• Uswitch granted its 2026 Broadband Excellence Accreditation to 13 providers, up from five last year.
  • Full fibre reaches 82% of UK homes, while 23% of consumers surveyed by Uswitch said a familiar brand was their top consideration.

Facts

Uswitch accredited 13 broadband providers under its 2026 Broadband Excellence Programme, up from five last year. The comparison service evaluates the retail provider rather than the underlying network, using broadband performance, router quality, customer support, complaint handling, and Trustpilot ratings.

Full fibre is now available to 24.9 million UK homes, or 82% of residential premises, according to Ofcom. Coverage grew by 1.2 million homes in the six months to January 2026. In a survey cited by Uswitch, 23% of consumers said a familiar, trusted brand was the most important factor when choosing a provider, even if the cost was slightly higher.

Assessment

The wider full-fibre footprint gives smaller providers more premises to serve, but also increases the need to convert coverage into customers. Altnets and retail ISPs need to win customers, not just homes passed, to generate returns on the networks they have built or sell on.

The Uswitch accreditation combines network performance, routers, customer support, and complaint handling into a single retail assessment. For lesser-known providers, the badge offers these service metrics within a recognised scheme. Whether that changes switching behaviour remains unproven.

For BTW readers, the commercial question is how smaller providers convert access into customers. Fibre availability gives them a larger addressable market. Reliable service and trusted retail delivery will influence how much of that opportunity they capture. Adoption rates in accredited providers' service areas will show whether wider coverage translates into active connections.

What to Watch

Watch whether accredited providers report rising adoption rates across their fibre footprints and maintain the service standards required for the badge. Provider-level customer growth will be a better measure of commercial progress than another increase in homes passed.