UK broadband coverage in Q3 2026: FTTP exceeds 85% of UK premises, but 70% of new network passings overlap existing ones
This is our regular update on fixed broadband coverage in the UK, tracking progress to the end of Q3 2026 (as of 30 September 2026). The analysis is based on our broadband availability dataset, which in this edition covers 1.76 million UK postcodes and 33.9 million premises. More granular, postcode-level broadband availability data by operator and technology is available to our UK Broadband Mapping customers, along with Local Authority-level data and ward-level maps.
For the first time, you can access our interactive dashboard showing quarterly fibre and gigabit coverage at the local authority level.
Also, for a quick view of the key figures from this analysis access our slide deck.
Notes: as in previous editions, there is generally a lag between an operator's own announcements of premises passed and our figures, since it takes us time to properly track and audit new deployments unless operators tell us directly. Our UK total premises count may differ from other sources. Coverage figures count each premises once, however many networks serve it. Footprints for individual networks overlap and should not be added together; the overbuild tables show how many premises are served by more than one network.
Key headlines
As of 30 September 2026, overall FTTP coverage reached 85.5% of UK premises, up from 84.5% in Q2 2026.
Openreach's FTTP footprint stood at 23.5 million premises, up 3% quarter-on-quarter, a slightly faster pace than the 2.8% recorded in Q2 2026 but well below the 6.3% in Q1 2026. Their legacy networks covered 9.8 million premises, down 6.6%.
16.2 million premises (47.9% of the UK total) had access to two or more FTTP networks, up from 46.4% in Q2 2026. Further, 4.5 million premises (13.1%) had 3+ networks, up from 12.4%.
Northern Ireland remains the best-covered UK nation for any-network FTTP (97.4%), ahead of Wales (89.1%), England (85.6%) and Scotland (78.8%).
CityFibre remains the largest FTTP altnet by footprint at 4.27 million premises, with Netomnia You Fibre (3.35 million) and nexfibre (2.63 million) the next largest. Growth was strongest among smaller networks, however.
All FTTP altnets now pass 50% of UK premises, up 0.8 percentage points on Q2 2026 (with the number of premises up 1.6%).
Westmorland and Furness added the most any-network FTTP premises of any local authority in Q3 2026 (+7,474, taking coverage to 89.6%), followed by North Yorkshire (+7,062, to 86.9%) and Redcar and Cleveland (+6,747, to 68.9%).
Of the 1.2 million premises that gained access to an FTTP network they did not have before, around 70% were already served by at least one other FTTP network; first time FTTP coverage accounted for the remaining 30%.
Openreach broadband coverage with FTTP and other technologies
In Q3 2026, Openreach's full fibre footprint grew by 695K premises, compared with 625K in Q2 2026. So, the pace of rollout recovered slightly, but it remains just over half of the 1.3 million added in Q1 2026.
Our total recorded Openreach FTTP footprint stood at 23.5 million premises, up 3.1% quarter-on-quarter (Table 1), and Openreach full fibre now covers 69.2% of all UK premises, up from 67.2% in Q2 2026. If Openreach were to maintain this quarter's pace in Q4, we would expect them to end 2026 at around 24.2 million premises, roughly 0.8 million short of their stated 25 million premises target. Reaching it would require the pace to more than double. (Given a slight lag between operator announcements and our figures, Openreach's own reported footprint may be ahead of ours).
The number of Openreach ADSL, FTTC-only and G.fast-only premises fell by 690K. These legacy networks still covered 9.8 million premises in the UK, down 6.6% quarter-on-quarter, a faster decline than the -5.5% recorded in Q2 2026, which is not surprising given the faster FTTP rollout in Q3. Legacy premises are now well under half the number of FTTP premises.
Quarterly difference is calculated against Q2 2026 figures restated due to data revisions. 'Unknown' and unclassified premises (around 0.6 million combined) are excluded from this table, consistent with the previous edition.
All network FTTP coverage and overbuild
As of 30 September 2026, the overall FTTP coverage, including Openreach FTTP, CityFibre, Virgin Media O2's RFOG and XGSPON networks, nexfibre, KCOM and altnets, reached 29 million premises (85.5% of the UK total, up from 84.5% in Q2 2026; see the note under Table 2). Gigabit coverage (including DOCSIS3.1) was 89.7%, up from 89.2% in Q2 2026.
Fibre network overbuild continued to deepen. Premises with access to two or more FTTP networks rose from 46.4% in Q2 2026 to 47.9% in Q3 2026, three or more went up from 12.4% to 13.1%, and four or more increased from 1.1% to 1.2%. Of the 1.2 million premises that gained access to an FTTP network they did not have before, around 70% were already served by at least one other FTTP network; first-time FTTP coverage accounted for the remaining 30%.
So, most of the premises that gained an FTTP network this quarter were already served by another, rather than being first time FTTP coverage. The deepening was concentrated in premises that previously had a single network: about 530K gained a second or third, against about 310K that already had two or more networks and gained another. This is a genuine, if modest, further deepening of overbuild.
