Data: UK broadband market enters flat phase
August 13, 2026
Total retail and wholesale fixed broadband connections reached an estimated 29.37 million at the end of Q2 2026, up just 1,000 quarter-on-quarter from 29.36 million and marking the flattest headline quarter in Point Topic’s recent tracking.
Consumer segments accounted for approximately 27.06 million connections, down 9,310 in the quarter, while retail business connections rose to 2.3 million, up 10,310.
Further highlights from Point Topuc’s Q2 2026 UK ISP and network supplier metrics include:
– Full fibre connections, defined as FTTB, FTTH and FTTP, reached 13.99m at the end of Q2 2026, up from 13.20m in Q1 2026 and 10.70m a year earlier.
– Full fibre added 790k lines quarter-on-quarter and 3.29m lines year-on-year, equivalent to 30.8 per cent annual growth.
– FTTC/FTTx continued to contract, falling to 8.7 million, while DSL dropped to 1.03m as copper migration accelerated.
– BT Group’s Consumer base across BT, EE and Plusnet reached 8.22 million. Point Topic records Q2 2026 quarterly net additions of just 1k, essentially flat after a stronger start to the year.
– BT Consumer FTTP connections (BT, EE and Plusnet combined) reached approximately 4.5 million, representing 54.7 per cent of BT’s total consumer broadband base, up from 50.7 per cent in Q1.
– Openreach’s FTTP footprint reached 23.44 million premises passed, with 9.35 million FTTP connections and take-up of 39.9 per cent.
– Virgin Media O2’s combined FTTP footprint, including nexfibre, expanded to around 8.62 million, but take-up slipped to approximately 7.8 per cent as footprint growth continues to outpace connections.
– CityFibre became the first Altnet wholesale platform to pass one million connections, while Netomnia’s net additions pushed subscriber figures to 500k in the quarter as its proposed nexfibre merger entered CMA Phase 2 review.
– Point Topic estimates that Altnets’ full fibre base reached approximately 3.96 million, up 179k in the quarter and around 18 per cent year-on-year.