Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Mobile operator Vodafone has announced that they aren’t only working with AST SpaceMobile to improve mobile connectivity and have today also signed an agreement to harness Amazon Leo‘s (formerly Project Kuiper) satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), albeit only for mobile backhaul (i.e. linking 4G and 5G masts in Europe [inc. UK] and Africa to their core network).

The new Amazon service is currently still in its commercial beta phase and will start to launch properly through 2026. The service currently has approval to deploy and operate their own initial constellation of 3,236 LEO broadband satellites (altitudes of between 590km to 630km). A total of c.180 Kuiper satellites have already been placed into orbit (they need at least 500 for basic global coverage) and many more are due to follow over the next few years.

As for Vodafone, they’re currently working with Joint Venture (SatCo) partner AST Space Mobile to launch a space-based 4G and 5G mobile (mobile broadband) service to connect with everyday Smartphones on the ground, which could potentially start to go live later in 2026. But today’s deal with Amazon Leo is more of a complement than a replacement to that.

The goal of the deal between Vodafone and Amazon Leo is to help connect many more 4G and 5G mobile sites (masts) in remote areas, which will improve coverage for customers with limited connectivity across Europe and Africa (i.e. mobile data backhaul for the terrestrial network).

With Amazon Leo, Vodafone will also be able to deploy new 4G and 5G base stations more easily and affordably in previously unserved areas, without the time and expense of installing long fibre-based or fixed wireless links back to the core network. Vodafone can similarly use the service to boost network resilience for emergency and critical online services if existing fibre links connecting mobile masts are broken or impacted by flooding.

The mobile operator appears set to harness Amazon Leo’s Ultra terminals for enterprise users, which offers high-speed cell site backhaul of up to 1Gbps download and 400Mbps upload. On the downside this does limit network capacity quite a bit, since optical fibre links can go many times faster when needed.

Margherita Della Valle, Vodafone Group CEO, said:

“Vodafone is looking to space to connect more mobile base stations to our core network, and strengthen resilience even in the most challenging environments. Amazon Leo’s new satellite constellation supports our ambition to give all Vodafone customers reliable and high-speed connectivity, wherever they are.”

Panos Panay, Senior VP of Amazon Devices & Services, said:

“Connectivity shouldn’t depend on where you live. With Amazon Leo, we’re helping bring fast, reliable broadband to places traditional infrastructure can’t easily reach — from rural communities to critical emergency networks. Partnering with Vodafone and Vodacom is an important step toward connecting millions more people across Europe and Africa and expanding access to the digital services that power modern life.”

Under the new agreement, Vodafone will first start using Amazon Leo to connect geographically dispersed mobile base stations back to its core telecom networks in Germany and other European countries. We assume this will include the United Kingdom too, but we’re checking to confirm. Thereafter, Amazon Leo will be progressively rolled out across Africa through Vodacom.

The companies expect the first of these mobile sites to be connected in 2026 and to extend this service as Amazon Leo builds out its constellation. The move comes shortly after UK rival O2 (Virgin Media) became the country’s first mobile operator to launch satellite-based connectivity for regular Smartphones via O2 Satellite (here).

UPDATE 8:12am

Vodafone has confirmed that the UK (VodafoneThree) will also have the option to use the new service, if so needed.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Mobile operator O2 (Virgin Media) has this morning confirmed that they’ll pump another £700m into their Mobile Transformation Plan for 2026 (the same amount as last year), which much like in 2025 will be focused on “improving reliability, boosting capacity and extending coverage across the country“.

The operator added that the investment will also assist in the deployment of new masts, small cells, 4G and 5G upgrades, automation and new spectrum deployment, providing customers with a “superior mobile network experience“. In particular, O2 also said they would focus on expanding the coverage of their 5G+ (5G Standalone) network, which currently reaches 87% of the UK population and more than 700 towns and cities.

On top of that they’re also still planning to deploy 1,000 “Giga Sites” nationwide, which reflects mobile sites that utilise Nokia’s latest dual-band massive MIMO (Multiple-Input Multiple-Output) tech to boost 5G mobile broadband performance and network capacity (here). Such sites can often deliver more than 10Gbps of throughput.

