UK hits its 95 percent ‘superfast’ broadband coverage target
'Superfast' broadband with speeds of at least 24 Mbps is now available across 95 percent of the UK, according to new stats thinkbroadband.com published today . The milestone was actually achieved last month, meaning the government's Broadband Delivery UK initiative (BDUK) actually completed on time, in 2017. Superfast coverage in Northern Ireland sits at 86.7 percent, while the corresponding figures in Scotland and Wales hover just below 95 percent. Take into account England's overachieving and it averages out to a hair above the magic number. We're talking population/premises coverage here, of course, not geographic coverage. The government first put the BDUK scheme into motion at the turn of the decade. Over the years, £1.7 billion in funding has been made available to ISPs to subsidise the rollout of infrastructure in areas where it otherwise wouldn't be commercially viable. Openreach got its hands on the majority of that pot, but thanks to general cost s...