Recommendation 9

In its letter to us ahead of our evidence session, the Department told us that there had been a rapid increase in nationwide gigabit coverage to 57% coverage in October 2021, up from 34% in November 2020.23 However, the most recent publicly available data from Ofcom put nationwide coverage at 40% in May 2021, up from 27% in September 2020. We asked what the cause of the rapid rises in coverage had been. The Department told us that gigabit-capable devices were being provided to customers either through existing fibre networks or through Virgin Media O2 upgrading its cable network to gigabit-capable speeds. It explained that “a lot of the very quick early rises” were largely due to the Virgin Media O2’s cable network upgrades which do not require a lot of new infrastructure and is more of a software upgrade. However, it was unable to tell us how much of this increase was the result of Virgin Media O2’s upgrade.24 The Department subsequently wrote to confirm that as of 31st October 2021, total gigabit coverage in the UK was 58%, of which full fibre coverage was 28%. It also told us that 30% of UK premises only have a gigabit capable connection through Virgin Media O2, and that total coverage from Virgin Media O2 extends to 40% of UK premises. However, it did not answer the specific point of how much of the 17-percentage point increase seen in recent months was due to Virgin Media O2’s upgrades.25 We also heard from Gigaclear who wrote to us confirming that nationwide gigabit coverage is expected to hit 60% by the end of 2021. It also told us Virgin Media O2 is expected to complete its upgrade early in 2022. Gigaclear said this is likely to contribute to a further rapid rise in gigabit coverage which is then expected to diminish once the upgrade has been completed.26