The operator is also continuing to bring its mobile and fixed networks together and using its own fibre network to connect mobile sites, recently connecting 2,000 mobile sites to its proprietary 10Gbps fibre backhaul network. Not to mention the ongoing expansion of their new O2 Satellite service too, which enables regular Smartphones to be connected via satellite 4G data (here).

Jeanie York, CTO at Virgin Media O2, said:

“Our Mobile Transformation Plan is all about building a network that customers can rely on wherever they are and whenever they need it. This £700m investment means we can keep improving performance in the places that matter most, from busy city centres and stadiums to railways, roads and rural communities.

We have already made significant strides in boosting coverage, capacity and reliability across the country, and our industry-leading 5G+ network now reaches 87% of the UK population. We are also the first UK operator to provide our customers with direct-to-device satellite connectivity, following the switch on of O2 Satellite. Customer satisfaction with our network continues to grow and we’ve recently been crowned the best network for coverage by uSwitch for the second year in a row.

By continuing to invest in new infrastructure, deploying additional spectrum and embracing greater automation, we are creating the stronger, smarter network that our customers need.”

Despite all these improvements, it’s still notable that O2 continues to come bottom in most of the benchmarks of mobile network performance that we see, although they are improving and the above announcement suggests that progress will continue. On the other hand it’s worth noting that EE (BT) and VodafoneThree (Vodafone and Three UK) are making similarly big investments in many of the same areas.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Broadband provider TalkTalk has apologised and pledged to improve their processes, which occurred after the company acknowledged to ISPreview that it had made a number of mistakes when dealing with somebody who held a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) for one of their more vulnerable broadband customers.

Just to give this a bit of context. One of the reasons why people may seek a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA), in this case for Property and Financial Affairs, is when a family member loses the mental capacity to look after their own affairs (e.g. dementia). You can get an LPA for Health and Welfare too, but that’s less relevant for telecoms and utilities.

The LPA enables the holder to manage their family member’s affairs (our example), such as with respect to broadband contracts/accounts and billing etc. Naturally, due to data protection laws, the telecoms provider must first be notified of the LPA and validate it before they can engage with the LPA holder as if they were themselves the customer. TalkTalk explains how this works on their website (here).

Sadly, this is a situation that one of ISPreview’s readers, who we will call John (they wish to remain anonymous due to the sensitive nature of the subject), recently found himself in when he had to obtain an LPA for his elderly mother, the TalkTalk account holder. But John ran into a problem after TalkTalk initially appeared to confirm that it had successfully accessed and verified the LPA using the Office of the Public Guardian system.

Despite the apparent verification, John complained that the provider’s Customer Relations team continued to treat him as a third party, insisting on TalkTalk-specific forms as a gatekeeper and repeatedly misclassifying correspondence as a “non-customer” matter.

In addition, John also complained that his mother was “cold-called and told she was out of contract (she was not)“, before being charged unnecessary fees as part of a re-contracting agreement. According to John, the deal that was accepted by his mother resulted in a £30 “admin fee” and a £9.95 “delivery charge” for a duplicate router that provided no benefit.

John told ISPreview:

“It is important to note that elderly customers often struggle to understand modern technologies and the complex terminology used by providers, particularly when they may be living with conditions such as dementia. This makes them especially vulnerable to confusion and mis-selling during unsolicited sales calls.

…

I have tried to resolve matters calmly and constructively, but the situation now feels procedurally stuck, with TalkTalk relying on internal process arguments rather than addressing the substance of the issues raised.

However, I am increasingly concerned that what I have encountered may not be an isolated incident, but part of a wider pattern in how TalkTalk is engaging with customers.”

John informed ISPreview that he had repeatedly asked for a formal complaint to be logged regarding the aforementioned issues, yet he states that TalkTalk’s support team refused to log a complaint unless the account holder contacted them directly, despite the verified LPA.

