Openreach full fibre rollout slows to less than half its previous pace
Key Points
- Openreach added 625,000 full fibre premises in Q2 2026, down from 1.3 million
- Its footprint reached 22.8 million premises, covering 67.2% of the UK
- Point Topic said the slower pace puts the 25 million end-2026 target at risk
- Overall UK full fibre coverage from all networks hit 84.5%
- 46.3% of UK premises can now choose between two or more fibre networks
Openreach added 625,000 full fibre premises in the three months to June 2026, down from 1.3 million in the previous quarter, according to Point Topic.
The broadband analyst firm said in its Q2 2026 UK coverage update that the pace of rollout had slowed to less than half the rate seen in its last report.
Openreach’s total full fibre footprint reached 22.8 million premises, up 2.8% quarter on quarter compared with 6.3% growth in Q1 2026.
Point Topic said the slowdown could be due to the operator moving into harder-to-reach areas. Openreach full fibre now covers 67.2% of all UK premises, up from 65.3% three months earlier.
Openreach has a stated target of passing 25 million premises by the end of 2026. Point Topic said that maintaining this quarter’s slower pace across the second half of the year would leave the operator noticeably short of that figure, and that hitting it would require build to pick back up well beyond Q2’s level.
Openreach’s legacy copper-based networks covered 10.5 million premises at the end of June, down 5.5% on the quarter. The firm said that was a gentler decline than the 8.8% drop recorded in Q1 2026, which it linked to the slower fibre build.
Belfast remains the best-covered local authority for Openreach full fibre at 96.4%, with five Northern Ireland councils in the top ten. Wirral is the highest-performing English council at 94.9% and Flintshire the best in Wales at 93.2%, both little changed on the previous quarter.
Total full fibre coverage from all networks reached 28.7 million premises, or 84.5% of the UK, up from 83.0% in Q1 2026. Gigabit coverage including Virgin Media’s cable network stood at 89.2%.
Point Topic said 15.7 million premises, or 46.3% of the UK total, can now choose between two or more full fibre networks, up from 43.2% in the previous quarter. It added that the growth in overbuild was concentrated in areas that already had multiple networks rather than newly overbuilt areas.
Buckinghamshire added the most full fibre premises of any council in the quarter at 10,343, followed by Stevenage with 9,863 and Harrow with 8,993.
The firm said the top ten was dominated by outer London boroughs and commuter-belt councils already above 80% coverage, suggesting operators spent the quarter infilling and overlapping existing footprints as much as reaching new areas.
