Original article ISPreview UK:Read More
National network operator Openreach (BT) has published the latest quarterly update on their roll-out of Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based gigabit broadband ISP technology. The update reflects all the recent changes and progress with their existing locations and doesn’t appear to add any new areas beyond those confirmed in July 2025 (here).
Just to recap. The operator is currently investing up to £15bn to expand the coverage of their new “full fibre” network to 25 million premises by December 2026 (here), which will include around 6.2m in rural or semi-rural areas. On top of that, they’ve also expressed an ambition to reach up to 30m by 2030 (there are c.33m in the UK), which is often said to be partly dependent upon a favourable outcome from Ofcom’s next Telecoms Access Review 2026 (TAR) and government policy (planning and taxation etc.).
The new network is currently capable of delivering download speeds of up to 1.8Gbps (uploads of 1Gbps are also possible in some Project Gigabit build areas) via older GPON technology. But Openreach recently revealed to ISPreview that they would trial real speeds of up to 8.5Gbps via their new XGS-PON based full fibre network with 40,000 premises in Guildford during early 2026 (here).
In terms of their network deployment. Openreach has already announced their commercial roll-out plan up to the December 2026 target – reflecting c.3,500 towns, cities, boroughs, villages and hamlets. The latest October 2025 Build Plan (and Interactive Map) thus largely represents a progress update for those locations. But take note that this only covers their commercial deployments and there are some big exclusions (i.e. new sites/retro new-sites and other smaller scale programmes or infill and publicly subsidised builds under the government’s BDUK linked contracts are sadly all excluded).
Unfortunately, the format adopted by the operator makes it very difficult to identify any key changes to this list, or even removals. Build lists like this are always tentative, which means that some locations may be removed (e.g. if found to be too expensive due to complications) or delayed and others added in their place. Inclusion should also NOT be considered as equating to 100% coverage of each area.
At present it seems unlikely that Openreach will announce a big list of new FTTP build locations / coverage expansions, such as for their future plan for going from 25m to 30 million premises by 2030, until after or around when Ofcom is due to publish their final telecoms market review proposals (final statement is due around March 2026). Even then they’ll probably announce it gradually, rather than all at once.
Openreach currently has 15,000 people focused on their UK deployment of full fibre technology and the average per premises build cost continues to hover around the £280 mark (roughly £1.2bn per year). The new service, once live, can be ordered via various ISPs, such as BT, Sky Broadband, TalkTalk, Vodafone and many more (Openreach FTTP ISP Choices) – it is not currently an automatic upgrade, although some ISPs have started to do free automatic upgrades as older copper-based services and lines are slowly withdrawn.
Credits to forum member ‘Some Edinburgh Guy’ for spotting the latest update.