British telecoms regulator Ofcom has claimed that full fibre connectivity is now available to more than half of the country’s homes. In publishing its ‘Connected Nations – Summer Update 2023’ report, the watchdog said that 52% of UK homes had access to full fibre as of May 2023, up from a previously reported figure of 48% at January 2023. Meanwhile, Ofcom reported that gigabit-capable broadband services were available to more than 22.4 million homes, or 75% of the country total, as of May 2023, up from 21.9 million and 73%, respectively, at the start of 2023.
With regards to slower speeds, Ofcom said that superfast broadband – defined as offering downlink rates of at least 30Mbps – was available to 97% of UK homes, a figure unchanged since May 2022, for which date coverage of 96% was reported. Ofcom said that the lack of progress may be due to the ‘additional difficulty in reaching the final 3% of properties’ but suggested that more recent publicly funded schemes may improve this situation. Meanwhile, Ofcom said the number of properties (both residential and commercial) that could not receive a ‘decent’ broadband service (i.e. one offering download speeds of at least 10Mbps) from a fixed line totalled 428,000 (1.3%) as of May 2023, down marginally from 433,000 four months earlier.
For the mobile sector, Ofcom notably reported that with regards to 5G, between 76% and 85% of premises (outdoor) were covered by at least one operator as of May 2023, up from between 54% and 69% a year earlier. The number of premises covered by all of the nation’s operators remained low, however, standing at between 12% and 22% as of May 2023 (May-22: 5%-13%).