Published:
6 January 2020
These reports examine the availability of good communications across the nations.
The latest Connected Nations Report for England shows:
- 2.5 million premises (10%) in England now have access to full-fibre broadband connections; an increase from 6% last year. These connections can deliver much higher download speeds, of up to 1 Gbit/s and are also much more reliable than older, copper-based broadband.
- 95% of homes now have access to superfast (at least 30 Mbit/s) broadband, a slight improvement from 94% in 2018 although the pace of rollout has slowed from a few years ago. In rural areas residential coverage remains lower, with 81% of homes having access to high speed services.
- The deployment of wireless home broadband from BT/EE on their mobile network reduces the number of premises that cannot get a decent broadband service (unable to get 10 Mbit/s download and 1 Mbit/s upload speeds). We now estimate that as few as 111,000 homes in England should be unable to access a decent fixed broadband service, subject to confirmation of individual premises coverage. From March, those homes unable to get a decent connection will be able to request one from BT.
- 5G services have been launched by all four mobile network operators over the past year and are now operating in over 40 towns and cities across England.
- 4G coverage remains largely unchanged over the year. Individual operator coverage of England’s landmass varies, with the highest (EE) being 93% and the lowest (O2) 88%.
- 97% of England has access to good 4G outdoor mobile coverage from at least one of the operators. The 3% of England that does not have good outdoor 4G coverage from any operator is predominantly in rural areas. The proposed Shared Rural Network programme being negotiated between the operators and Government, with support from Ofcom, will aim to extend coverage for all operators to 91% of England’s landmass by 2026.
- Although 81% of homes and businesses should be able to get good 4G indoor coverage from all operators, one in five premises are unable to do so.
- We estimate that 27,000 premises in England cannot access either a decent fixed broadband service or get good 4G coverage indoors (from any operator).
The latest Connected Nations report for Scotland shows that, over the past year:
- The number of homes in Scotland with access to superfast (at least 30 Mbit/s) broadband has increased by over 89,000 since last year. As existing publicly funded schemes have matured, the pace of rollout across the UK has slowed from a few years ago, so overall superfast coverage in Scotland remains around 92%. In areas where at least superfast broadband is available, just under half (48%) of those properties use superfast or ultrafast (at least 300 Mbit/s) services.
- Over 200,000 homes and businesses in Scotland (8%) now have access to full-fibre broadband connections; 150,000 more premises than last year. These connections can deliver much higher download speeds, of up to 1 Gbit/s and are also much more reliable than older, copper-based broadband.
- The deployment of wireless home broadband from BT/EE on its mobile network further reduces the number of premises that cannot get a decent broadband service (i.e one that delivers a download speed of at least 10 Mbit/s and an upload speed of at least 1 Mbit/s). We now estimate that 40,000 homes in Scotland are unable to access a decent broadband service, subject to confirmation of individual premises coverage. From March, those homes unable to get a decent connection will may be able to request one from BT (subject to eligibility criteria).
- 5G services have been launched by all four mobile network operators over the past year and are now operating in over 40 towns and cities across the UK, including Edinburgh and Glasgow.
- 4G coverage from all four operators now extends to 42% of Scotland’s landmass (up from 38% last year). However, now 80% of Scotland can receive 4G coverage from at least one operator.
- Twenty-percent of Scotland has no good 4G coverage from any operator, predominately in rural areas (so called ‘not spots’).
- Almost eight in ten homes and businesses in Scotland (79%) have access to good indoor 4G mobile coverage from all network operators.
- We estimate that around 12,300 premises in Scotland cannot access either a decent fixed
broadband service or get good 4G coverage indoors (from any operator).
The latest Connected Nations report for Wales shows that, over the past year:
- 165,000 homes in Wales (12%) now have access to full-fibre broadband connections; over
90,000 more premises than last year. These connections can deliver much higher download speeds, of up to 1 Gbit/s and are also much more reliable than older, copper-based broadband. - The number of homes with access to superfast (at least 30 Mbit/s) broadband in Wales now stands at 93%, With ultrafast speeds (at least 300 Mbit/s) available to 31% of homes in Wales - a three percentage point increase from last year (28%).
- The deployment of wireless home broadband from BT/EE on their mobile network further
reduces the number of premises that cannot get a decent broadband service. We now estimate that as few as 189,000 homes (18,000 in Wales) should be unable to access a decent fixed broadband service, subject to confirmation of individual premises coverage. From March, those homes unable to get a decent connection will be able to request one from BT. - 5G services have been launched by all four mobile network operators over the past year and are now operating in over 40 towns and cities across the UK.
- 4G coverage from all four operators now extends to 58% of Wales’ landmass. However, indoor 4G coverage by all four operators extends to 73%. The proposed Shared Rural Network programme being negotiated between the operators and Government, with support from Ofcom, will aim to extend coverage for all operators well beyond this.
- 90% of homes and businesses in Wales should be able to get good 4G indoor coverage from all operators. We estimate that 9,514 premises cannot access either a decent fixed broadband service or get good 4G coverage indoors (from any operator).
The latest Connected Nations report for Northern Ireland shows:
- Two hundred and thirty-two thousand homes (31%) in Northern Ireland now have access to full-fibre broadband connections; over 160,000 more than last year. These connections can deliver much higher download speeds, of up to 1 Gbit/s and are also more reliable than older, copperbased broadband. Among the four UK nations, Northern Ireland (31%) has the highest availability of full fibre services, compared to England (10%), Scotland (8%) and Wales (12%).
- Superfast broadband (at least 30 Mbit/s), is available to 89% of premises in Northern Ireland, the same as last year.
- The average download speed delivered to premises in Northern Ireland is 55 Mbit/s. This has increased from 43 Mbit/s in 2018 and reflects increasing availability of faster broadband services.
- Average monthly broadband data use in Northern Ireland has gone up from 240 GB per connection in 2018, to 322 GB in 2019 – the equivalent of watching up to four hours of HD video content a day.
- The deployment of wireless home broadband from BT/EE on its mobile network has further reduced the number of premises that cannot get a decent broadband service. We now estimate that as few as 20,000 homes in Northern Ireland should be unable to access a decent fixed broadband service, subject to confirmation of individual premises coverage. From March 2020, those homes unable to get a decent connection will be able to request one from BT through the broadband Universal Service Obligation (USO).
- Good 4G services from all four operators are available (outdoor) across 75% of the Northern Ireland landmass while voice services from all four operators are available (outdoor) to 86% of the Northern Ireland landmass.
- 61% of premises and 52% of major roads in Northern Ireland have good indoor / in-vehicle 4G coverage from all four operators.
- Voice services (indoor) from all four operators are available in 80% of premises in Northern Ireland and 72% of major roads (in-vehicle).