33.4% respectively. In the top ten league of two networks overlapping, four local authorities were in London. Overall, LAs with two networks were more equally spread out across the UK than those with 3 networks.
Table 7. Top local authorities by % of premises served by two fibre altnets overlapping, Q2 2024. Source: Point Topic.
Nationwide 1.6m premises could choose between two or more fibre altnets. Almost 124K premises were served by 3+ alternative fibre networks.
Table 8. Altnet overbuild, Q2 2024. Source: Point Topic.
At the end of Q2 2024, 17.7% of UK premises did not have access to gigabit capable broadband (either a Docsis3.1 network or an FTTP network), down from 19.5% in Q1 2024. The largest improvement in this area was in Wales, where the percentage of gigabit deficient premises went down by 2.8 points, from 29.8% to 27%. England and Scotland saw a 1.8% improvement (from 18.8% to 17% in England and from 25.7% to 23.9% in Scotland). In Northern Ireland, where only 4.7% of premises did not have gigabit coverage in Q1 2024, this measure improved by 0.4% this quarter.
Figure 4. Percentage of premises not covered by gigabit network. Source: Point Topic.
Local authorities in remote and rural areas still lack access to gigabit broadband, with Na h-Eileanan Siar topping the list by the percentage of premises not passed by gigabit capable networks (93.6%) (Table 9). This quarter we recorded the largest improvement in North Norfolk and East Lindsey, where 4K and 3K additional premises, respectively, gained gigabit access.
Table 9. Twenty local authorities with the worst gigabit coverage, Q2 2024. Source: Point Topic.
Despite challenging market conditions faced by altnets in particular, INCA (The Independent Networks Cooperative Association) believes that it should still be possible to achieve the Government’s target of 85% gigabit coverage nationwide by the end of 2025.
The complete dataset used to produce this analysis is part of our ThinkPoint service which involves UK Broadband Mapping at postcode level. For more information check our UK Mapping page.
To find out more you can contact us on 020 3301 3303 or e-mail oliver.johnson@point- topic.com
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