“Requests for clarification or escalation [were] met with circular responses and repeated demands for information already provided,” added John. In addition, John said he’d yet to receive a satisfactory response to a related Subject Access Request (SAR) he’d made to the ISP.

TalkTalk’s Response

Following a review of the account, TalkTalk later confirmed to ISPreview that John does indeed hold an LPA for his mother, but they also acknowledged failing to record the contact details for him, which they said is not in line with their usual LPA process. The provider has since discussed the case internally and taken steps to prevent this from happening again.

As for the accusation of cold-calling. TalkTalk clarified how they were following the usual End-of-Contract Notifications (ECN) process for engaging with customers who are near the end of their existing term, usually to discuss renewal options (hopefully ensuring a seamless, uninterrupted service at an acceptable price). Crucially, on this point, TalkTalk said they had spoken to John’s mother before the LPA was registered on their system. A like-for-like order was then placed to continue her existing service, although they’ve since apologised for sending an unnecessary router and pledged to refund the associated charges.

A TalkTalk spokesperson told ISPreview:

“We’re very sorry for our mistakes when processing [John’s] lasting power of attorney and [his mothers] contract renewal. We’ve taken steps to resolve both of these problems and help prevent them from happening again, and we’ll look to provide a gesture of goodwill once this complaint is closed.”

The situation perhaps demonstrates how a basic mistake in handling such cases at the outset can sometimes spiral into a series of additional problems, creating unnecessary stress and obstacles for LPA holders and those they represent.

On the other hand, this is one of the first such complaints that we’ve seen about a broadband provider’s LPA process, so at present such incidents do appear to remain incredibly rare and hopefully are not reflective of a wider pattern.

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

Press Release

[Barcelona, Spain, March 1, 2026] Huawei will release the Agentic Core solution at MWC 2026 in Barcelona. This solution will leverage three engines—NE intelligence, network intelligence, and service intelligence—to address key challenges in the AI era, such as the sharp increase in traffic, differentiated network requirements, and new service monetization for operators, and promote the large-scale commercial use of intelligent network.

NE intelligence: As AI agents become a core capability of next-generation AI phones, the number of connected entities will increase tenfold, with connections extending from “humans” to physical AI (such as embodied robots and autonomous driving). This will require the introduction of key capabilities such as digital identity, agent registration and discovery, and A2A session management to build a low-latency, highly reliable network foundation, supporting the large-scale commercial deployment of physical AI.

Network intelligence: As service AI agents become more prevalent, they will generate diverse network experience requirements. For example, AI robots may require 100 Mbit/s bandwidth and 20 ms latency. Therefore, it is necessary to evolve from predefined rule networks to intent-driven networks, where network AI agents will understand the needs of different organizations, dynamically match resources, and implement a closed-loop process for policy generation, configuration, and delivery.

Service intelligence: Compared to OTT players, operators have more opportunities to provide inclusive intelligent services. Huawei supports operators’ service innovation through three key services, going beyond connectivity. AISF (Service Intelligence) will evolve from an interactive entry point to a full-featured personal assistant, integrating communication, content, and services. Communication experiences will shift toward immersive interactions, breaking through the boundaries of voice. The integration of computing and networks will continue to be commercialized, providing sustainable computing power support for AI inference and content generation.

Looking ahead, Huawei will continue to deepen the three-layer intelligent collaboration practice with operators, aiming to provide 7×24-hour inclusive intelligent connectivity, and work together to bring users a more efficient, convenient, and intelligent digital life, and create new value in the intelligent internet era.

The post Huawei will release the Agentic Core solution to accelerate the commercial use of agent networks appeared first on Total Telecom.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Broadband ISPs BT, EE and Plusnet have tweaked their policy on annual price rises so that new customers who join after 1st March 2026 will not immediately be hit by their latest +£4 monthly price hike (first announced in July 2025), which is due to be introduced a month later in April 2026.

The same temporary measure was also adopted for last year’s annual price hikes, although unfortunately the latest change won’t do anything to help those who joined slightly earlier than 1st March 2026 (i.e. hard luck if you joined in February as you’ll still be hit by the 2026 hike).

