UK broadband growth grinds to a halt

The UK added just 1,000 fixed broadband subscribers in the second quarter of 2026, according to new data from Point Topic.

The broadband research firm’s latest global report placed the UK among the slowest-growing of the world’s ten largest broadband markets. Germany was the only other top-ten market the firm described as broadly flat, with growth of 0.07%.

Fixed broadband subscribers worldwide grew by 0.8% to 1.608 billion in the quarter, an increase of 12.8 million. India grew fastest among the ten largest markets, rising by 3.87% in the quarter and 24.9% over the year.

Full fibre up but cabinet fibre down

The UK ranked among the five countries that added the most full fibre subscribers over the past year, alongside China, the USA, Brazil and India. Those five markets accounted for 55.1% of all new full fibre connections worldwide over the period.

Point Topic also listed the UK among the three countries with the largest annual falls in FTTx connections, alongside China and the USA. FTTx runs fibre to a street cabinet and uses a copper line for the final stretch to the home.

In the UK, this mainly covers Openreach’s cabinet-based fibre services, which providers such as BT, Sky and TalkTalk sell. The figures show UK full fibre growth came from existing customers moving off older lines rather than new subscribers joining the market.

Western Europe grew by 0.27% quarter on quarter, making it one of the slowest-growing regions in the world. Full fibre’s share of Western European subscribers rose by 5.3 percentage points to 52.6% over the year, while cabinet-based connections still accounted for 23.3%.

The region’s share of global broadband subscribers fell from 11.8% to 11.5% over the same period.

Copper and cable keep shrinking

Full fibre now accounts for 74.4% of fixed broadband lines worldwide, after adding 70 million subscribers over the year. Copper connections lost 10.3 million subscribers over the same period, while cable lost 6.4 million.

Fixed wireless access grew by 30.1% year on year to 61.2 million subscribers. Satellite broadband grew by 48.8% over the year, although it still makes up just 0.7% of global connections.

Point Topic said Starlink claimed 12 million subscribers globally. The firm said it would watch the coming quarters to see whether the slower pace of growth proves temporary.

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