Two-thirds of the UK can now get gigabit broadband.

Over 19.3 million houses in the United Kingdom are now capable of getting gigabit internet speeds. This figure represents 66%of all homes in the United Kingdom and is an increase from the 13.7 million homes reported as having this capability in December 2021.

According to the organisation in charge of regulating communications in the United Kingdom, Ofcom, which released the statistics, a significant portion of the expansion can be credited to Virgin Media O2, which declared in December that it had made its whole network capable of gigabit speeds.

In four months, beginning in September 2021 and ending in January 2022, full fibre coverage climbed by five percentage points, reaching 33%. A little less than 9.6 million hones can use such a service.

The percentage of people in the United Kingdom who have access to superfast broadband (download speeds of at least 30 Mbit/s) has remained stable at 96%; however, the percentage of people who have access to superfast broadband in England, Northern Ireland, and Wales have all increased by one percentage point.

Ofcom calculated that the number of premises that cannot get decent broadband has decreased from 123,000 to 99,500 premises since the December report. The number of assumptions that cannot achieve decent broadband over a fixed-line has dropped from 650,000 to 506,000 over the same period. It is anticipated that the rollout of publicly sponsored schemes will not cover 78,600 of these locations during the following year. These locations are included in the total. According to Ofcom, these kinds of places may be qualified for the universal broadband service, which helps link individuals who are unable to acquire speeds that are satisfactory for their needs.

The number of people who have access to superfast internet, defined as having download rates of more than 30 Mbps, has stayed at 96%. However, the percentage of people who have access to superfast broadband has increased in England, Northern Ireland, and Wales. Ofcom noted that this statistic might have been due to the increasing difficulties in reaching the remaining 4% of houses and the increased focus on putting out new full-fibre and other gigabit-capable connections around the UK.

It was discovered that the great majority of houses in the UK have access to adequate broadband, which is defined as having a speed of at least 10 Mbps for downloading and 1 Mbps for uploading. Since the last report in December 2021, the number of properties (both residential and commercial) that are unable to obtain an adequate internet connection through a fixed line has decreased from 650,000 to around 506,000. This represents a continuation of the previous percentage of 2%.

The report from December 2021 was used as a basis for comparison with the findings of this study, which investigated access through Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) networks and estimated that 7% of premises have the ability to receive a decent broadband service from a wireless internet service provider. Almost all homes and businesses have access to FWA coverage provided by mobile networks that can deliver an acceptable level of internet service.

The government has achieved full nationwide coverage by 2030; however, this is later than the 2025 target initially stated in the Conservative manifesto before the 2019 General Election. Furthermore, only £1.2 billion of the £5 billion in promised funding will be delivered during the current Parliament.