In the past, there have been plenty of complaints from consumers who signed up just before the introduction of an annual price hike, since it meant the monthly price they paid increased only a short period after joining the service for the first time. Many people view this as being both confusing and unfair.

We should point out that a number of other broadband and mobile providers may adopt a similar approach to this one (e.g. Vodafone did so last year too), but we still think the gap should be bigger than a month.

Separately, new customers looking to take one of BT’s full fibre (FTTP) broadband packages should note that they’ve just introduced some of their highest ever Virtual Reward Card values (pre-paid Mastercard’s worth up to £200 on some packages) and have also discounted monthly prices, with 900Mbps now starting at £34.99 a month.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

CityFibre’s plan to roll-out their 10Gbps capable full fibre broadband (FTTP) network into some poorly served parts of the Winchester area of Hampshire (England), which is part of their Project Gigabit contract for the same region, appears to have been significantly slowed by some unexpected ecological and planning obstacles.

Just to recap. CityFibre originally secured the £104m (public subsidy) supported Project Gigabit contract for Hampshire (Lot 27) back in July 2023 (here), which was also backed by a private investment of £54m from the operator itself and aimed to reach more than 75,500 premises (55,570 currently contracted) in hard-to-reach areas (i.e. locations with no plans for future gigabit coverage). The goal was to complete this build by March 2029.

The first homes finally began to be connected under this contract back in April 2025 (here), but this has so far only covered 5,780 of the contracted premises (10%) and the plan to extend that up into the Winchester area appears to have hit a few furry snags. You see, in order to deploy their network, CityFibre first needs to be able to support it by established a new Fibre Exchange (FEX), which is essentially a micro-edge data centre.

CityFibre’s FEXs can vary in size, but they’re often roughly the size of a shipping container, served by two geographically diverse fibre routes, and including some space for backup power (A+B UPS and standby generators) in case of an outage or failure of the mains supply. Such sites are usually capable of serving tens of thousands of premises.

What’s the FEX problem in Winchester?

The problem is that the site where they’re intending to deploy this FEX, which one local resident of the area (John) described to ISPreview as being akin to a “small, scrubby plot next to a car park” (Park and Ride), has become stuck in the council’s planning process for the best part of a year due to dormouse-related ecological surveys and what appears to be some generally slow progress by officers at Winchester City Council.

As one of the agents for the planning application said: “It is a park and ride car park, so urban infrastructure, not some unspoilt rural landscape setting. The site is a fairly ordinary area of grassland and the main features of the landscape, such as the mature trees to the west, are not being affected while the development would not be visible from anywhere other than within parts of the park and ride facility.”

We’ve mocked up a bit of an example image of the area, with the proposed site plan alongside below.

Great care often goes into the rolling out of new broadband networks. As a result, such projects often run into problems when their most ideal locations for new infrastructure suddenly and unexpectedly clash with the presence of protected wildlife. Both network operators and planning offices then have a duty to take care to stay within the law.

In this case a lengthy dormouse-survey was conducted as part of the process and the planning documents revealed the presence of such animals. Hazel dormice, their breeding sites and resting places are rightly protected by law (Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations) and that’s a good thing. But it does clearly create a problem for CityFibre, which have thus far been pressing to keep their current planning application alive.

Nick Cutler, WCC Ecologist / Biodiversity Officer, said (Jan 2026):

“I have finally got round to reviewing the Dormice Survey Report and have a few comments.

I am happy with the proposed methodology which follows the Hazel Dormouse Mitigation Handbook (Mammal Society, 2025) which recorded evidence of dormice onsite and in the surrounding habitat through the use of
footprint tunnels.

The report states under Survey Assessment Conclusions that “it should be assumed that dormice could be present, in low density, in all connected woodland on-site”. However, evidence of dormice have been found in tunnels onsite so it is clear dormice are present onsite and a protected licence will be required to carry out the works.

