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Ofcom has today released their Connection Nations 2025 digital infrastructure report earlier than usual, which reveals that residential gigabit-capable broadband ISP networks now cover 87% of the UK (up from 84% in 2024), while outdoor 5G coverage from at least one mobile operator is available to 97% of premises (up from 95%). But rural cover remains weaker.
The latest CN2025 report typically offers a general overview of fixed line broadband and mobile network availability, as well as related service take-up and data usage from across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, which is largely based off data that was gathered during July 2025 (varying between the results).
Before we begin, it’s important to note how Ofcom defines the different broadband performance classes. For example, “Decent Broadband” means a 10Mbps+ download speed with 1Mbps+ uploads (i.e. the Universal Service Obligation), while “Superfast” is 30Mbps+, “Gigabit” equates to 1Gbps+ (1000Mbps+) and “Full Fibre” essentially means a pure Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP/B) network (these are also gigabit capable).
As usual, we’ve split our summary of the key results from this report into categories for fixed line broadband and mobile networks.
Fixed Line Broadband Coverage
The rapid deployment of “full fibre” broadband networks by various providers continues to be the main area of growth and change during 2025 (Summary of UK Full Fibre Build Progress), which predominantly reflects the efforts of commercial investment in urban areas. But that is starting to change due to the Government’s £5bn state aid funded Project Gigabit programme.
The project, which aims to make gigabit speeds available “nationwide” (c.99%) by 2032, is starting to convert contract awards into tangible build activity across various rural areas. Admittedly, its impact is still small to modest, but it’s growing and the focus on rural connectivity is helping to lift some of the figures in this report. Upgrades via Project Gigabit can also lead to additional commercial coverage in nearby areas.
Overall, the picture today is that “full fibre” network coverage has risen from 10% of the UK in 2019 (3 million premises), then 18% (5.1m) in 2020, 28% (8.2m) in 2021, 42% (12.4m) in 2022, 57% (17.1m) in 2023, 69% (20.7m) in 2024 and now stands at 78% (23.7m) for 2025. As for “gigabit” coverage, which is driven by both FTTP and Virgin Media’s HFC network (there’s a lot of urban overbuild between these two), that has grown from 84% (25m) last year to 87% now (26.4m).
Elsewhere, “superfast” coverage has risen to 29.7m premises or 98% (up from 29.4m last year), which falls to 91% in rural areas (up from 89%). But the number of premises that cannot get a “decent broadband” service is 44,000 premises (down from 58,000 last year). But this includes 4G and fixed wireless coverage into the figure too, which reaches 1% (340,000 premises) when you only look at fixed lines (down from 385,000 in 2024).
Sadly, many of those that remain in sub-10Mbps areas are often too expensive for even the USO to fix (here and here), but this gap continues to fall. Ofcom predicts that the number of premises unable to get 10Mbps (decent) broadband could fall to around 36,000 by the end of 2026, mostly as a result of upgrades via publicly funded schemes (connection vouchers, project gigabit contracts etc.).
Ofcom also provides some useful data on the rural vs urban coverage split for superfast, decent broadband, full fibre and gigabit lines below – split by region.
In terms of take-up, some 42% or 10.6 million premises have now taken up a “full fibre” network (up from 35% and 7.5m last year). But it’s also noted that 56% of premises in rural areas have taken full fibre (up from 52%), compared to 40% in urban area (up from 32%). The take-up of services on gigabit-capable networks, where they are available, is now at 56% (up from 49%). Over time, the gigabit and full fibre figures should align, once Virgin Media fully migrates from coax to FTTP.
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