Figures released by broadband champions Compare Fibre reveal the winners and losers of internet provision in the UK.
As a whole, the UK enjoys 96.8% superfast 30 Mbps and faster with England receiving the highest at 97.3% and Northern Ireland the lowest with 89.9%.
But figures for full-fibre tell a different story by region/country with Orkney having only 0.9% provision, Oxford District 1.1%, North East Lincolnshire 1.3%, Luton Borough Council 1.5%, South Tyneside 1.6%, Cheltenham Borough Council1.7%, Wolverhampton City Council 2%, Blaenau Gwent Council 3.3%, Trafford, 3.4%, Haringey Borough Council 3.5%, Bradford 3.9%, but Fermanagh and Omagh 37.2%.
The research was designed and compiled by Compare Fibre and gathered by Think Broadband Labs.
Co-founder of Compare Fibre Nathan Hill-Haimes said: “These figures clearly show the sorry state of full-fibre broadband provision in some areas of the UK.
“BT may well bang on about investment and the Government issues empty soundbites about providing superfast broadband to 10 million homes and businesses by 2022 and a further 15 million by 2033. But these figures speak for themselves, this is the reality.”
Mr Hill-Haimes said one reason for the disparity is that the larger providers are targeting the same areas, known as overbuilding, while ignoring others.
Larger companies can also bid for use of Openreach’s physical infrastructure access [PIA], which is capped, without following through barring smaller companies from later offering the service.
Mr Hill-Haimes added: “Too many customers are being targeted by the same companies leaving others with little or no choice.
“Government minsters need to sit up and take notice of what is really going on here. There needs to be a revaluation of the current processes to prevent overbuilding by restricting the numbers of bids the bigger players can make for Openreach’s PIA.”
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