Full-fibre broadband available to more than half of UK homes, Ofcom says

Full-fibre broadband coverage is available to more than half of all homes across the UK for the first time, according to new figures from Ofcom.

The regulator’s latest Connected Nations update, based on findings from April and May this year, shows 52% of homes can access the faster, more reliable full-fibre services – equating to 15.4 million households.

The figures also show that 75% of UK homes have hyper-fast gigabit-capable broadband services available to them while 97% of UK homes are able to access superfast broadband offering download speeds of at least 30 Mbit/s.

However, Ofcom has previously noted that many premises have not yet taken up the option of the fastest broadband package available to them.

According to Ofcom figures published in March, the average UK broadband download speed is 65.3 Mbit/s.

Gigabit-capable broadband can offer speeds of up to 1,000 Mbit/s or one gigabit per second.

Ofcom’s report showed that while more than half of the UK as a whole has access to a full-fibre connection, Scotland remained just below that threshold, on 49%.

Some 51% of homes in England are said to have access to such a connection, 50% in Wales and 90% in Northern Ireland.

Access to what Ofcom defines as a “decent” broadband connection – which is a download speed of at least 10 Mbit/s is accessible to 99% of the UK, it says.

The regulator’s update also said mobile coverage across the UK “remains stable”, with a 4G connection available to around 93% of the UK landmass from at least one operator, including nearly all premises in the UK.