Natural England requires an assessment of the population size and the impact the works will have on that population, for licence applications.”

In short, CityFibre will need a special licence if they wish to continue with the work (this applies if they can’t avoid disturbing the dormice or damaging their habitats) and so far they haven’t changed their mind, which isn’t surprising after so much time, money and effort has already been expended just to get this far.

The council is now calling on CityFibre to explain why there is such a need for the development (i.e. the importance of Project Gigabit to rural broadband connectivity), as well as how they’d protect the local Dormice population (e.g. sometimes they can be moved or protected within the site) and why there is no satisfactory alternative to that site.

Suffice to say that this process is likely to drag on for a bit longer, which just goes to show how challenging it can sometimes be to get new networks deployed into rural areas that need them. But equally there are no quick fixes when it comes to dealing with protected species and there’s similarly no guarantee that a similar problem might not crop up even if a different site were found, which would in any case require a total restart of the whole laboriously slow planning process.

“For rural residents still waiting for modern broadband connectivity, and not covered by commercial rollouts, it’s becoming a point of real frustration, and it raises questions about how local planning processes can inadvertently stall national infrastructure upgrades,” said Winchester resident John. CityFibre declined to comment on the matter and the council didn’t respond when we asked them to comment.

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

Press Release

Business technology provider, TalkTalk Business, has formally completed its separation from TalkTalk Group as of the end of February, marking a significant milestone in its evolution as an independent managed network service provider.

Following the sale of TalkTalk Business Direct in 2023, TalkTalk Business maintained access to certain core TalkTalk Group systems while rapidly developing its own independent operating environment. That phased transition is now complete, with an established operational infrastructure, modernised system stack and comprehensive service delivery capabilities, cementing its position as a standalone business.

The separation provides full autonomy over strategy, investment and systems, creating the foundations for accelerated growth. With a simplified operating structure and system stack, TalkTalk Business is positioned to respond more quickly to market demand, expand its product portfolio and to continue its investment in customer service.

For customers, the change delivers clearer accountability, streamlined processes and access to an evolving suite of technology solutions. New operational frameworks and product developments are already in place to strengthen service delivery and support long-term digital transformation ambitions.

The milestone aligns closely with TalkTalk Business’s strategic repositioning, reflecting its evolution beyond connectivity into managed services. A recently refreshed brand identity underpins the company’s focus on enterprise and public sector customers, delivering managed and unmanaged services spanning connectivity, networking, cyber security, cloud, IOT and voice and collaboration.

TalkTalk Business continues to work with strategic technology partners including Cisco, Zoom and Mitel, ensuring all customers have the right technology solutions to adapt, grow and stay competitive.

Ruth Kennedy, CEO at TalkTalk Business, said: “This marks the beginning of the exciting next phase for TalkTalk Business. We are now operating as a fully independent organisation with the agility and focus needed to deliver our strategy at pace.

“Our evolution into a managed network service provider is central to our growth ambitions. By combining our connectivity heritage with broader technology expertise and strong strategic partnerships, we are building a business designed specifically to support customers with secure, end-to-end solutions. This separation gives us the clarity and momentum to drive that forward.”

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Original article Total Telecom:Read More

Press Release

The distribution of quantum keys while maintaining commercial traffic has been successfully tested over a distance of 40 km in Milan

TIM has successfully completed the first test in Italy of quantum-safe communications between Data Centers on an operational network infrastructure, validating the use of quantum key distribution for data stream encryption in a real operating environment.

TIM’s initiative is part of a broader set of projects aimed at strengthening the country’s digital sovereignty and, in particular, the security of the entire network-data center-cloud ecosystem, with the aim of increasing resilience, operational continuity and the protection of sensitive data. In a context where the ability to protect strategic infrastructure and data with secure and manageable solutions is becoming a competitive factor for businesses and public administrations, the project confirms TIM’s role as an enabler of digital sovereignty and quantum technologies.

