Our overall rating: 9 out of 10
Fibrus is part of a new wave of alternative network providers (altnet) offering very fast full fibre broadband using its own network. This means it doesn’t have to rely on Openreach or Virgin Media for their rollout plans, so it’s taken charge on bringing the fastest broadband to remoter locations often overlooked by the other networks.
It doesn’t take advantage of its position either, and despite often having no competitors, Fibrus offers better value for money than many of the other big providers. It also promises no mid-contract price hikes, meaning what you’re paying won’t change across the length of your 24-month contract. And it doesn’t stop there, Fibrus also offers a buyout on your existing contract if you’re still in-contract with another provider.
The positives
The negatives
In our full review we take a look at the pros and cons of each area in more detail: speed, full fibre review, cost, setup and customer service.
Very fast! As a full fibre service on its own network, Fibrus is much quicker than most other providers. It uses its own full fibre connection to deliver lightning-fast speeds to households. If you are in a rural area this will very likely be the fastest – and sometimes the only – service available for you.
But remember, where you live will also play a big factor. We’ll list everything below, but you’ll also need to check your postcode to see what is currently available.
Find out what Wi-Fi is available with our postcode checker.
Speed is often the biggest consideration when choosing a broadband package. If you have multiple people using the internet at one time, then a higher speed and bandwidth will be essential. Equally, if it’s a small household using the internet for everyday usage, paying for business-grade bandwidth will probably end up being a waste.
You should decide what speed is right for you, based on your broadband habits at home. Here’s a handy guide to help show what bandwidth usage your different applications need.
There are four full fibre options at different speeds, ranging from ‘wonderfully quick’ to ‘outrageously fast’.
Full Fibre 100Mbps
Their entry-level offers an average download speed of 96Mbps. A plan that is great for most households and and can easily cope with remote working, 4K streaming and up to 10 devices running alongside each other.
Full Fibre 300
An impressive plan that powers an average download speed of 300Mbps. This choice manages the demands of even the heaviest data users, whether you’re streaming constantly or running a business from home.
Full Fibre 1000
Incredibly fast connection, perfect for large households, multiple devices and downloading and streaming movies and videogames in UHD (ultra high definition).
Full Fibre 2000
The fastest available of any provider, you’ll get incredible download speeds of 1950Mbps. It will cost around £99 per month, Fibrus don’t advertise this package, you have to reach out to them directly. For most this would be a rather extravagant expenditure as a typical household really doesn’t need that amount of speed and bandwidth.
What exactly is full fibre?
All Fibrus plans are full fibre and it’s the fastest available internet in the UK.
Around two-thirds of homes in the UK can now access ultrafast broadband via fibre-optic technology called ‘G.fast’ or ‘Fibre To The Premises’ (FTTP).
FTTP, also known as full fibre, is the next generation of broadband. It removes the need to rely on copper phone lines and instead connects fibre cables straight to your home. This means there’s no slowdown on the data between the street cabinet and your property and the speed and strength are much more powerful than any previous fibre broadband technology as a result. Common internet issues like buffering and outages become almost nonexistent.
This technology will future-proof homes and businesses across the UK because, once it’s installed, properties won’t need to install new cables for their broadband for decades.
Fibrus is transforming the digital infrastructure of rural and regional areas of the UK, by investing in excess of £500m to bring full fibre broadband to homes and businesses in towns, villages across Northern Ireland and Northern England (the latter currently mainly centred in Cumbria). Its state-of-the-art network now stretches out to over 300,000 home.
Fibrus runs on its own full fibre network to deliver its internet services. This is different to most other suppliers (main exceptions Virgin Media and other smaller altnet companies) as they rely on Openreach’s copper network for their connections. This seems to be a good thing – most of the time, barring some recent storms that caused problems – as it doesn’t have to depend on another company to fix any faults or dictate their rollout locations.
Fibrus isn’t currently signed up to Ofcom’s voluntary code practice on better broadband speeds. Customer reviews are mixed, but it scores mainly above average, on Trustpilot for connectivity.
Starting from just £19.99 a month, Fibrus offers much faster packages for less than equivalent plans from the big providers. It’s great value and there are no one-off upfront set-up costs or fees.
Average price guide
All contracts are 24-months.
Fibrus doesn’t have TV or mobile packages you can bundle with its broadband, it just focuses on full fibre broadband.
There is an option to add a phone line as an add-on service. This currently costs an extra £9.99 on top of whatever broadband plan you select. This phone line is not a traditional landline, instead it is delivered via your broadband line in the form of VoIP (voice over IP).
Fibrus often throw-in an extra element such as cashback, a gift card or three-months free, as incentives. These are normally in the form of pre-paid credit cards between £50-100, or a third party gift voucher that you can claim for when signing up. All dependent on postcode and package.
No, unlike most other broadband providers it doesn’t hike up its prices every spring. Fibrus promises its customers they’ll never incur any nasty mid-contract price rises.
The average time to get the service set up and activated is ten days for properties in urban areas and 20 days for rural areas with no network issues. Depending on the complexity of work required, your installation may take longer.
Sometimes an engineer may need to run a few checks or survey your property to see if there is any additional work needed to get your connection set up. Every installation is different depending on the complexity of work to be conducted.
There are two main different types of installation types. Either overhead, where fibre will be connected from the nearest serviceable telephone pole. Or, underground, in an existing viable duct. Both are free. And all result in an unobtrusive looking wall box, externally and internally, to complete your broadband journey.
Fibrus Wi-Fi routers
All customers signing up will get the very powerful (and expensive if buying separately at an electronics retailer) Amazon eero as their router.
There are two types depending on speeds. The eero 6+ is for packages of 300Mbps or less. Customers choosing Full Fibre 100 or Full Fibre 150 plans get one of these. Those opting for Full Fibre 300 get two.
The second type, the eero Pro 6E, is for the fastest Full Fibre 1000 plan. Customers will get two of these routers too.
Both routers ae mesh wifi systems and when provided with two routers, these work together to help give maximum coverage of your home.
We normally look to Ofcom to help rate broadband providers on their customer service, but because of their market size and relative newness, Fibrus hasn’t been reviewed on the latest report.
Trustpilot gives Fibrus a decent 4.2 for its customer support score with 65% scoring the provider 5-stars. There’s plenty of positive feedback that points towards prompt, polite and friendly service. Have a look at the latest reviews here.
If you’d like to speak to a human being, Fibrus' customer service team is available Monday to Friday, 8am-8pm. Saturday to Sunday, 9am-5pm.
Via phone
NI: 028 9099 3230
GB: 080 0099 1111
Via WhatsApp
Live chat (click icon bottom right of the screen): here
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