Fibre broadband has been rolling out across the UK for a number of years now. We’re at the stage where most areas can get fast download speeds (even if not for uploads) and it doesn’t tend to cost a whole lot more than the much slower speeds that the same providers also offer.
A quick word on fibre, because it’s a word that gets used rather indiscriminately by broadband providers. Some plans are called ‘fibre’, but internet is still delivered to your home via the old copper phone lines that have been around for decades. These can deliver around 75Mbps at most, and the only way to get faster broadband is to get ‘full fibre’ which means the fibre optic cables go right into your home – not just cabinet some way down the road.
Truly fast broadband is measures in multiple gigabits per second (not megabits) and the absolute fastest speeds you can get right now are from Community Fibre , which offers 3Gbps (3000Mbps) for both downloads and uploads. That’s over three times faster than the 900Mbps offered by some rivals, including BT, but the snag is that it’s available only in certain areas of London, so most people can’t get it.
The only way to know if you can get fast broadband at your address is to enter your postcode on each supplier’s website. But even if you find that full fibre isn’t available yet at your property, you may be able to ask for it to be installed. BT is one company that will – for a fee – connect individual homes upon request, although this is usually contingent on the requisite fibre optic cables already being present in your street.
Many people are still on ADSL broadband and some struggle along with download speeds of around 10Mbps (or less!), so the possibility of upgrading to fibre broadband can be life-changing.
Why would anyone need 3Gbps per second though? Well, to be honest, it’s overkill at the moment, but fast download speeds are a benefit when you need to download a new game. Instead of taking all day, the latest Call of Duty can be ready to play in less than an hour with 1Gbps full fibre.
Fast upload speeds are important for video calls because your video stream has to be sent to others on the call. Similarly, if you have security cameras which record to the cloud, that video needs to be uploaded regularly, so don’t only ever look at the download speeds. It can be most helpful if you ever need to upload long videos, or any other type of file, as it makes it so much faster.
The most sensible choice in 2024 is to go for somewhere around the 1Gbps mark.
Some providers offer equal upload and download speeds, which can make them a better choice if you do a lot of video calls, or upload a lot of video or other large files to the cloud. One example is Gigaclear , which offers 200, 300, 400, 500, and 900Mbps plans, but Hyperoptic and Community Fibre also have matching upload and download speeds.
Switching broadband providers isn’t as difficult as you might think, so don’t let that put you off.
The fastest broadband plans in the UK
Here’s what the fastest broadband packages cost, and the speeds they offer.
- Community Fibre | Download / Upload Speed: 3Gbps
Community Fibre offers an incredible 3Gbps, for uploads as well as downloads, which is a lot more than most people need or can even use. It’s only available in parts of London. And as we already said above, the router that Community Fibre provides can deliver Wi-Fi speeds of only 500-800Mbps, so 3Gbps is overkill unless you plan to spend a lot of money on a faster router. Even then, you’ll need to own devices (laptops, phones, tablets, etc.) that can match those faster speeds, or it’s all rather pointless.
- EE Busiest Home Bundle Download / Upload Speed: 1.6Gbps / 115Mbps
EE is slowly taking over from BT as its consumer brand, and already offers faster speeds than BT does. The top package delivers download speeds of up to 1.6Gbps (with a guaranteed minimum of 1.3Gbps) and upload speeds a little quicker than BT at 115Mbps. This doesn’t come cheap, though: it’ll cost you £1680 over the two-year contract, and as with others here, remember that you won’t get that headline download speed over Wi-Fi.
3 . Virgin Media Gig1 | Download / Upload Speed: 1130Mbps / 104 Mbps
£45 is the price for broadband only. If you want, you can get a phone line for an extra £4 per month or go for the Ultimate Volt bundle which adds 230+ channels with Entertainment, Anytime calls, Netflix Standard + O2 unlimited SIM for £76 per month (a good deal overall as it’s £91 from month 19).
You can find out if Virgin is available in your area . After the 18-month contract Gig1 costs £73 per month.
- Hyperoptic 1Gb | D ownload / Upload Speed: 900Mbps
Hyperoptic’s fastest broadband plan is called 1Gb, but which runs at 900Mbps on average. Crucially, and unlike BT’s offering, upload speeds are also 900Mbps, which makes this very good value indeed – if you can get it. Check on Hyperoptic’s website to find out .
- Gigaclear 900 | Download / Upload Speed: 900Mbps
Gigaclear is available in Northamptonshire, Berkshire, Gloucestershire, Essex, Devon & Somerset and other areas, and offers packages from 200-900Mbps – both for uploads and downloads. It’s a good option if you need fast broadband in some of the more rural areas of the UK.
Minimum contract length is 18 months – shorter than some – and packages include a Linksys tri-band router, with the two fastest ones also coming with an extra node for better Wi-Fi coverage.
- BT Full Fibre 900 | Download / Upload Speed: 910Mbps / 110Mbps
BT’s fastest broadband delivers download speeds of around 900Mbps, and uploads of up to 110Mbps. You can add to the base package with extra features such as Complete Wi-Fi (for a wireless signal throughout your home) and Hybrid Connect which switches over to EE’s mobile network if there’s ever a problem with the fibre broadband. You can also add BT TV (now EE TV) to your package.
