BDUK gives August 2026 update on Project Gigabit progress

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Over 9,000 additional premises were passed last month as a direct result of the Gigabit Infrastructure Subsidy (GIS) programme

In a timely update ahead of Connected Britain next month, Building Digital UK (BDUK) has today published an update on the progress of various contracts as part of the £5 billion Project Gigabit broadband rollout initiative.

The data, as of August 17, suggests that 296,770 contracted premises have now been delivered, up from 287,510 in July 2026. This represents around 35% of the 846,770 premises covered by existing contracts.

The government release notes that these figures are meant only as a rough indication of progress, noting that the ‘variable time lag between contract signature/delivery and data ingestion by BDUK’ means they may not be strictly accurate. The reported figures have also been rounded to the nearest 10.

The agency also highlighted that the figures should not be directly compared to those published in BDUK’s annual Delivery Performance report earlier this summer; those results, showing 1.42 million premises passed, refer to premises passed with the support of any public or BDUK-related subsidy, rather than solely the GIS programme.

Backed by £5 billion in public funding, Project Gigabit was first introduced in 2021with the aim of supporting the government’s gigabit-capable broadband targets. Those targets have evolved substantially over the past five years but are now set at 99% of premises passed with gigabit-capable broadband technology by 2032.

The UK currently has gigabit-capable broadband coverage of around 90%, with the 36 current Project Gigabit contracts aimed primarily at supporting rollout to the final 10%.

In short, the programme continues to make steady progress, but the lion’s share of the work remains to be done and will only become more difficult as the target locations become increasingly difficult to reach.

Is the UK doing enough to connect the hardest-to-reach communities? Join the discussion at Connected Britain

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