What's the fastest broadband in the UK?

The UK relies heavily on victorian copper telephone lines to deliver broadband. Even so called ‘fibre broadband’ still often utilises a phone line for the last part of it's connection.

According to Ofcom, as of May 2020 up to 14% of UK homes have access to full fibre broadband (Fibre to the premises aka FTTP) with speeds ranging from 900Mbps to 10Gbps

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Find the distance from my local telephone exchange

Most broadband services sold as ‘fibre broadband’ are only actually part fibre. Whilst providers use fibre to the cabinet in your street, they then switch to the old copper telephone cabling to get to your property. The speed of your connection will vary depending on the distance to the fibre cabinet that serves your property. The chart below shows how fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) (VDSL2) broadband speed compares with ADSL & ADSL 2+ and how they reduce over distance.

Enter your postcode below and we'll show you the location of your local telephone exchange and calculate it's distance to your property.

Exchange search

Broadband speed loss over (Km) distance from the street cabinet

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What is Superfast broadband?

Superfast broadband is the most popular broadband option in the UK, partly due to it's cost and widespread availability. Superfast broadband is available to over 95% of the UK. Superfast is classed as a broadband connection speed of over 30Mbps. A Superfast broadband connection is sold as 'Fibre Broadband', perhaps a little misleading as it’s still delivered to your property partially via the copper phone line! Typically, 80Mbps is the maximum achievable download speed with a Superfast broadband connection. If you're more than 850 metres metres from the cabinet, you can expect at least a 50% drop in speed.

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What is Ultrafast broadband?

The term Ultrafast broadband refers to a broadband connection that is capable of achieving between 300Mbps and 1000Mbps. Ultrafast broadband is currently available to over 57% of the UK. G.Fast is one of the latest ultrafast broadband technologies that is capable of supercharging your FTTC (fibre to the cabinet) broadband speed up to 300Mbps without the need to have fibre to your premises (FTTP). G.Fast is a cheaper way to boost your broadband speed, but your local exchange would need to be upgraded to be able to deliver G.Fast broadband. G.Fast isn't a long term solution to improving the UK’s broadband speed. There are limitations to the scope of G.Fast's delivery. It's main limitation is that it's only suitable for properties that lie within a 500 metre range of the street cabinet. It’s also still reliant on the old victorian copper telephone line.

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What is Hyperfast Broadband?

Hyperfast broadband is the future of broadband in the UK. Unlike it’s predecessors it isn't reliant on any aging copper cables. Hyperfast broadband is delivered via fibre-optic cables direct to your property. This is known as ‘fibre to the premises’ aka FTTP. Hyperfast broadband is capable of delivering symmetrical broadband speeds, so the upload speed is the same as the download speed. But, not all Hyperfast broadband providers supply a symmetrical service. BT currently offer FTTP with asymmetric speeds of 900Mbps down and 115Mbps up for residential customers.

If the upload speed is an important part of switching to FTTP, opt for a provider who offers a symmetrical connection.

FTTP symmetrical connection providers

Hyperoptic cover 43 UK towns and cities in small clusters. They offer relatively limited coverage compared to the scale of national providers like Virgin Media and BT. But, if you want cost-effective gigabit broadband and they're in your area, we highly recommend Hyperoptic. Hyperoptic offer a VoIP phone service for customers who don't want to retire their landline number just yet.

Vodafone broadband is provided through CityFibre & the Openreach network, prices are extremely competitive. Vodafone Gigafast is currently available in the following cities; Aberdeen, Bournemouth, Cambridge, Coventry, Edinburgh, Huddersfield, Leeds, Milton Keynes, Northampton, Peterborough, Southend-On-Sea, Stirling.

Gigaclear cover 22+ counties across the South West, Midlands and South East. They provide FTTP with a 920Mbps symmetrical connection to over 65,000 properties.

Community Fibre are a London-focussed FTTP ISP who cover over 100,000 properties around London. Four different packages are available with the Gigafast one offering a 920Mbps symmetrical connection.

FTTP Advantages

FTTP isn't just about speed, there are other advantages of switching to FTTP broadband. FTTP isn't subject to interference like ADSL and VDSL2, making broadband less prone to weather-related issues. FTTP also offers an ultra-low latency which can help online gaming response times and improve VoIP calls.

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