Find the latest prices and deals on BT’s website , where you can also check if Full Fibre 900 is available to you. At the time of writing, BT was throwing in a year’s Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for free.
- Vodafone Gigafast 900 | Download / Upload Speed: 910Mbps / 105Mbps
Vodafone’s Gigafast isn’t mobile broadband: it’s the same full fibre connection that BT uses. That’s why the speeds are the same, but it’s cheaper. This is the basic, broadband-only plan, but you can see all Vodafone Gigafast plans where you can opt for Pro II Full Fibre 900 that comes with a Wi-Fi 6E router. You can add Vodafone Xtra to both plans for £14 per month, and that gives you “free” Apple TV+ and unlimited calls to mobiles and landlines.
- Sky Gigafast 900 | Download / Upload Speed: 900Mbps / 90Mbps
Sky is another provider using the Openreach full fibre, but the difference here is that the contract is shorter at 18 months. For £6.50 extra per month, Wi-Fi Max (a Wi-Fi 6 mesh system) gives you a strong Wi-Fi signal in every room, and comes with a money-back guarantee. Most providers offer a minimum speed guarantee without paying an extra fee, but the £6.50 (normally £10) is worth it to have Wi-Fi throughout your home, assuming you don’t already own a mesh Wi-Fi system.
You might find that the fastest package Sky can offer you is Ultrafast Plus. That’s 500Mbps with 60Mbps upload speeds for £39 per month.
Beyond those listed above, TalkTalk and Zen Internet also offer speedy broadband in the UK .
Fastest broadband in rural areas
If you live in a really rural area, you’ll almost certainly find that full fibre and Virgin’s Gig1 service aren’t available to you. There are a few options for going faster than what’s available over your copper telephone line, including mobile broadband (4G or 5G from Vodafone, EE, National Broadband and others) and satellite broadband ( Starlink , Freedomsat ). Again, you’ll need to use each provider’s coverage / postcode checker to find out if you can get their services.
Although these are the fastest speeds available from providers, another way to look at “fastest” is to take the average speeds available across the country. Broadband Genie did this in March 2023 by running almost 416,000 speed tests as part of its annual broadband awards .
It found LightSpeed (based in Lincolnshire) was fastest overall with an average download speed of 312Mbps. Virgin placed 22nd with with 149Mbps and BT was 47th with 66Mbps.
Elon Musk’s Starlink was the fastest wireless service with an average of 87Mbps, but it costs £449 for the hardware and £75 per month. Some refurbished hardware was available for a cheaper price of £199 at the time of writing.
If you decide speed isn’t your number one priority, you might prefer to use our tool below to find the best deals available right now. Here are all the best deals available right now. Bear in mind that you can’t simply pick the one you like most. First, you need to check if the service is available at your address. Coverage can vary in the same town or city. In fact, the speeds and providers available will depend upon the exact street you live on.
That’s why you’ll need to enter your postcode and click ‘Check availability’ to see which which offers apply to you.
Which broadband speed is right for me?
All the providers mentioned here offer slower broadband plans which cost less. And it’s worth asking yourself if you need gigabit or not. It’s great for downloading large files quickly, or streaming 4K video in multiple rooms. But if you just want to stream in HD, make the occasional video call in HD and aren’t too fussed about waiting a bit longer for files to download and upload, than you don’t necessarily need full fibre.
As mentioned, many UK homes aren’t yet connected to full fibre anyway, which means they’re reliant on their ancient copper phone cables, or the 4G or 5G mobile broadband available in the area.
For most people, download speeds of 30-40Mbps are ok, but it’s still possible to get up to 80Mbps on what’s called fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC). This is different from full fibre because the fibre optic cable doesn’t go right to your property – only to the ‘cabinet’ in your local area. The rest of the run uses copper phone cables, which is what limits the speed, and the actual speed you’ll get is dependent on how far your home is from the cabinet.
You can read our guide to choosing a broadband service for a more in-depth explanation of the jargon, as well as the other things you should look out for besides speed.
Here, though, is a quick overview of the speeds you actually need.
5-15Mbps: Suitable for a household of two people at most where occupants browse the web and check email. Streaming video is usually from a single device, and never in 4K.
40-80Mbps: This speed is ok for family which is constantly using their phones, streaming video to multiple TVs in different rooms, even in 4K and playing online games. Smart devices are scattered around the home and there are a handful of security cameras uploading to the cloud. Occasionally, you might notice slowdowns, and large game downloads will take several hours.
200- 900Mbps+: Ideal for large households where adults work from home and are frequently on video calls and need to upload or download large files. Such speeds cater for many smart devices, especially security cameras recording to cloud storage.
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Author: Jim Martin, Executive Editor, Tech Advisor
Jim has been testing and reviewing products for over 20 years. His main beats include VPN services and antivirus. He also covers smart home tech, mesh Wi-Fi and electric bikes.
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