Full fibre coverage has reached 6% of English homes and offices in the UK, up 3% on last year to 1.8 million premises, according to Ofcom's Connected Nations 2018 report issued today.
Northern Ireland has the highest full fibre coverage at 12% (up from 1% in 2017), compared to 7% in Wales and 4% in Scotland.
The report noted that Openreach plans to cover 10 million homes by 2025; CityFibre and Vodafone have plans to cover five million homes by 2025; TalkTalk (through its business FibreNation) aims to roll out full fibre to three million homes; Virgin Media plans to reach four million premises by the end of 2019/20 as part of its Project
Lightning network expansion; and Hyperoptic plans to extend its full fibre network to 50 towns and cities.
Among proposed changes to Ofcom's regulatory and policy approach is an increase in the periods between major reviews of the telecoms market from three to five years.