The test, carried out in collaboration with Cisco, verified the integration of the quantum component with existing network and security architectures. The signal dedicated to key distribution was co-propagated with traditional data traffic on the same pair of optical fibres, along a 40 km route crossing several TIM network nodes in the Milan urban area, connecting two of the Group’s main Data Centers. This deliberately complex configuration – with numerous junctions and intermediate components – demonstrated the robustness of the solution in real-world scenarios of interconnection between Data Centers, such as replication, backup and disaster recovery.

The project leveraged the expertise of TIM Enterprise ecosystem: Telsy and QTI for the encryption and quantum security component, and Noovle for the Data Center infrastructure.

The trial is part of TIM’s broader commitment to quantum communications at European level. TIM has successfully coordinated the three-year European QUantum ecOsystems (EQUO) project (2023–2025), funded by the European Commission as part of the Digital Europe Programme to support the development of the European Quantum Communication Infrastructure (EuroQCI). The main objectives of EQUO concern the development of quantum key distribution networks and services, according to control and management architectures consistent with emerging standards.

With these initiatives, TIM takes another step forward in bringing innovative, reliable solutions to the market that are geared towards protecting critical data, responding to the security needs of companies in increasingly complex and sensitive scenarios, as well as to the security regulations and directives of the competent authorities to ensure the cyber resilience of networks.

Keep up to date with all the latest telecoms news with the Total Telecom newsletter

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The post TIM tests quantum-safe connection between two data centres appeared first on Total Telecom.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

The Government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency has today confirmed that the previously stalled Project Gigabit broadband roll-out contract for Cheshire (Lot 17), which was originally held by Freedom Fibre until they “mutually agreed to terminate” it in March 2025 (here), has now been picked up by Openreach (BT). But it’s changed a bit in the process.

Just to recap. The contract for Cheshire (England) was originally valued at £43m (public subsidy) and aimed to extend gigabit-capable broadband connectivity to cover 15,000 premises in hard-to-reach areas, including villages like Kingswood, Allostock, Minshull Vernon and beyond. But this was sent into limbo after the contracted supplier, Freedom Fibre, suddenly pulled out just as the build phase was supposed to start.

At the time a spokesperson for BDUK told ISPreview that they were “now moving swiftly to put in place alternative plans with other suppliers to connect premises that were due to be connected. Freedom Fibre has not received any public funding for this contract“. Since then, we’ve been patiently waiting for an update on the plan for Cheshire (Lot 17).

The good news is that BDUK has now agreed a contract change with Openreach to include the premises in this area within a new Call-Off 8 contract under Openreach’s existing Single Supplier Framework agreement with BDUK (here) – valued at c.£1.2bn, which is focused on Cross-Regional (Type C) procurements (no other suppliers currently tackle Type C). This is just as we speculated would happen last month (here).

Type C typically reflects remote areas where no or no appropriate market interest has previously been expressed before to BDUK, or areas that have been descoped or terminated from a prior procurement. Such areas are often skipped due to being too expensive (difficult) for smaller suppliers to tackle. A similar change happened to the contract for Mid West Shropshire (Lot 25.01) last year, which saw Voneus drop out and Openreach later ended up merging this into their existing Call-Off 3 contract (here).

However, while the original contract for Cheshire was valued at £43m and aimed to cover 15,000 premises in hard-to-reach areas, the new Call-off 8 contract is valued at £37.5m and will aim to extend gigabit-capable broadband to around 18,500 hard‑to‑reach premises. This is most likely taking advantage of the maturity of Openreach’s commercial FTTP deployment to help reach further into more difficult areas for less money.

At the time of writing, there isn’t currently a detailed contract info. page for Call Off 8 or an intervention map of the new roll-out area, but this should follow in the near future.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

The latest independent data has revealed that 90.04% of premises across the United Kingdom can now access a gigabit-capable broadband ISP connection (1000Mbps+) via fixed lines, which is up from 85% in October 2024 and 80% at the end of 2023. But the figure does drop a little to 82.71% when only looking at full fibre (FTTP) lines.