Network counts combine: Openreach FTTP, KCOM FTTP, Virgin Media's RFOG and XGSPON as one Virgin Media network, nexfibre Virgin Media as a separate network, CityFibre and other FTTP altnets. Q2 2026 figures have been restated due to data revisions since our previous edition (46.3% for two or more networks as then published, 46.4% as restated).
The picture across UK nations continues to be uneven (Figure 1). Northern Ireland leads on any-network FTTP coverage at 97.4% (little change from 97.1% in Q2 2026), ahead of Wales (89.1%, up from 87.6%) and England (85.6%, up from 84.7%), with Scotland lowest at 78.8% (up from 77.2%), weighed down by its island and rural authorities. Scotland and Wales posted the largest gains of the four nations, at about 1.5 percentage points each.
The 'list of shame': bottom-performing LAs
Our ‘list of shame’, showing the bottom ten LAs by any-network FTTP coverage, has the same ten LAs in the same order as in Q2 2026 (Figure 2). Shetland Islands remains bottom, but after standing still at 19.7% between Q1 and Q2 2026 it moved up to 20.4%. Argyll and Bute saw the fastest growth in this ranking, with FTTP premises up 17.6% on Q2 2026 (taking coverage to 36.3%), followed by City of London (+11.3%, to 44.6%) and Na h-Eileanan Siar (+10.6%, to 27.9%). All ten LAs remain below 60% coverage, against 85.5% nationally.
LAs with largest FTTP gains
Westmorland and Furness added the most any-network FTTP premises of any LA in Q3 2026 (7,474, taking coverage to 89.6%), followed by North Yorkshire (7,062, to 86.8%) and Redcar and Cleveland (6,747, to 68.9%) (Figure 3).
Premises added is calculated as any-network FTTP premises in Q3 2026 minus any-network FTTP premises in Q2 2026, both computed at postcode level using the same operator combination as Table 2, then summed to LA level. Because each postcode is counted once regardless of how many networks are present, this avoids double-counting premises reachable by more than one network.
In contrast with Q2 2026, when the list was dominated by London's outer boroughs and the wider South East, this quarter's leaders are more geographically spread. They include Cumbria's two new unitary authorities (Westmorland and Furness, and Cumberland) in the North West, North Yorkshire and Redcar and Cleveland in the North East, Somerset and Wiltshire in the South West, Colchester in the East, Rhondda Cynon Taf in Wales, East Lothian in Scotland and Hounslow in the South East.
The additions are also smaller than in Q2 2026: the tenth-placed LA added 3,953 premises, compared with around 8K a quarter earlier, in line with a smaller quarterly increase in total FTTP premises (+326K premises, against +507K in Q2 2026).
The overall picture of FTTP premises added and quarterly growth across the UK can be seen on the following maps.
The largest absolute gains cluster in northern England (Cumbria, North Yorkshire and Teesside), the South West (Somerset, Wiltshire and Dorset) and a scattering of individual LAs elsewhere, in contrast to the concentration around Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire seen in Q2 2026.
In terms of growth in FTTP premises, Scotland stands out (weighted average +2.0% vs +1.1% nationally, equivalent to +1.5 percentage points of coverage vs +1.0), led by Argyll and Bute (+17.6%, or +5.4 pp of coverage), Na h-Eileanan Siar (+10.6%, +2.7 pp) and Orkney Islands (+9.0%, +2.8 pp). Redcar and Cleveland (+15.9%, +9.5 pp) and the City of London (+11.3%, +4.5 pp) are the main non-Scottish exceptions among the fastest-growing LAs. As in previous quarters, small, low-coverage LAs (many in the bottom ten ranking) grow fastest in percentage terms largely because they start from so little.
Note: percentage growth is the increase in the number of FTTP premises relative to Q2 2026; percentage points (pp) are the change in coverage as a share of all premises.
Where Openreach and altnets are strongest: top local authorities
To show where each network is strongest, we ranked local authorities by the share of their premises passed by Openreach FTTP and by FTTP altnets at 30 September 2026 (Figures 4 and 5), and compared each with the position at the end of Q2 2026. Shares are of all premises in the authority, which makes large and small areas comparable. Network footprints overlap, so the three rankings should not be added together.
Openreach's best-covered authorities are all above 93%, against 69.2% for the UK as a whole. Six of the ten are Northern Ireland councils, led by Belfast (96.4%), with Wirral (95.0%) the best covered in England and Flintshire (93.6%) in Wales.
Quarterly movement at the top was small, from −0.04 to +0.77 percentage points, compared with a gain of just over 2 percentage points nationally. Derry City and Strabane (+0.77 pp) added the most, while Belfast edged down by 73 premises (−0.04 pp), which we think reflects audit adjustments rather than any withdrawal of the network. We expect most further gains to come from authorities starting from a lower base: the largest increases this quarter were in Oadby and Wigston (+15.9 pp, to 49.1%), Gloucester (+15.0 pp, to 61.8%) and Blaby (+14.3 pp, to 74.5%).
