UK led European full fibre rollout in 2023 but lags in uptake

The UK added 4.7 million homes to its full fibre broadband footprint in the year leading up to September 2023, outpacing every other European country.

According to the latest market report from the FTTH Council Europe, this rapid expansion brought the UK's total fibre homes passed to 17.1 million—ranking it third in Europe behind France (26.3 million) and Turkey (18 million).

Given the UK's population size and need to catch up on fibre deployment, its leading position...

21 March 2024 | Broadband

Virgin Media O2 launches UK’s first 2Gbps residential broadband 

Virgin Media O2 has become the first major UK broadband provider to launch a residential 2Gbps service, dubbed Gig2, and introduce symmetrical download and upload speeds across all speed tiers as an optional add-on for customers.

The new blisteringly fast Gig2 broadband service, which offers speeds more than 28 times faster than the UK average, is enabled by XGS-PON full-fibre technology and builds on Virgin Media's existing 1Gbps Gig1 service.

Gig2 will be available...

7 February 2024 | Broadband

In the fast lane: Analysing the UK’s leading broadband players

Opensignal has conducted an in-depth analysis of the real-world fixed broadband experience across the UK. The study provides a national overview as well as detailed insights into five major cities: Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh, London, and Manchester.

National broadband landscape

The UK's fixed broadband market is witnessing rapid evolution, with national telecoms regulator Ofcom's analysis pointing to a potential surge in full fibre (FTTP) coverage from 15.4 million properties...

6 December 2023 | Broadband

Full fibre rollout set to give Newcastle £440 productivity boost

A report commissioned by CityFibre, the UK’s largest independent full fibre platform, has identified that Newcastle stands to be a huge beneficiary from the rollout of future-proof full fibre infrastructure which is now well underway across the city.

The study by the consultancy Hatch, (Economic Impact of Full Fibre Infrastructure from CityFibre’s Network), estimates that, over a fifteen-year period, the positive impacts of CityFibre’s £62m investment in Newcastle will...

8 March 2023 | Broadband

Vodafone is now the UK’s largest full-fibre provider

Vodafone has become the UK’s largest provider of full-fibre broadband.

Full-fibre is up to 25 times faster than copper broadband and five times more reliable. Vodafone’s full-fibre services are now available to over eight million homes—more than TalkTalk, Sky, BT, and Virgin Media.

Broadband provider (consumer sales)Number of premises Full Fibre (FTTP or FTTH) is available atVodafone8,007,839TalkTalk7,918,492Sky7,361,859BT7,267,221Virgin Media1,104,862

Max...

13 June 2022 | Broadband

CityFibre attracts over £1.4B in ‘largest-ever’ raise for UK full-fibre

CityFibre has attracted over £1.4 billion in the “largest-ever capital raise” for a UK full-fibre deployment.

The milestone was reached following a further equity commitment of £300m from its existing shareholder, Mubadala Investment Company.

Greg Mesch, Chief Executive at CityFibre, said:

“Mubadala’s confidence in our business is testament to our growing momentum and progress.

The need and appetite for carrier-neutral wholesale network...

21 March 2022 | Broadband

Openreach is creating 4,000 new jobs, follows record female engineer recruitment

Openreach has announced that it will create 4,000 jobs during 2022, following a year when it recruited more female engineers than ever.

The new recruits will assist Openreach in delivering full-fibre connectivity to premises up and down the UK. Openreach says that it’s currently on track to reach 25 million homes and businesses by December 2026.

Clive Selley, CEO of Openreach, said:

“Openreach is a people business first and foremost, so I’m proud that...

10 February 2022 | Broadband

BT utilises EE for ‘unbreakable’ broadband in latest convergence play

BT has debuted Halo 3+, a broadband service which uses EE’s widespread mobile network as a backup for increased reliability.

Halo 3+ introduces a new device called Hybrid Connect which works straight out the box to quickly give confidence to customers that they’ll remain connected even in the event of an issue with their fibre connection.

For new BT customers, or those who’ve just moved into a new house, Halo 3+ also means users can get online while they wait for...

3 February 2021 | Broadband