Network operator Openreach (BT) has today updated the build plan for the ongoing roll-out of their 1.8Gbps Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP technology, which is the first update since May 2024 when they added 517 new UK locations to their deployment. But this update mostly just reflects changes and progress with their existing locations.
Just to recap. Openreach are currently investing up to £15bn to expand the coverage of their new full fibre network to reach 25 million UK premises by December 2026 (here), which includes around 6.2m premises in rural or semi-rural areas. On top of that, they’ve also expressed an ambition to reach up to 30m by 2030, which will partly depend upon a favourable outcome from Ofcom’s next Telecoms Access Review 2026 (TAR).
The last update to Openreach’s build plan, which occurred in May 2024 (here), was particularly significant because the locations it introduced effectively completed their roll-out plan to 2026 (i.e. the 25 million premises target). Overall, this meant that around 3,500 towns, cities, boroughs, villages and hamlets were now included in the build programme, and we aren’t likely to see any major additions until the direction of Ofcom’s TAR becomes clearer.
Suffice to say that today’s December 2024 Build Plan (and map) seem to largely represent a progress update for the locations they’ve already announced. Unfortunately, the format adopted by the operator makes it difficult to identify any new additions to the tentative list, or even removals, although we have asked Openreach if they can clarify such changes and will report back when they respond.
However, ISPreview has previously been told that this update might include locations for their recent Project Gigabit contract wins (here), which we’ll recap below. Both contracts – worth £288 million (state aid) – aim to connect approximately 96,600 extra homes and businesses in hard-to-reach parts of England and Wales.
Openreach’s August 2024 Project Gigabit Contract Awards
Type C (Call Off 1): Lancashire (Lot 9C), North Wiltshire and South Gloucestershire (Lot 30C) , West and Mid -Surrey (Lot 22C), Staffordshire (Lot 19C), West Berkshire (Lot 13C) and Hertfordshire (Lot 26C)
Premises: 54,300
Value: £149.7mType C (Call Off 2): West and North Devon (Lot 6C) , North West Wales, Mid Wales (Lot 43C) and South East Wales (Lot 44C)
Premises: 42,200
Value: £139.1m
The new service, once live, can be ordered via various ISPs, such as BT, Sky Broadband, TalkTalk, Vodafone and many more (Openreach FTTP ISP Choices) – it is not currently an automatic upgrade, although some ISPs have started to do free automatic upgrades as older copper-based services and lines are slowly withdrawn.