In summary

Total Q4 2024 FTTH/P/B, FTTC, cable, FWA/satellite and DSL retail and wholesale connections saw a very slight increase during the quarter and stood at an estimated 29.05m from 29.01m q-o-q and similar to 29.94m in the previous year.

The fixed broadband retail market saw ~47k net broadband subscriber additions compared to ~24k net additions in Q3, and ~58k Q4 2023.

Openreach passed c.1.1m premises during the quarter with a footprint of 17m premises; and its total broadband lines fell by 208k, noting that this was due to moderately higher competitor losses with a weaker overall broadband and new homes market

Independent (or Altnet) providers[1] continued to slowdown FTTP network rollouts to focus on subscriber take-up, and saw ~155k net additions up from around ~127k additions in the previous quarter.

Q4 2024 saw modest growth in total consumer and business fixed connections to reach 29.05m; DSL connections dropped by 1.3% totalling 1.93m, FTTC reduced by 5.0% reaching a total of 12.16m, with FTTB/H/P lines picking up the slack with a 9.4% increase in uptake totalling 8.30m (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Retail broadband connections by technology, Q4 2023 – Q4 2024

We estimate that BT’s Consumer division (which includes business) recovered in Q4 with a gain of ~13k net additions compared to the previous quarter’s loss of 53k subscribers; its FTTP base added ~200k FTTP connections to reach 3.2m of which Consumer 3.0m and Business 0.2m and an increase of 33% year-on-year.

For the other major ISPs, Vodafone had the strongest quarter with ~72k broadband net additions; followed by Virgin Media O2’s (VMO2) reported 12k additions, but others struggled and saw modest losses; Sky with an estimated -8k, followed by TalkTalk’s -41k losses.
Retail Business connections reached an estimated 1.95m at the close of the quarter, down slightly from 2m in the previous quarter. FTTC connections reached ~785k with FTTP gaining ground at ~596k.

Figure 2: Retail business broadband connections by technology, Q4 2023 – Q4 2024

Retail and business FTTP connections reached an estimated 8.3m at the end of Q4 2024. Figure 3 below represents the growth in full fibre connections (for the major ISPs and combined Altnets) over the past year.

Figure 3: Top 5 retail broadband providers and Altnets full fibre connections, Q4 2023 – Q4 2024

Total Q4 2024 FTTH/P/B, FTTC, cable, FWA/satellite and DSL connections saw a very slight increase during the quarter and stood at an estimated 29.05m from 29.01m q-o-q and similar to 29.94m in the previous year.
At the close of the quarter, nearly 9.1m premises had access to 2 or more FTTP networks, up from 5.7m at end-2023. 1.3m premises were covered by 3+ fibre networks, with this number more than doubling in 12 months.

Openreach’s FTTP connections increased by 472k q-o-q to reach 6m with a take-up rate of 35%.
VMO2’s combined full fibre footprint reached 6.4m premises through a combination of its existing fibre footprint, progress in the fibre upgrade activity, nexfibre deployments, and the integration of the Altnet provider, Upp’s footprint (Figure 5). Throughout 2024, VMO2 continued to progress with the creation of a distinct scaled fixed network company (NetCo), which is on track to support the long-term underpinning of fibre upgrade activity and take-up.

Figure 3: FTTP / Gigabit-capable broadband take-up rates, Q4 2023 – Q4 2024

We estimated CityFibre’s connections to have increased by ~68k to reach 518k during the quarter, with an overall penetration rate of 13%; however, in its most mature markets take-up rates are around 40%.
Independent (or Altnet) providers continued to slowdown FTTP network rollouts to focus on subscriber take-up, and saw ~155k net additions up from around ~127k additions in the previous quarter.

[1] Point Topic tracks 106 AltNet providers ranging from micro / local ISPs to larger providers with national coverage.

Q4 2024 UK ISP and network supplier metrics - a market overview