More than 8 million UK homes can now get full-fibre broadband, an increase of 3 million homes year-on-year.
In its annual Connected Nations report, media regulator Ofcom also said around half of the properties in the UK are now in an area with outdoor 5G coverage and so-called ‘decent’ broadband is at its highest-ever level.
In 2021, 750,000 homes upgraded to faster, more reliable full-fibre services, taking the number of properties connected to nearly two million. But these homes still represent less than a quarter (24%) of those to which full-fibre upgrades are available.
With 7.4 million broadband customers out of contract and likely to be paying higher prices for slower speeds, many households could upgrade to a discounted full-fibre package without paying more than they currently do. Typically full-fibre can offer speeds of 1 Gbps.
Around 123,000 homes (0.4% of the UK) still do not have access to a ‘decent’ broadband connection – defined as offering download speeds of 10 Mbit/s and upload speeds of 1 Mbit/s. At this speed, it could take up to an hour and a half to download an HD film, as opposed to the minute on fill-fibre connections.
The UK Government and governments in each of the UK nations continue to deliver projects aimed at making sure people in the hardest-to-reach areas can get the connections they need.
“Many families now have multiple devices on the go at the same time for work, learning and entertainment – and the festive holidays can see a particular battle for bandwidth,” said Lindsey Fussell, Ofcom’s Network and Communications Group Director. “Full fibre is helping meet those demands, with millions more benefitting from faster speeds and more reliable connections. But some homes in hard-to-reach areas still struggle to get decent broadband, so there’s more work to do to make sure these communities get the connections they need.”
Although doubling in the last year, 5G traffic still accounts for a relatively small proportion of overall mobile data traffic at 3%, with 4G remaining the dominant technology at 91%.
By September 2021, Gigabit-capable broadband was available to 13.7 million homes (47%). This includes full-fibre and upgraded cable networks that are capable of delivering download speeds of 1 Gbps or higher. This figure has since further increased following Virgin Media O2 completing the upgrade of its network.
