- Nearly eight in 10 Welsh homes have access to full-fibre broadband as rapid rollout continues
- 5G coverage in Wales continues to gradually increase
Full-fibre broadband has reached one hundred thousand more households in Wales in the last year, according to Connected Nations, Ofcom’s flagship report on the state of fixed and mobile networks.
Full-fibre and gigabit-capable broadband continues to expand
The report finds that, as of July 2025, 78% (1.1 million) of Welsh homes now have access to full-fibre broadband, an annual increase of 10 percentage points or nearly 100,000 residential properties, as the rapid roll out of full-fibre broadband continues.
Differences in full fibre coverage between rural and urban areas remain, with homes in urban areas in Wales more likely to have access to full fibre (83%) than those in rural areas (59%). But the gap is closing, with households in rural Wales seeing an 11-percentage point increase in access to full fibre, which equates to 40,000 households
There also continue to be significant differences between local authorities in Wales. Average full-fibre coverage in the top three local authority areas of Flintshire, Bridgend and Caerphilly is at over 89% compared with the three local authority areas with the lowest coverage – Powys (58%), Anglesey (57%) and Ceredigion (51%).
While many households are still not making the most of the full fibre rollout, take up is rising. The proportion of those with access to full-fibre broadband who are signing up climbed from 39% last year to 49% and is higher in rural Wales (58%) than in urban areas (47%).
Taking full-fibre and cable networks together, over 80% of Welsh homes now have access to a gigabit-capable broadband connection.
Fixed broadband not-spots still exist, but significantly reducing
Our report found that 6,000 (0.4%) of premises in Wales cannot access decent broadband from fixed-lines or Fixed wireless access (FWA), which is down by around a quarter compared with last year[3] .
Additionally, there are now over 7,500 satellite broadband subscribers in Wales using low Earth orbit (LEO) services. While Starlink is the only LEO satellite operator currently offering direct-to-consumer broadband in the UK, Amazon is poised to enter the market, which may help drive better access to broadband services in the hardest-to-reach parts areas in the coming years.
Mobile coverage continues to improve in Wales
57% of Wales' landmass has 5G coverage from at least one of the four Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) – up five percentage points from last year.
While 5G coverage is expanding, 4G still accounts for the majority of mobile data traffic, and 4G geographic coverage from at least one MNO has increased by two percentage points, to 97%.
Three quarters of Wales’ geography now also has 4G coverage from all four MNOs - increasing consumer choice.
Ofcom’s Wales Director, Phil Henfrey, said: “I’m pleased to see that continued public and commercial investment is delivering more full fibre broadband to homes up and down the country and that mobile coverage continues to improve.
“But there is still some way to go before all the communities of Wales have access to the best possible services, both fixed and mobile, and we’ll continue to play our part in enabling the innovation and investment to make that happen.”
Notes to Editors
[1] Refers to high confidence which is associated with around 80% probability of 5G coverage availability for areas outside of premises where at least one mobile network operator provides coverage
[2] ‘Decent’ broadband is currently defined by the UK Government as delivering at least 10 Mbit/s download and 1 Mbit/s upload speeds.
[3] Figures for July 2024 were 8,000 premises without access to decent broadband, the figure for July 2025 is 6,000 premises.