Ofcom’s latest Connected Nations report provides a clear picture of mobile coverage and broadband availability across the UK, highlighting notable improvements in full-fibre access and stable progress in mobile connectivity.
The report examines how widely essential digital services are available to households and businesses, showing encouraging trends in fibre rollout alongside ongoing work to reduce mobile not-spots in rural and remote areas.
Full-fibre reaches a majority of UK homes
A key finding is that full-fibre broadband is now available to the majority of UK households. Around 52 percent of homes—approximately 15.4 million households—can now connect to full-fibre services, driven largely by major network providers and supported by smaller operators focused on specific towns and regions.
Gigabit-capable broadband coverage has also increased, now available to about 75 percent of homes, up from 73 percent in the previous report. This expansion reflects continued investment in network upgrades that can deliver higher speeds and greater capacity for streaming, remote work, and digital services.
Superfast broadband, defined as connections offering at least 30 Mbit/s download speeds, remains available to 97 percent of properties across the UK. The remaining three percent are mainly in hard-to-reach locations; many of these areas are being targeted by recent publicly funded initiatives designed to close the final gaps in coverage.
Steady mobile coverage with ongoing improvement efforts
On mobile coverage, the overall picture is steady rather than rapidly changing. The industry continues to invest in coverage expansion, but year-on-year progress is incremental.
Currently, around 93 percent of the UK is expected to have reliable outdoor 4G coverage from at least one mobile operator. That figure is forecast to rise to roughly 95 percent by the end of 2025, thanks in part to the Shared Rural Network initiative, which aims to improve mobile signal in rural communities.
Despite this progress, some geographic areas and stretches of road remain 4G not-spots where no operator provides reliable service. Geographic not-spots have decreased slightly from eight percent to seven percent since the last report. Road coverage has remained broadly consistent, with about four percent of UK roads still classified as in-vehicle not-spots. Coverage quality varies markedly between nations, with Scotland and Wales showing higher proportions of poor coverage in some locations.
Voice and text services are likewise stable. Depending on the operator, predicted outdoor voice coverage ranges from 85 to 93 percent of the UK. Overall, 99 percent of UK premises are expected to have outdoor voice call coverage from all mobile operators, indicating widespread availability of basic voice services even where high-speed data coverage is limited.
For readers who want the full details, Ofcom’s Connected Nations report includes comprehensive regional breakdowns, technical measures of coverage, and interactive maps that make it easier to see coverage at a local level.
(Photo by NOAA on Unsplash)
See also: Vodafone to use Amazon’s LEO satellite network to extend 4G/5G
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