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Ofcom’s annual Connected Nations report, which provides progress update on the availability of broadband and mobile services in the UK has been released today
The report found that 78% of the UK is now covered by gigabit-capable broadband, which is an 8% increase on last year, when there was 70% coverage.
The number of premises without access to what Ofcom class as “decent” broadband is just 61,000, or 0.2% of the UK. Additionally, it was found that 57%, or 17.1 million premises have access to a full-fibre network, which is a huge increase of 4.6 million premises, or 15 percentage points on last year. Northern Ireland takes the lead in terms of full-fibre, with 91% of homes having access. However, according to broadband expert at Broadband Genie Alex Tofts, this figure means the UK is lagging behind other European countries such as Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Norway and France.
For clarification, Ofcom defines “decent” broadband as 10Mbps+, “Superfast” as 30Mbps+ and “Gigabit” equates to 1Gbps+.
In the mobile category, in the case of outdoor 5G coverage provided by at least one Mobile Network Operator (MNO), this rose from 67-78% in 2022, to 85-93% this year. However, 81% of all mobile traffic is still carried by 4G. Meanwhile, many MNOs have begun the switch off of their 3G networks, which carry less that 3% of all mobile data traffic.
“The rapid rise in availability of full-fibre broadband is good news for people and businesses across the UK, with millions more able to benefit from fast, reliable and future-proof internet,” said Lindsay Fussel, Ofcom’s Network and Communications Group Director.
“When the time comes to take out a new broadband contract, we encourage people to shop around and find out what options are available to make sure they are on the best package for their needs,” she continued.
In addition to the report, Ofcom released their interactive International Broadband Scorecard for 2023, which compares the UK to other nations in relation to broadband availability. For example, out of eleven key global markets, the UK ranks sixth in terms of the percentage of households with access to gigabit speeds.
The full Connected Nations report can be found here.
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