Where and when we're building Ultrafast Full Fibre Broadband

At Openreach, we've announced an ambition to reach 25 million homes and businesses by December 2026, if the right investment conditions are in place.

In doing that, we’re determined to be as open and transparent about our build programmes as we can be. That's why we publish a range of details about our largest commercial programmes on our public website.  This includes the FTTP Fibre First Towns, Cities and Boroughs Build Programme, and the Market Towns and Villages Programme which covers locations within the most difficult to reach areas (the vast majority are in Area 3, as defined by Ofcom). 

In addition to these, our Fibre First Programme contains other smaller sub-programmes, for example BDUK, new sites, other demand-driven programs and smaller-scale infill which – due to their nature and scale – are not included in our publication. 

Our aim is to support the Government’s strategy, as set out in the Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review, to accelerate commercial full fibre network investment across the UK as well as giving our stakeholders (like council leaders, planners, MPs, our CP customers and the general public) a view of where and when we intend to build. 

This provides stakeholders with valuable information to make informed decisions on their FTTP investments and sales effort helping to encourage people to take up a full fibre service when it arrives. 

The lists of locations and exchanges are reviewed and agreed in advance of publication by our Fibre First Steering Group, to make sure all the published data is accurate and reflects our build plans at the time of publication.

We don’t intend to change plans or the list of exchanges, but building a new broadband network across the UK is a huge and complex engineering programme, so some changes may occur where we encounter unforeseen obstacles. For example, the start of any building work will be subject to us getting the right level of support from relevant local authorities, and our own operational capability and efficiency. This includes having access to multi-dwelling units, like apartment blocks. When it comes to the actual build, we might discover conditions on the ground which restrict the proportion of an exchange area that we can upgrade. 

Openreach will keep the information updated on a rolling basis, including to reflect additional locations in later phases of network build or changes to existing plans which may become necessary due to unforeseen operational reasons (particularly where build is yet to commence). In the event that a location is removed from the list, we will always explain the reasons behind that decision.