Take note that the figure for “gigabit-capable” coverage is currently still higher than Fibre-to-the-Premises alone because it includes both the impact from FTTP builds and Virgin Media’s Hybrid Fibre Coax (Cable / DOCSIS 3.1) network, as well as a bit of FTTB (e.g. Hyperoptic). All of these can deliver gigabit downloads, and there’s a fair bit of overbuild between them in urban areas (Virgin aims to upgrade all their Coax cables to FTTP).

The vast majority of this rapid network expansion is currently still being dominated by commercial deployments from numerous network operators, such as Openreach (BT), Virgin Media (Nexfibre), CityFibre, Netomnia and many more (Summary of UK Full Fibre Builds). But it should be said that some of those altnets have had to significantly slow their roll-outs over the past 2-3 years due to the rising cost of build, high interest rates and competitive pressures.

So far, most of the country’s gigabit-capable broadband coverage has been delivered by commercial deployments (predominantly focused on urban and semi-urban areas), while the Government’s Project Gigabit focuses on the final bits that they fail to reach. The latest progress clearly bodes well for this £5bn (public subsidy) programme, which aims to help extend gigabit broadband networks to “nationwide” coverage (c.99% of UK premises) by 2032.

Looking forward, Ofcom’s most recent study of Planned Network Deployments predicted (here) that gigabit broadband coverage would reach between 91% and 97% by January 2028 (here), which is the furthest out they are able to look with any confidence. Clearly we’re on course to beat the lower end figure of 91%, although 97% may be optimistic for 2028, especially with several network operators pulling out or scaling-back their Project Gigabit contracts (e.g. here, here, here, here and here).

A DSIT (Gov) spokesperson told ISPreview:

“Fast, reliable broadband is essential for people and businesses to thrive, whether that’s enabling someone to launch a start-up from their spare room or helping families stream, work and learn without interruption. These new figures show this government’s action to boost gigabit rollout is paying off, with strong progress towards our goal of 99% gigabit coverage by 2032.

But we know there is more to do, particularly in hard-to-reach rural areas. Through our multi-billion-pound investment in rollout through Project Gigabit and measures to bust barriers for telecoms providers, we are determined to connect homes and businesses that would otherwise be left behind.”

However, as welcome as all this progress is, none of it will mean anything to those of you who still live in poorly served areas (often rural locations and some overlooked patches in urban areas), where the wait for something better to arrive continues to be a slow and painful one. But the country is at least continuing to see good progress in the roll-out, which makes for an ever-smaller gap left to fill.

The catch is that the final few percent of premises are often also among the most disproportionately expensive and challenging to reach via fixed lines, which tends to cause a slowdown in network delivery. For example, the following list represents some of the UK’s most remote areas, where coverage remains well below the national average in reported gigabit coverage:

The 10 Worst UK Council Areas for Gigabit Coverage

➤ Na h-Eileanan an Iar – 13.5% (up from 6.9% a year ago)
➤ Shetland Islands – 22.8% (up from 117%)
➤ Argyll and Bute – 28.2% (up from 22.8%)
➤ Orkney Islands – 30.7% (up from 18%)
➤ Aberdeenshire – 51.7% (up from 43.4%)
➤ Perth and Kinross – 59.2% (up from 50.4%)
➤ North Norfolk District – 60.0% (up from 44.7%%)
➤ South Hams District – 63.2% (up from 59.4%)
➤ City and County of the City of London – 63.7% (down slightly from 64.2%)     
➤ Highland 64.1% (up from 50.7%)

427 of the 650 UK constituencies have Gigabit coverage of 90% or higher as of 14th February 2026.

At present roughly 1.5 million UK premises are also still without the prospect of gigabit broadband (Enders Analysis estimate) and concerns of a potential funding shortfall under Project Gigabit have also been raised (here). Given how cash strapped the public purse seems to be these days, we wouldn’t be surprised if the government eventually ends up doing more to encourage alternatives like 4G/5G mobile broadband or Starlink (LEO satellite) for the final 1-3% of premises. Time will tell.

UPDATE 12:38pm

The government (DSIT) have finally provided a comment.