Nearly seven in 10 homes can now access full-fibre broadband across the UK, according to new figures released by Ofcom.
The watchdog says that this puts the government on course to reach its target of 85% of homes having access to gigabit-capable broadband connections by 2025.
Ofcom’s Connected Nations report found that a record 20.7 million homes now had access to full fibre, representing 69% of households in the country.
This is a rise from 17.1 million households (57% of UK homes) in September 2023. Northern Ireland is leading the way with 93% of homes now having access to full fibre.
Full-fibre broadband that uses fibreoptic cables leading all the way into the household is faster and more reliable than broadband that relies on copper cables for the last part of the journey.
However, high-speed cable connections are also able to provide gigabit-capable broadband, which is a connection capable of download speeds of at least 1 gigabit-per-second (Gbps) or 1,000 megabits per second (Mbps).
Around 25 million homes now have access to either full-fibre or high-speed cable broadband capable of providing these speeds.
This represents 83% of UK households, and Ofcom says that the 85% coverage target is likely to be achieved by 2025.
More than a third of households sign up to full fibre where available
Having access to gigabit-capable broadband does not mean that every household is in receipt of these services.
Lower-speed connections are available through full fibre and cable, but customers have been moving in greater numbers to higher-speed packages.
As of July 2024, more than a third (35% or 7.5 million homes) had signed up to full-fibre services where these were available.
This has risen from 28% of households that were taking advantage of available full-fibre connections in May 2023.
The average download speed is still considerably lower than 1 Gbps but has risen from 170 Mbit/s to 223 Mbit/s in 2024.
Elsewhere in the report, Ofcom said that satellite broadband take-up had more than doubled over the past year, with the majority of such connections in rural areas.
Elon Musk’s Starlink service reached 87,000 connections in 2024 compared to 42,000 the previous year.
For mobile connections, 5G was continuing to expand, with more than a fifth (21%) of mobile data in the UK now carried on 5G technology.
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