Fibre passes 38% of UK premises
Details
Joseph O'Halloran
| 10 October 2022
The latest update on broadband infrastructure deployments in the UK by analyst Point Topic has found that as of the end of August 2022, gigabit-capable fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) networks had passed 38% of UK premises.
City FIbre 3 Nov 2021
The analysis tracked the progress since the infrastructure research firm’s latest update for April 2022 and was based on a broadband availability dataset which included 1.7 million postcodes. Overall across the UK, Point Topic found that across the UK, gigabit broadband adoption rate varied between 3% and 55% among the country’s various internet service providers (ISPs).

Almost 1.6 million UK premises were found to have had access to two or more independent fibre provider while more than 800,000 premises could choose between three independent fibre ISPs. The Cambridgeshire town of Peterborough being top of the charts in this category.

Yet the study also revealed that 30% of all premises did not have access to gigabit capable broadband. This figure was 48% in Wales and 48% in Scotland. Moreover, in 27% of local authorities the FTTP coverage was lower than 20% of premises. It was 50% or higher in 23% of local authorities.

That said, Point Topic also revealed the march of the independent full-fibre network operators, the altnets. As of the end of August 2022, the figures showed CityFibre leading the way with 1.5 million FTTP premises covered by its network. The operator aims to pass 8 million premises by the end of 2025 with Vodafone, TalkTalk and Zen as the largest retail providers using its network.

Hyperoptic had the second largest independent FTTP network with just over 700,000 premises passed, while its plan is to cover two million homes by the end of 2023 while London and Home Counties provider Community Fibre was a strong third with almost the same amount of premises passed, followed by GNetwork with almost 400,000. Gigaclear and YouFibre were found to be approaching a quarter of a million premises. According to its study, Point Topic saw YouFibre and CityFibre as claiming the largest growth in premises passed since April 2022.