Published:
17 December 2020
These reports examine the availability of good communications across the nations.
The latest Connected Nations Report for England shows:
- Fixed and mobile networks in England were able to meet the increased demands placed on them by Covid-19. A shift to people spending more time at home drove increased demand on broadband networks during the day, although the peak remained in the evening. Mobile networks also experienced increases in voice traffic.
- The number of homes and businesses in England without access to at least decent broadband continues to shrink. Factoring in coverage from both fixed and fixed-wireless networks, we estimate that around 0.5% of premises (119,000) in England are still without a decent broadband connection. These premises may be eligible for a connection under the universal broadband service, with no costs to the customer unless these exceed £3,400.
- Over 6.1 million homes in England now have access to a gigabit-capable broadband connection – able to deliver download speeds of up to 1 Gbit/s as well as faster upload speeds, and with better reliability than older broadband technologies. Almost 4 million of these homes have access to full fibre – an increase of around 1.6m homes since 2019.
- Superfast broadband coverage has increased to 96% of homes in England, up from 95% last year.
- Good mobile services from at least one operator are available outdoors across 97% of England’s landmass but only 84% has coverage from all four operators (up from 81% in 2019). The UK Government’s Shared Rural Network programme, agreed in March 2020, will extend coverage beyond this in the coming years.
- Across England, 81% of homes and businesses should be able to get good indoor 4G coverage from all operators, falling to 46% in rural areas.
- We estimate that 19,500 premises in England cannot access either a decent fixed broadband service or get good 4G coverage indoors.
- The number of towns and cities with 5G coverage in England has increased further, with services largely clustered around the largest cities.
The latest Connected Nations report for Scotland shows that, over the past year:
- Fixed and mobile networks in Scotland have generally coped well with increased demands during the pandemic. A shift to more people being at home drove increased demand on broadband networks during the day, although peak usage remained in the evening. Mobile networks also experienced increases in voice traffic.
- Superfast broadband coverage has increased to 94% of homes in Scotland, up from 92% last year. We now estimate that around 57% of premises who are able to get superfast broadband actually take a superfast or faster service.
- Almost 1.1 million (42%) homes in Scotland have access to a gigabit-capable broadband connection – as well as delivering download speeds of up to 1 Gbit/s, these services offer faster upload speeds and are more reliable than older broadband technologies.Over 437,000 (17%) premises in Scotland now have access to full-fibre broadband – an increase of over 238,000 premises and the highest year-on-year increase seen so far.
- The number of premises in Scotland without access to at least decent broadband continues to shrink. Factoring in coverage from both fixed and fixed-wireless networks, we estimate that around 34,000 (1.2%) premises in Scotland are still without a decent broadband connection. These properties may be eligible to receive one under the universal broadband service, with these connections being built without additional customer contributions up to a cost threshold of £3,400.81% of Scotland’s landmass has access to good 4G coverage from at least one of the mobile operators (up from 80% in 2019) but only 44% has coverage from all 4 operators. The UK Government’s Shared Rural Network programme agreed in March 2020 and the Scottish Government’s S4GI programme will extend coverage beyond this in the coming years.
- 81% of homes and businesses in Scotland should be able to get good indoor 4G coverage from all operators (up from 79% in 2019), with 96% of rural premises able to receive a service from at least one operator.
- We estimate that around 10,650 premises in Scotland cannot access either a decent fixed broadband service or get good 4G coverage indoors.
- The number of towns and cities with 5G coverage in Scotland has increased further, with 7% of the 3,000 sites across the UK being in Scotland.
The latest Connected Nations report for Wales shows that, over the past year:
- The UK’s fixed and mobile networks have generally coped well despite the increased demands placed on them by Covid-19. A shift to more people being at home more drove increased demand on broadband networks during the day, although the peak remained in the evening. Mobile networks also experienced increases in voice traffic.
- 19% (265,400) of homes in Wales have access to full-fibre connections – an increase of 7 % points since 2019 and higher than the UK average.265,400 homes have access to a gigabit-capable broadband connection– able to deliver download speeds of up to 1 Gbit/s as well as faster upload speeds, and are more reliable than older broadband technologies. Of these, 60,205 are in rural areas.
- Superfast broadband coverage has increased to 94% of homes up from 93% last year.
- The number of premises without access to at least decent broadband remains small. Factoring in coverage from both fixed and fixed-wireless networks, we estimate that around 18,000 premises are still without a decent broadband connection and may be eligible to receive one under the universal broadband service.
- The number of mobile base stations providing 5G services has risen ten-fold, to around 3,000 across the UK. Just over 8% of urban mobile sites have been upgraded to include a 5G service. 3% of 5G sites are located in Wales and another 3% in Northern Ireland, with 7% in Scotland and 87% in England. This split broadly reflects the national distribution of all mobile traffic across the UK.
- Mobile coverage is generally stable. 90% of Wales has access to good 4G geographic coverage from at least one of the mobile operators and 60% has coverage from all 4 operators.
- Voice and text services from all four operators are available across 78% of Wales’ landmass. Voice and text total notspots account for 5% of Wales’ landmass. The Shared Rural Network programme agreed in March 2020 will extend coverage beyond this by 2025.
- We estimate that 0.6% (9,000) of premises cannot access either a decent fixed broadband service or get good 4G coverage indoors, with almost all of these in rural areas.
The latest Connected Nations report for Northern Ireland shows:
Broadband
- Four hundred and twenty-two thousand homes (56%) in Northern Ireland now have access to full-fibre broadband connections; over 190,000 more than last year. These connections can deliver much higher download speeds and are also more reliable than older, copper-based broadband. Among the four UK nations, Northern Ireland (56%) has the highest availability of full fibre services, compared to England (16%), Scotland (17%) and Wales (19%).
- Superfast broadband (at least 30 Mbit/s) is available to 89% of premises in Northern Ireland, unchanged from last year.
- The average download speed delivered to premises in Northern Ireland is 64 Mbit/s. This has increased from 55 Mbit/s in 2019 and reflects increasing availability of faster broadband services.
- Average monthly broadband data use in Northern Ireland has gone up from 322 GB per connection in 2019, to 444 GB in 2020.
Mobile
- Good 4G services from all four operators are available (outdoor) across 79% of the Northern Ireland landmass while voice services from all four operators are available to 87% of the Northern Ireland landmass (outdoor).
- 4G services from all four operators are available in 65% of premises while voice services from all operators are available in 81% of premises in Northern Ireland.
- In-vehicle 4G coverage is available on 58% of Northern Ireland’s major roads from all operators while voice services from all operators are available on around three quarters of major roads (74%).