A new interactive map has today been published by Thinkbroadband that rather handily provides a visual overview of the government’s £5bn Project Gigabit broadband roll-out across England and Wales, which drills down to premises level by factoring in a total of 30 million Unique Property Reference Numbers (UPRN).
As part of this programme, the Government’s executive Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency conducts regular Open Market Reviews (OMR), which is used to identify areas that can already access 1000Mbps+ capable broadband and those that are expected to receive it over the next three years. This in turn helps BDUK to figure out which locations may require public investment in the future to help access the same connectivity.
The OMRs are conducting several times a year and typically place individual properties into a set of four categories – labelled as White, Grey, Black and Under Review. BDUK will only subsidise build to premises which have been designated as White.
- White – indicates premises with no gigabit network infrastructure and none is likely to be developed within 3 years.
- Grey – indicates premises where a qualifying gigabit infrastructure from a single supplier is available, or is to be deployed within the coming 3 years.
- Black – indicates premises with two or more qualifying gigabit infrastructures from different suppliers being available, or will be deployed within the coming 3 years.
- Under Review – indicates premises where suppliers have reported current or planned commercial broadband coverage, but where claimed current gigabit coverage has not been verified, or, in respect of planned build, where evaluators are confident that gigabit infrastructure will be delivered, but some risks to delivery remain, or there are some gaps in evidence.
The new map from TBB takes the data from BDUK’s most recent September 2024 OMR – for England and Wales – and attempts to visualise it, albeit with different colour coding (i.e. Yellow dots for ‘White’ premises [no gigabit services existing or planned], Blue dots for ‘Under Review’ premises and Grey dots for premises where one or more Gigabit services are already delivered or planned). Some other caveats also apply (details).
Overall, this is a very useful tool and one that enables people, using the latest available data, to quickly see where they are within the government’s project by zooming down to a ‘per premises’ level. You can even click your home to uncover more info. on the relevant contract lot and status etc. Big credit to TBB for producing this and making it available to the public.
Take note that there’s ongoing OMR activity within Scotland and Northern Ireland, so similar data isn’t yet available for those two.