We are on a mission to make sure you get the best available broadband. Since 2016 Fibre Compare has been helping customers with our fibre broadband checker to search, compare and switch.
How to decide on a broadband deal
There are hundreds and hundreds of different broadband deals – so which one should you pick? The best offer for you and your household isn’t necessarily the cheapest. Budget is an important factor, but don’t make the mistake of just picking the lowest price available. If you are using your broadband regularly every day the cheapest package might not meet your needs.
Think about speed
Speed – It’s the top most important factor for most. Too slow and you’ll struggle. Too fast and you’ll be paying for a service you don’t actually need.
The range of speeds available is huge, although these might not necessarily all be within reach to your home. There’s everything from the most basic 10Mbps to ultrafast fibre with lightening speeds of over 1000Mbps.
So, how much do you actually need? This will depend on various factors such as:
- The number of people in your home
- The amount of devices on your Wi-Fi using the internet at the same time
- What your household are using the internet for e.g. working from home, gaming, steaming
As a basic rule, you’ll need at least 10Mbps per broadband user. Although this should be doubled for any users who are gaming or streaming 4K content.
If you want an even more simplified version without the need for any type of maths at all, we’ve broken it down again so you can have a better idea of what you should be shopping around for.
1-2 person households Recommended speed: 36-100Mbps
3-4 person households Recommended speed: 60 - 300Mbps
4+ households, or gamers Recommended speed: 70 - 1000Mbps
What is the fastest speed in my area?
The first thing that you should be looking at before even beginning to whittle down the best deal is to find out what speeds are actually available to your home.
The higher speeds aren't available everywhere – or with every provider – just yet.
The speed of broadband you can access depends on whether your postcode has access to full fibre broadband yet.
Check to see what the average download speeds are where you live with our broadband postcode tool.
Remember – there are two different types of fibre broadband
Fibre broadband is a type of internet connection that offers faster and more reliable internet connections than ever before. But most connections referred to as ‘fibre broadband’ should more accurately be thought of as ‘partial fibre’ or ‘fibre-to-the-cabinet’ (FTTC). This offers faster speeds than ADSL – also known as standard broadband – but slower speeds than full fibre.
Like standard broadband, partial fibre still connects from the street cabinets, hence the name fibre-to-the-cabinet. But, it’s faster, because instead of running through the older, copper cables from the broadband exchange, the fibre network uses its own new fibre-optic cables.
However, the network from street cabinet to your property, is still a copper phoneline, which means the absolute maximum speed that can be reached is 80Mbps. If you see any package advertising speeds between 30Mbps and 80Mbps, it’s likely that this will be through a partial fibre connection.
What exactly is full fibre?
Full fibre is the fastest broadband available. It’s also known as Ultrafast Fibre and can give you speeds of between 100 and 1000Mbps. That’s 30 times faster than standard broadband.
This technology relies entirely on fibre optic cables that run from the broadband exchange to your property, which is also why it can be known as ‘fibre to the premises’ (FTTP). It is future-proofing businesses and homes because, once installed, there won’t be the need to invest in new broadband cables for decades.
Do I actually need full fibre?
Full fibre gives you ultrafast speeds of between 100Mbps - 1Gbps.
Do you need these? Even if you are a small household with light internet usage it is still worth thinking about full fibre. Because of the latest competitive pricing, you might not be paying much more – or sometimes any more – for these significantly greater speeds.
Also, think future-proofing. With the quality of TV shows and video games improving, smart home devices expanding and hybrid home working on the rise, the need for more bandwidth will only get greater. So, if the price is right, full fibre would always make a sensible choice if available.
Can I get full fibre broadband?
Before you get too excited about all those high speeds, you’ll need to make sure that you have access to full fibre broadband. Currently only about 60% of the UK has had the infrastructure installed for this speedy technology.
The government’s target to deliver full fibre broadband nationwide aims to see a minimum of 85% of premises being able to have reach by 2025. There is a £5 billion programme, Project Gigabit, now in place to enable hard-to-reach communities to have access to lightning-fast gigabit-capable broadband. It’s tackling pockets of poor connectivity in urban areas and rural and remote communities.
Enter your postcode to see whether your home has full fibre access:
Find out more about full fibre broadband.
Think about budget
Work out what you want to spend a month on your broadband before starting to search for a new deal. And don’t forget the extras on top of the monthly cost. Do you have to pay for a set-up fee? Routers? Engineer visits?
Also consider mid-contract price rises. Most providers make yearly inflation-linked price rises at the end of every March. These will be written into contracts and customers will have to consent to these forthcoming unknown price rises when signing up.
Which means if you sign up to an 18 or 24-month contract, don’t just pay attention to the cost that is being advertised, look ahead to what is coming. You could easily be looking at an additional £130 over the course of your contract thanks to unpredictable inflation-linked mid-contract price rises.
Not all providers follow this practice though. Read our mid-contract broadband price rises – who, why and when feature to find out more.
Think about contract length
For those who can’t commit, contract length could be an important consideration. There are a number of reasons why you might need short-term broadband. Perhaps you’re one of the UK’s 2.86 million students and you're renting for a short period – or maybe you’re working away from home or temporarily living with relatives.
Whatever your reason there are a few broadband options to check out. Short-term contracts normally come in the form of rolling one-month contract broadband, which means you can cancel any time, you just need to give 30 days' notice to leave at any point. Unlike 18 or 24-months deals there’s never a cancellation fee and you can leave any time. Although this can be a very useful option.
What providers offer no-contract broadband?
