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The Government’s Building Digital UK agency has published their January 2026 update on the delivery progress of contracts that have been awarded under their £5bn Project Gigabit broadband rollout scheme. The update reveals that some 202,270 contracted premises (up from 183,380 in Dec 2025) have so far been covered out of a planned total of 1,002,500.
The figures in this update are not directly comparable to the figures published in BDUK’s general statistics release. This is because today’s report tracks the number of contracted premises to which a supplier has delivered a gigabit-capable connection under the main gigabit subsidy scheme (GIS), whereas the official statistics include the number of premises that have also received a gigabit-capable connection as a result of any public BDUK subsidy (i.e. that covers other schemes too, like gigabit vouchers and past contracts that pre-date Project Gigabit).
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 Project Gigabit focuses on the final bits that they fail to reach. The project has already committed most of its budget up to 2030, but there are still some contracts yet to be awarded and others that have been scaled-back or switched suppliers (here, here, here and here).
Otherwise, it’s worth remembering that all of the listed contracts were awarded at different times and are thus at very different stages of development (some started several years apart). A few of the listed contracts have already completed their delivery, such as Wessex Internet’s roll-out for North Dorset and GoFibre’s roll-outs for County Durham and North Northumberland.
Project Gigabit – Contracted Premises and Built Premises by Contract (Jan 2026)
| Contract | Supplier | Contracted premises | Built contracted premises |
| Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire and Milton Keynes | CityFibre | 21,030 | 2,740 |
| Bucks, Herts and East of Berks | CityFibre | 19,090 | 3,430 |
| CO1 Lancashire, West Berkshire, Staffordshire, Surrey, Hertfordshire, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire | Openreach | 54,340 | 8,330 |
| CO2 Devon, Mid Wales and South East Wales | Openreach | 42,270 | 5,340 |
| CO3 North Herefordshire, North Wales, Shropshire and South West Wales | Openreach | 52,060 | 80 |
| CO4 South Devon, Mid Devon and North Somerset | Openreach | 37,110 | 700 |
| CO5 Essex and North East England | Openreach | 24,710 | 300 |
| CO6 Rest of Scotland | Openreach | 65,070 | 340 |
| CO7 Worcestershire | Openreach | 22,600 | 10 |
| Cambridgeshire | CityFibre | 39,070 | 8,210 |
| Central Cornwall | Wildanet | 9,810 | 6,880 |
| Cornwall and Isle of Scilly | Wildanet | 14,430 | 2,680 |
| Cumbria | Fibrus | 53,540 | 27,980 |
| Derbyshire | Connect Fibre | 12,500 | 770 |
| Dorset and South Somerset | Wessex internet | 7,240 | 1,700 |
| Durham | GoFibre | 4,440 | 4,440 |
| East Gloucestershire | Gigaclear | 3,550 | 840 |
| East and West Sussex | CityFibre | 41,940 | 2,960 |
| Hampshire | CityFibre | 55,570 | 5,700 |
| Kent | CityFibre | 46,080 | 1,940 |
| Leicestershire and Warwickshire | CityFibre | 38,230 | 7,490 |
| Lincolnshire and East Riding | Quickline | 47,800 | 13,270 |
| New Forest | Wessex internet | 15,120 | 9,110 |
| Norfolk | CityFibre | 48,890 | 11,530 |
| North Dorset | Wessex internet | 6,480 | 6,480 |
| North East Staffordshire | Connect Fibre | 5,960 | 1,690 |
| North Oxfordshire | Gigaclear | 4,180 | 3,220 |
| North Shropshire | Freedom Fibre | 3,410 | 3,410 |
| Northern North Yorkshire | Quickline | 33,810 | 6,660 |
| Northumberland | GoFibre | 3,830 | 3,830 |
| Nottinghamshire and West Lincolnshire | CityFibre | 27,820 | – |
| South Oxfordshire | Gigaclear | 5,310 | 2,390 |
| South West Cornwall | Wildanet | 11,120 | 6,350 |
| South Wiltshire | Wessex internet | 18,790 | 4,800 |
| South Yorkshire | Quickline | 13,290 | 7,150 |
| Suffolk | CityFibre | 65,710 | 15,940 |
| West and Parts of North Yorkshire | Quickline | 26,310 | 13,610 |
| TOTAL | 1,002,500 | 202,270 |
Take note that CityFibre’s progress under the £58.6m (public subsidy) contract for rural parts of Nottinghamshire and West Lincolnshire (Lot 10) needs to be taken in context, since Connexin originally held this until only a few months ago when they were acquired by CityFibre. Connexin only began the build phase at the end of 2024 (here), thus its delivery has been stuck in limbo due to that consolidation.
The above is an example of why it’s important to understand the context behind each contract before judging delivery progress, since a face-value assessment will overlook key realities. Speaking of which, some of the contracted figures may differ from the original announcements, which reflects the usual contract modifications (i.e. the scope of delivery can increase or decrease, such as due to commercial builds by other operators going further than expected or builds costing more than expected etc.).
For some extra context, you can check out the previous figures for December 2025 (here).