Clive Selley provided an update on Openreach’s progress on 7th December, taking stock of operational performance over the last two years.
He reveals that for Q4 this year, Openreach is expected to hit its target one million premises per quarter build rate from January to March.
This figure is needed for Openreach to match its target of 25 million premises by December 2026, considering it is currently at 12.5m
Openreach currently has a presence in 75 of the UK’s 76 cities. Selley said: “We offer 50 per cent coverage or higher in well over a third of the UK's towns and cities and a fifth of its villages.
“As we progress towards 25 million, that proportion will more than double, with well over 90% of towns and cities and over 60% of villages having at least 50% coverage.
Selley also confirms that Openreach has 4.2 million customers taking full-fibre broadband, representing a take-up rate of 33 per cent.
Openreach is currently provisioning around 35,000 customers per week and aims to increase this to 40,000 per week.
Build unit costs are now reported to be below £300 in the commercial build programme. These are expected to stay at this level for the next two years.
Selley states that Openreach’s employee workforce peaked in September 2022. It declined by 3,000 in the year to September 2023.
In the last two quarters, about 93% of our orders-enabled areas are FTTP.