Openreach 2026 target to be missed, predicts PointTopic

Openreach will miss its target of covering 25 million premises by the end of 2026 if it does not accelerate its rollout, finds PointTopic.

The incumbent needs to add four million premises a year to hit this target, but PointTopic only recorded 2.8 million new FTTP premises passed by them in the last 12 months.

In September and October 2022, PointTopic recorded a similar pace in Openreach’s rollout, compared to the previous two months.

It found 451,000 additional premises, taking Openreach’s total FTTP footprint to 8.2 million premises (26% of all UK premises).

Cities, towns and regions outside London and the south east dominate Openreach’s rollout, with Belfast topping of the list with 93% of premises passed.