Connected Nations is our annual report on progress in the availability of broadband and mobile services in the UK, including the roll-out of gigabit-capable, full fibre and 5G networks.
We have published separate reports on each of the UK's nations. Our interactive report allows people to easily access data for different areas of the UK and specific services. We have also published the International Broadband Scorecard 2022, which compares the UK’s recent position on broadband availability with a number of other European nations.
Since we published the December 2022 report we have identified that the 5G outdoor coverage figures for Northern Ireland were reported based on our analysis of operator data of May 2022 instead of September 2022. As a result, the main report (PDF, 2.0 MB) should read as follows:
- On page 27 – In Figure 3.1, the coverage for 5G outside premises (MNO range) for Northern Ireland should be 21-27%
- On page 30 – the last paragraph should be:
Differences in deployment strategies are also reflected in different coverage levels across the UK nations. Currently, 5G coverage outside of premises in each UK Nation ranges across individual MNOs as follows: 42-61% for England; 29-51% for Scotland; 10-46% for Wales; and 21-27 % for Northern Ireland (all based on our High Confidence level).
Since the report was published on 15 December 2022 we have identified additional premises that should have been reported as covered by full fibre and gigabit-capable networks. While this does not affect the percentages quoted in the reports, it does increase some of the full fibre and gigabit-capable coverage figures quoted for England and for the whole of the UK. As a result, Table 2.3 in the main UK report (page 9) should now read as follows (numbers that have been italicised and in bold have increased by 0.1m due to the effects of rounding):
| Gigabit-capable | Full fibre | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total | Urban | Rural | Total | Urban | Rural | ||
England | 71% (17.7m) | 76% (16.5m) | 37% (1.2m) | 41% (10.1m) | 42% (9.1m) | 34% (1.1m) | |
Northern Ireland | 87% (0.7m) | 96% (0.5m) | 65% (0.2m) | 85% (0.7m) | 94% (0.5m) | 65% (0.2m) | |
Scotland | 64% (1.7m) | 72% (1.6m) | 26% (0.1m) | 41% (1.1m) | 44% (1m) | 24% (0.1m) | |
Wales | 52% (0.8m) | 58% (0.6m) | 34% (0.1m) | 40% (0.6m) | 41% (0.5m) | 33% (0.1m) | |
UK | 70% (20.8m) | 76% (19.3m) | 37% (1.5m) | 42% (12.5m) | 43% (11m) | 35% (1.5m) | |
Associated figures on page 1 (Overview) and pages 5 and 8 (Section 2) in the main UK report should be read as updated in accordance with the above table.
In addition, the figures in Table 2.2 of the England and Scotland reports and Table 2.3 in the Wales report are affected, so the above table should be used instead.
This revision also affects our interactive chart and Open Data Files, which have been updated and republished accordingly.
We have also revised the Open Data files for fixed performance to correct an error in the usage figures that were quoted on a ‘per line-speed’ basis at sub-national granularities. This change has no effect on the overall performance/usage figures quoted in our narrative reports.
Finally, as set out alongside our interactive chart published in December 2022, we have reviewed the underlying basis and corrected an anomaly regarding geographic mobile coverage in page 15 of our interactive chart – examining the geographic coverage of 4G. The update doesn't change the percentage values at national levels, and makes very minor changes at lower granularities. Overall, these changes do not affect the mobile coverage figures we published in our main UK report regarding September 2022 coverage, and only makes minor changes to previous May 2022 mobile coverage figures in our interactive charts limited to certain selections and options only.