Openreach network passes 18 million homes and businesses

UK Internet connectivity and telecoms expert Thinkbroadband recently reported the latest progress from Openreach.

A BT-owned subsidiary, the communications company now operates the nation’s largest broadband network and is currently engaged in rolling out full fibre services for businesses and homes to access. According to analysts at Thinkbroadband, Openreach has had a busy beginning to the year, amounting to its fibre network now passing a total of 18,004,100 premises.

Since late February, the company’s fibre to the premises (FTTP) footprint has extended to another million properties. While its achievements weren’t as high in April than in March, researchers commented that this was expected as the earlier month likely saw a bigger push for work to complete to coincide with the close of the quarter.

The report noted that this year has seen an increase in full fibre options in some of the UK’s more remote areas. These include the Scottish Highlands and the Isles of Scilly. However, more full fibre broadband has also become accessible in underserved urban areas due to a largescale roll out aimed at towns and cities with places suffering poor internet services.

Openreach’s current aim is to extend its FTTP reach to 25 million residential and commercial premises by the year 2026. To hit its target, the broadband network company will need to make full fibre readily available to a further seven million premises. Based on its findings, Thinkbroadband predicts that Openreach will likely meet its milestone somewhere between October 2025 and January 2027.