Broadband Megathread: Best Current Deals On Fibre Broadband

If we are being picky, "speed" is an incorrect measure. All electron waves travel at the same speed - roughly the speed of light. It is how much data travels concurrently at that speed, which is more correctly what you are after - and that is known as "bandwidth".

A simple analogy, is to consider the waste pipe from your sink, compared to the sewer in your road. Water flows through either pipe at about the same speed - but vastly more water at the same time in the sewer - than the pipe from your sink.

The other thing to consider in the internet connection "speed race" is whether, in real life, you would actually notice any difference at all between, say, a 200Mb and 1Gb connection. Whichever internet site you are using, is very unlikely to fling data at you at much higher bandwidths than 10Mbs - so as long as your connection has higher bandwidth than the site is sending data to you - you would never notice (obviously, you multiply up your use by the number of people in your household using that internet connection - in order to estimate what is a reasonable size of internet pipe for you).

What is more important, is the UPLOAD bandwidth and latency - latency being the delays to the transmission of packets of data on your connection. It is difficult to be precise, but from experience, I estimate that for a single Teams call with video, 5Mb down and 2-3Mb up per user, with less than 30ms (unloaded) latency, will give you a good experience. You can discover these figures for your own connection, by doing this:

1. fast.com/ - which tests and shows your current DOWNLOAD bandwidth.

2. Hit the "More info" button, and it will measure your UPLOAD bandwidth and latency.

[fast.com is actually the Netflix checker - the thing that it uses built into the Netflix app, in order to work out what resolution of video you are capable of receiving].

Lightspeed also offer 1GB @ £29.96

The internet in my area I was only able to get speeds of up to 40mbps down. I've recently moved to a 5g router couldn't recommend it more even though I'm borderline outside of the 5g area I'm getting 200+ down. Paid £130 for my router from CEX then £10 a month for Three 5g with unlimited data

I learnt a lesson this month. I didn't get my £80 cashback or £100 voucher for TalkTalk because I used a different email address than the one linked to my TCB account, I violated the T&Cs by doing so. The lesson was don't get hooked in to the price after the benefits as they'll try to find a way to wriggle out of them.

I just got a letter from virginmedia saying that from next year they will be increasing the amount I pay by about 4% every year increase.

That’s even before factoring in inflation, whether it has gone up or inflation has been zero. Plus they will be adding whatever inflation has been to the cost too. (edited)

Currently on Full Fibre 900 with BT Halo 3 for £62.29pm. Contract is up at the end of March.

Anyone on high-speed FTTP that has gone to a slower speed? Is it noticeable?
We had to take this on as it was the only supplier available for our new build. Now we have more options with Virgin ready in our area.

Maybe this thread will teach many to use Mb/Gb instead of MB/GB when talking Internet speeds.

I am currently with TalkTalk and decided to switch to Now Broadband. In the early stages of the switch, I then received a call from TalkTalk retentions, they offered £23.95 a month for 18 months, which is good but I pointed out my offer with Now was 12 months and I will get £90 cashback from topcashback. They then threw in a £130 prepaid credit card to stay with them and 12 months contract. No inflationary rise for this year. So works out around £13.11 per month for the faster 65 package. Hope this helps anyone nearing the end of their contract with TalkTalk.

If I'm going only for the fastest broadband, 900Mbit+ who offers the best price ?

Also, anyone offers 12 months contract ?

I live in a city fibre area (York), with 12 different providers in the area and they all charge £40plus which I think is ridiculous. Before cityfibre took over, it was ran by talktalk under the UFO network and it cost between £20/£25 - obviously much better.
I also live in a fast EE 4g+/5g area so I use that for my broadband, get well over 400mbps. For anyone looking for an EE unlimited data sim, I've used the following for the last 6 months, no issues at all..

amazon.co.uk/gp/…c=1
Managed to get it for £199 in November, meaning averages at £12 per month with no price hikes - amazing IMO. (edited)

84° in 7mins

Can’t beat three 5G for 20 quid a month

Remember you can haggle with virgin media once your contract is up to get a cheaper price

For anyone that is haggling with virgin. I managed to get m250 (volt), phone and TV for £24 a month.

Anyone know the prices of that City Fibre mob? They've tortured the roads for long enough around the cities.. they'd better be cheap haha

I’m currently in the process of switching from Virgin Media to Community Fibre (only available in London currently), and I got some really great deals and I’ll explain how I did this.
I wanted to leave Virgin as soon as I could, their outsourced customer support is impossible to get anywhere with, ignore any reports of intermittency and refuse to payout compensation, they throttle IPTV speeds unlike Community Fibre and are crudely overpriced in comparison. They also wanted £50/mo for gigabit broadband alone.
If you’re able to switch over, make sure you cancel now since the virgin price hike email enables a 1month cancellation period. If you have no other option you’ll be able to negotiate a much better deal on your current package but I would recommend leaving.

