Ofcom’s December 2021 annual report has found that there were more than 19.3 million homes with gigabyte broadband.
This figure was 66 per ent up from 13.7 million (47 percent) since the last update. Much of the large increase was attributed to Virgin Media O2’s December 2021 announcement that it had made its network gigabit-capable.
A third (9.6 million) of all homes can now get full-fibre packages that offer faster and more reliable internet. This is up from the 21 per cent Ofcom reported in May 2021, and up from 28 percent in the four months between September 2021 and January 2022, with just under 9.6 million homes now covered.
Ofcom said that the boost was due to deployments by the larger fibre infrastructure operators but supported by a number of smaller providers across the UK serving individual communities and regions.
Coverage of superfast broadband, defined as offering speeds of more than 30Mbps, remained at 96 percent, with England, Northern Ireland and Wales all seeing an increase of one percentage point in superfast coverage. Ofcom suggested the reason for this figure staying the same could have been due to the increasing difficulty in reaching the final four percent of properties, as well as the increased focus on rolling out new full-fibre and other gigabit-capable connections across the UK.
Decent broadband – defined as at least 10 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload speed – was found to be on offer to the vast majority of UK properties. The number of properties (both residential and commercial) that cannot receive a decent broadband service from a fixed-line stood at around 506,000 (remaining at two percent), having dropped from 650,000 since the December 2021 report.
The study also investigated access through Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) networks, and estimated that seven percent of premises can receive a decent broadband service from a wireless internet service provider, the same as in the December 2021 report. FWA coverage from mobile networks capable of providing decent broadband is available to almost 94 percent of premises.