The majority don’t offer a rolling one-month contract. You’ll pay a bit more for the advantage of these and there probably won’t be any type of incentive or reward attached. But you will find decent deals with Now Broadband, Hyperoptic and Virgin Media.
What type of broadband package should I choose?
Lots of providers offer broadband alongside landline and TV in different combinations. Depending on your needs and the services, these bundles could represent a better deal.
Combining your broadband, TV and phone can be a smart convenient way of getting all your services for less money and less admin.
It won’t make sense for everyone to choose a broadband bundle, in some cases you’ll simply end up signing up for additional services you won’t take full advantage of. All providers offer broadband-only deals which can be a smart straightforward internet service if you’re not interested in any of the extras.
Do I actually need a TV package as an extra?
You could save money and make your life admin a little bit easier by choosing to bundle broadband and TV with a single service provider. So this could help inform your next broadband deal.
If you never watch live television and just stream from platforms like Netflix or Amazon Prime, a TV package might not save a huge amount of money. But for many it can be a great idea to bundle a broadband and TV deal together, there's loads of benefits to this, including:
Saving money – you'll often get discounts as an incentive to sign up for bundles. You also might be getting more value by not paying separately for your TV services.
Rewards – many providers offer cash back, bill credit, reward cards or free gadgets as extra motivation for anyone considering signing up to a TV and broadband package.
Convenience – with TV and broadband streamlined, you'll have just one place to manage your services and payments.
Which provider should I pick for entertainment extras?
The top TV and broadband providers are Sky, Virgin Media, BT, NOW and TalkTalk TV. Although forget Sky or Virgin Media if you are looking for the absolute cheapest offers available. These entertainment giants give you top quality and quantity, but you’ll pay a premium for it.
For value and flexibility, the cheapest TV packages will probably be the add-ons you can pick from NOW TV. These give you access to Sky content whilst avoiding any contract. Plus, you don’t even need NOW Broadband to get these either.
If you just want access to Freeview channels and your streaming subscriptions all in one place, it’s also worth looking at Vodafone, TalkTalk or EE as a TV package add-on as some of these start from just £5 a month.
Providers we work with
We compare broadband deals from a range of trusted providers, including:
Virgin Media
Virgin Media, it's an all-round digital powerhouse that offers the fastest speeds with a ton of tempting TV and mobile options too.
Our Virgin Media broadband deals
Our Virgin Media broadband review
Sky
Known for over 30 years as the UK’s biggest paid-TV provider, Sky now sits in the top three as a broadband service too.
BT
Attracted by its well-known name, fast speeds and great TV and broadband bundles, BT is officially the UK’s biggest broadband provider.
Vodafone
Well known for its competitively priced deals and wide range of packages, mighty Vodafone is the biggest full fibre provider in the UK.
TalkTalk
With its competitive pricing and wide range of packages, TalkTalk brands itself as ‘the value provider’. An attractive option for anyone looking to cut costs on their monthly broadband spend.
Community Fibre
If you live in London and are looking for ultrafast fibre broadband, then the alternative network, Community Fibre could be the best provider for you.
Our Community Fibre broadband deals
Our Community Fibre broadband review
Plusnet
Known for its straightforward, budget-friendly broadband deals and UK-based customer services, Plusnet is a tempting option for anyone looking to switch and save.
Hyperoptic
Hyperoptic is part of a new wave of alternative network providers offering very fast broadband using its own network. Its main customers have traditionally been centred around newbuild London apartment blocks. But that is expanding as it rolls out across the country.
Our Hyperoptic deals
Our Hyperoptic broadband review
NOW Broadband
Affordable and flexible with great TV add add-ons, NOW Broadband doesn’t have the quickest speeds but it does have some of the best prices and rolling one-month contract options.
Gigaclear
Part of a new wave of alternative network providers (alnet) offering very fast full fibre broadband using its own network, Gigaclear is on a mission to bring full fibre faster speeds to residents living in rural areas.
Our Gigaclear deals
Our Gigaclear review
How to switch broadband providers
It’s never been easier to switch. If you are out of your contract or coming to the end of one, just put your postcode into our finely tuned postcode availability checker to search, compare and switch to the best fibre broadband provider of your choice.
It’s simple, we’ll show you all the latest offers including some exclusive deals that you won’t be able to find available anywhere else. It’s much easier than systematically visiting every broadband provider in the UK separately to see if they service your area and have anything worth considering.
You can filter your search too by speed, contract length and provider if you have a preference. We’ll bring the best deals up and you can compare all the major fibre broadband providers and their fibre, ultrafast fibre, Full Fibre and TV packages.
Select the right deal for you by clicking on your chosen broadband package and you’ll be taken to the provider’s website to make the purchase. Then it will just be the case of filling in details and you’re all set. Most of the time you won’t even need an engineer to set you up on your new broadband deal. You normally won’t be required to tell your old provider you’re leaving either – Virgin Media being the main exception –that will be taken care of for you.
The actual switch can vary depending on if your new connection needs an engineer visit or not. The average wait time is two weeks and you should have broadband throughout apart from maybe roughly 30 minutes when the switch actually takes place.
If you have remained with the same provider each year, then it’s likely you are spending more than you need to. You can save money and benefit from some amazing introductory offers that are available when you switch provider.
Compare broadband deals
Whatever you’re looking for, find the best broadband offer that works for you.
Broadband locations
Where you live will depend on what broadband is available to you. Find out more about the best providers for different cities, what the full fibre availability is and what broadband speeds you can expect from your location.
Finding the right broadband deal in Birmingham doesn't have to be complicated. We're here to help.