Community Fibre are offering gigabit for £27/mo exclusively for virgin customers coming over, here’s the link for this.
As well as that I was able to claim a £130 voucher that was posted here and the standard £85 via TCB tracking. This all worked on top of the initial deal price.
I’m aware community fibre are also offering student discount prices for student discount prices for 25% student discount and 3 months free, an £100 voucher for being referred by an existing customer (I might be able to share a link for this if you message me - aware I’m not able to post this). I've also seen people get exclusive 12-month free deals through their local reps, commented elsewhere here. (edited)

Can you actually use your OWN ROUTER wit any cityfibre providers ?

U cant with Virgin(yes in modem mode but still you have to have 2 routers then).

What about BT ? Vodafone? and all these ?

Who offers best latency for gaming ?

An update on virgin media....
This is for another family member but here goes.
Was using 100Mbps service and phone line and tv box on basic channels paying £31 per month.
Then had email saying increase of £9 per month.

Contract only had 3 or 4 months left anyway, but those last 3 or 4 months have been reduced to £22 per month after asking to leave.
Dont forget folks, banks are beginning to collapse,. Dont renew contracts.
SILICON VALLEY bank gone down, signature bank gone down, credit suiusse bailed out by a loan from Bank of Switzerland, Moodys downrated ALL US banks to negative. (edited)

Can I cancel my 24 months contract with BT as they are increasing prices? Nearly 10 months left

Is there a site or forum where rollout of fibre is documented/discussed in a bit more detail?
Despite living in a city, my particular area has no fibre or Virgin so I'm stuck on ~30mb and paying more than most of these deals.
Seriously considering switching to 4/5G broadband, but would prefer to wait for fibre if it's just around the corner. Whenever I look at the usual suspect's coverage checkers they all just say "coming soon, sign up for emails" etc but never hear anything.

What's the best deal that people have managed to negotiate with Virgin for 1 Gig fibre only?
I'm currently paying £35 and was getting the Volt boost from 500Mb to 1Gb due to having O2 mobile. I've cancelled my O2 contract due to poor coverage and moved to Vodafone, so my Virgin package will drop back to 500Mb as well as go up to £40.
My street has recently got BT FTTP and Cityfibre is coming soon, but not an option at the moment. As the BT connection is new, not all providers are available. My options appear to be:

BT 1Gb at around £40pm (plus maybe £150 cashback).
Vodafone 1Gb (Via BT) at around £42pm (plus maybe £120 cashback).
Virgin 500Mb at around £40pm or upgrade to 1Gb at around £50pm

I've cancelled Virgin and expecting a callback in the next fortnight. I'm happy to stay with them if I can get 1Gb at £25-30pm. Has anyone else managed to get this?

Pretty niche, but if you're in Worthing, West Sussex, you can get 900mb broadband with Briant Broadband (local provider) for £40 a month.

It's a month to month contract also.

briantbroadband.com/

Free installation, and their support is brilliant. (edited)

My BT Full Fibre 500 has increased from £46 to £52/month after the increase and it's costing me £1 extra to upgrade to 900mb. It's annoying as it's currently showing £30.99 for 500MB on the special offers page for new customers so I feel like I am way overpaying.

I have 1 year left on my contract and don't want to extend the contract by another 2 years at £53/month when I can get it for £40-45~ next year.

Does anyone know if I can get a cheaper deal from BT with 1 year left in the mean time? Quite frustrating!

Any help appreciated

Broadband is a lie its not real its just something made by the government to convert us into pies, chicken pies (edited)

Excellent thread. Where is EE? On a tangent ispreview.co.uk/ind…tml

Prices will rise annualy cos they are greedy

Just swapped from Virgin to Octaplus on Cityfibre (Month by Month rolling contact), £32.00 for 900Mbps, fitting on Monday. Will report back if any good.

Best deal I could get from Virgin was £27 for 250Mbps, they gave me a complete and utter nightmare trying to cancel so told them to stuff it when they called me again this morning with an offer I told them I did not want to hear about, I will never return.

(edited)

It's my second year with Vodafone 100mb + home phone still £23 a month. Had no problem's except spending three weeks trying and at last succeeding in getting rid of Virgin. If CityFibre have cabled up your area then give it some thought . :/

Just phoned Vodafone to say I wanted the new customer deal of £35.00 a month for full fibre 900 as I’m an existing customer. I got put through to customer retention rep called Sarah who was really good and said she’d switch me over no issue.. 24 months at £35 pm and saving me £23 pm from what I was paying due to the recent increases. For full 900mb up and down and no hassle for £35pm I’m happy. (edited)

I’ve been paying £36 a month for the last year for 1gig with virgin (500mb upgraded with o2 sim). Reduced to £32.50 until end of contract because i got the letter and complained about service.

I am already a BT customer but out of contract. I chatted to their cancellation people and got them down from £39 to £27.99 a month for Fibre 2 with pay as you go phone line.

What’s best thing to do if VM hub is downstairs and upstairs speed is 20mb compared to 350mb downstairs ?

That HyperOptic deal just saddens me, they can charge £10 less than I will pay after the upcoming increases, for THREE times the speeds