British media and telecoms regulator Ofcom has published its Connected Nations report, which details the availability of broadband and mobile services in the UK, including the rollout of full-fibre and 5G.

Full-fibre broadband is available to more than 17 million homes across the UK, which equates to 57 percent of homes and is an increase on last year’s 42 percent. For the first time, full-fibre broadband is available to over half of homes in all four of the UK nations, Ofcom said on its website.

Northern Ireland leads the way, with over nine in 10 homes (91 percent) able to get full fibre.

Overall, 28 percent of homes and businesses that can access full-fibre have taken it up, with 4.6 million premises now connected. Take-up in rural areas is nearly double that of urban homes (49 percent vs. 25 percent).

There’s also been a further reduction in the number of homes and businesses unable to access ‘decent’ broadband in the last year, decreasing by over a quarter (27 percent) to 61,000 premises.

The regulator further stated that the availability of 5G continues to grow, with estimated coverage provided outside of UK premises by at least one operator of over 85 percent – a rise on last year’s 67 percent. 5G traffic has shown around 140 percent growth, representing around 17 percent of total mobile traffic.

Mobile network operators are starting to switch off their 3G networks, with EE, Vodafone and Three planning on doing so next year followed by Virgin Media O2 in 2025. Ofcom data shows that there are around 2.4 million devices still reliant on 2G or 3G networks, which has more than halved from last year’s estimated 5.5 million.