Openreach hits halfway point in UK broadband upgrade plan

Openreach has now made its ultrafast, ultra-reliable Full Fibre broadband network available to 12.5 million homes, businesses and public services across the UK – marking the half-way point in its nationwide plan to reach 25 million premises with the technology by the end of 2026.  

The company is building a next-generation Full Fibre network faster and further than any other UK provider – reaching around 60k new premises every week - or the equivalent of a town the size of Tunbridge Wells, in Kent. That means passing another home or business with ultrafast, gigabit-capable broadband every ten seconds.  

Openreach intends to keep building after it reaches its initial 25 million target, reaching up to 30 million premises with Full Fibre by the end of 2030. 

Meanwhile, as part of its regular programme of build updates, Openreach has published plans to deliver Full Fibre in another 142 locations - covering around 1.4 million homes and businesses, including in some of the hardest to reach, most rural communities in the UK.  

Clive Selley, CEO, Openreach, said: “This is a national infrastructure project that’s a genuine success story. We’re delivering engineering on an epic scale, on time and on budget – and that’s thanks to a supportive policy environment which has led to huge investment and competition throughout the UK’s telecoms sector. 

“From a standing start just a few years ago, we’ve now made this life-changing technology available to 12.5 million premises and counting and we’re building faster than any operator I’m aware of in Europe. 

“Our build rate is still accelerating and it’ll take us half the time to reach our next 12.5 million. But we won’t be stopping there. Ultimately, we’ll reach up to 30 million premises by the end of the decade - unlocking a raft of economic and social benefits by supporting new models of commerce, healthcare and public services.”  

Minister for Data and Digital Infrastructure, Sir John Whittingdale, said, “This marks an incredibly significant milestone, providing millions more people across the UK with access to transformative gigabit-capable connectivity.

“We know how important fast, reliable broadband is for homes, businesses and our vital public services, and with the support of government action, the UK is currently building gigabit networks faster than any country in the EU.

"It's vital the industry maintains its pace of delivery, and extends if further supported by our £5 billion Project Gigabit, ensuring rural and hard to reach communities do not miss out. This marks another important step in our ambition for 85% of properties to have access to gigabit-capable connections by 2025 delivering a modern digital infrastructure to every corner of the UK.”

Meeting the demands of modern life 

The roll-out of Full Fibre broadband across the country is an ambitious £15 billion infrastructure project to provide reliable, fast broadband that meets the needs of modern life.  

More than four million homes and businesses have already connected to the new network and demand continues to rise – with the company growing its Full Fibre base by more than 30k new orders every week.  

Roughly 1.8 million Terabytes¹ of data is used on the Openreach network each week – equivalent to every single person in the country watching two full HD movies every day – and data consumption is rising every single year, as technology becomes more sophisticated and integral to people’s daily lives, with social changes such as working from home and the boom in online learning.  

Powering up public services  

As well as improving the broadband that people use on a daily basis, the nationwide upgrade is set to improve the quality of UK public services. Openreach has already made Full Fibre available to over 13,400 medical facilities – including hospitals, GP surgeries and pharmacies across the country, as well as 8,300 care and nursing homes. The technology will benefit health services by improving connections with experts, remote monitoring of patients, easier access of records and faster appointments. The future applications are also exciting, such as the use of AI to achieve better health outcomes by helping review, triage and refer patients based on diagnostic scans and data.  

Openreach has also made Full Fibre available to over 13,500 educational facilities such as schools, universities and 4,500 children’s nurseries & creches, improving online learning facilities for students nationally². 

Helping to tackle social challenges  

The network transformation could also play a vital role in helping to tackle a range of social challenges - improving the lives of people across the country by bringing better technology and local services to areas which would benefit from them, especially more rural locations, with Full Fibre reaching 2,500 banks and financial buildings, 1,500 libraries, art centres and museums, as well as 1,200 emergency services buildings including coastguard and mountain rescue.  

Openreach has so far made Full Fibre broadband available to more than 3.6 million premises in the hardest to reach, typically very rural, parts of the country³ - and over 3 million in areas identified by the Government as a priority for levelling up⁴.  Openreach has also made Full Fibre available to the top 25 areas identified by the Social Mobility Commission as least socially mobile, providing Full Fibre availability to 409,000 premises in these areas⁵.  

Growing the UK economy  

Openreach’s network will also help to grow the UK economy by connecting people and businesses.  

The Full Fibre transformation could give a £72bn boost to the output of the UK economy in 2030, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr).  

This is the equivalent of 294,960 new SMEs being created across the country or adding 25 new businesses in every local council in the UK. 

By providing increased capability for people to work from home, an estimated 431,000 new workers could enter the workforce by 2026. This will benefit older workers, parents and carers as groups that particularly benefit from remote, flexible working.  

For the most personalised view of an individual home or business, Openreach recommends using its online postcode checker where people can find out the specific Openreach broadband connectivity available at their address.