About four million UK homes and businesses remain outside gigabit-capable broadband coverage despite a rapid expansion of high-speed networks during the first half of the decade, according to the government’s latest Project Gigabit update.
Building Digital UK says more than 88% of premises can now access a gigabit-capable connection, compared with about 20% in May 2020. The government is targeting 99% coverage by 2032, with public funding increasingly concentrated on locations that commercial network operators are unlikely to reach independently.
Project Gigabit had helped extend gigabit infrastructure to 1.4 million homes and businesses by March 2026. More than £2bn has been committed through signed contracts for further deployment around the country.
The remaining task becomes more complex as coverage rises. Early commercial roll-outs naturally concentrated on areas where operators could connect large numbers of premises efficiently. Locations still without gigabit access increasingly include addresses where construction costs, access rights, building design, or the density of potential customers make deployment less attractive.
Government analysis says the remaining gap is no longer exclusively rural. Hard-to-reach villages and remote communities remain part of the programme, but uncovered premises are increasingly found in towns and cities where access to buildings or local infrastructure can complicate installation.
Extending a fibre route through a rural area can be expensive because of distance; connecting an urban block can be difficult because operators need permission to enter buildings, cross private land, or install equipment in shared spaces. In both cases, a network passing nearby does not guarantee that the final premises can be connected economically.
BDUK reviews operators’ commercial plans every four months to determine which addresses are likely to receive privately funded coverage. The process is designed to prevent public money being committed where a provider has a credible commercial build planned while allowing subsidy to move towards premises abandoned by changing commercial programmes.
The uncertainty means officials cannot yet say how many of the remaining four million premises will ultimately require public support. Some will be added to commercial networks; others may need to be incorporated into existing Project Gigabit contracts, covered through new local procurements, or reached through cross-regional arrangements.
Coverage also varies across the devolved nations. Northern Ireland has reached about 95% gigabit availability, while Scotland stands at roughly 82% and Wales at 83%. Project Gigabit contracts are continuing in each nation alongside commercial deployment and earlier publicly supported schemes.
In Wales, around 60,000 additional premises are expected to benefit from contracts with Openreach, while more than 28,000 have received gigabit-capable connections through voucher-funded delivery. Scotland has active contracts across areas including the Borders, East Lothian, Dumfries and Galloway, and the north-east.
The connectivity gap carries an economic effect as well as a consumer one. Broadband quality influences remote working, cloud software, digital payments, video collaboration, online sales, data transfer, and the ability of smaller companies to adopt services designed around reliable high-speed connections.
Coverage figures alone do not determine business use. Take-up, affordability, internal networking, and digital capability also influence whether faster infrastructure produces productivity gains. Availability nevertheless creates the basic condition needed for companies to use bandwidth-intensive services reliably.
Some remaining premises are expected to be exceptionally difficult or expensive to connect through conventional fibre contracts. BDUK is assessing alternatives including fixed wireless access and satellite broadband for the hardest locations.
The final stages of nationwide deployment are likely to cost more per connection than the earlier years of the fibre build because the easiest commercial areas have largely been addressed. Procurement design, accurate mapping of private investment plans, and contract flexibility therefore become more important as coverage approaches the national target.
The September update shows both the scale of progress and the nature of the remaining problem. Gigabit availability has increased by 68 percentage points since 2020, but connecting the final four million premises will require a combination of commercial investment, targeted subsidy, access solutions, and alternative technologies before the 99% target can be reached.
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