Altnets here include CityFibre, nexfibre and the other FTTP altnets, and exclude Openreach, Virgin Media and KCOM, on the same basis as Table 3.
FTTP altnets (including CityFibre and nexfibre, but excluding KCOM) passed 50% of UK premises, up 0.8 percentage points on Q2 2026 (with the number of premises up 1.6%). Quarterly changes in the top ten were mostly small, with Southend-on-Sea, Reading and Oadby and Wigston unchanged. The exceptions were Cannock Chase (+1.13 pp, where Freedom Fibre and LightSpeed together added 2.3K premises, although only 0.6K were new to altnet coverage), Fermanagh and Omagh (+0.73 pp, Fibrus) and Southampton (+0.61 pp, Toob).
The biggest quarterly increases were outside the top ten and came from single builds: LightSpeed in Nuneaton and Bedworth (+36.5 pp, to 43.3%), Newcastle-under-Lyme (+35.0 pp, to 53.9%) and Tamworth (+30.4 pp, to 67.2%), Lothian Broadband in East Lothian (+19.9 pp, to 71.3%, with around half of its 23.9K new premises already served by another altnet) and Lightning Fibre in Wealden (+10.4 pp, to 56.6%). Altnet coverage at local authority level is therefore lumpy: one operator's build in an area can move a local authority's share by tens of percentage points in a quarter.
Fibre altnets: build slows at the largest networks while smaller players grow faster
Among altnets with the largest footprint, CityFibre remains at the top of the league with 4.27 million FTTP premises passed, up modestly by 0.6% from Q2 2026 (Figure 6), the same pace as in the previous quarter. Netomnia You Fibre grew by 1.6% to 3.35 million, compared with 8.5% in Q2 2026, while nexfibre Virgin Media's footprint was essentially unchanged at 2.63 million (+0.1%, against +9.2% in Q2 2026). Community Fibre, Hyperoptic and Gigaclear also grew by 0.1% or less.
Growth was concentrated in smaller networks. Cuckoo Fibre grew by 10.5% to 0.35 million (see the note under the chart), and Fibrus by 5.5% to 0.48 million, moving ahead of Trooli (0.47 million). Outside the top ten, LightSpeed (+31%) and Quickline (+17%) also added significant footprint.
Note: Onestream acquired Cuckoo's broadband customer base in May 2026, meaning Onestream now manages Cuckoo services behind the scenes.
Overbuild among altnet FTTP networks grew again: premises reachable by two or more altnet FTTP networks rose 3.4% quarter-on-quarter, and premises with three or more rose 10.8%. Total altnet FTTP premises increased by 1.6%. We recorded no premises passed by more than four altnet FTTP networks.
Table 3 counts CityFibre (RFS footprint), nexfibre and the other FTTP altnets, and excludes Openreach, Virgin Media and KCOM. Q2 2026 is restated on the same basis (16,687,752 premises passed by at least one altnet, against 17,529,506 as published in our previous edition, which counted CityFibre from a postcode-level flag).
The sector's consolidation story is also still developing. We reported in our previous edition the proposed acquisition of Substantial Group (Netomnia, YouFibre and Brsk) by the Liberty Global/Telefonica/InfraVia-owned nexfibre, worth around £2bn. On 20 October 2026, the CMA's provisional findings identified significant concerns about reduced wholesale broadband competition in overlapping network areas in relation to the deal. The CMA opened a remedies consultation, with its final decision expected by 15 December 2026. In the latest update from 4 November 2026, Liberty Global said they "remain committed" to the deal and are still trying to get it through the CMA process. At the same time, Virgin Media O2 has adjusted its wider network strategy. It has said it will halt further fibre build on its own balance sheet, focus more on upgrading its existing HFC network to 2Gbps, and explore wholesale access to third-party fibre networks, including Openreach. See our analysis of the potential VMO2 - Openreach deal, their network footprints and overlap in our latest free analysis article.
In the previous edition we also noted the Voneus’ acquisition of Airband's assets and customers (announced on 28 August 2026). More details emerged since then. The Administrators’ report published in September 2026, states that Voneus, which was the only bidder, paid just £4.6m for the company’s assets and customers. Airband collapsed due to high build costs, slow customer growth, competition, and the cessation of funding from backer Aberdeen Group (which faced a reported ~£200 million infrastructure fund write-off). Lenders HSBC and Lloyds also absorbed financial impacts. Operationally, Airband customers appear to remain on the Airband brand for now, with services continuing as normal and the existing network remaining operational. (In our Q3 2026 data, we still recorded Airband and Voneus as separate networks).
Access the full dataset
The complete dataset used to produce this analysis is part of our UK Broadband Mapping product, available at postcode level. We also offer data at Local Authority level, including broadband maps at ward level, highlighting where broadband infrastructure is in place and where it is still catching up.
If you have any questions, you can contact us on 020 3301 3303 or by e-mail at oliver.johnson@point-topic.com.
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