Updated June 2021.
Are you looking for the best broadband deals in the UK? In this post, I will help you to find them.
I know a lot about Broadband supply in the UK.
At work, I am a very high user of broadband, running an entirely distributed team performing web development (lots of upload and download happening almost constantly). At home, there are a lot of devices, all streaming, for a family with the usual differing interests and tastes. All of this is happening through the same connection a lot of the time.
You need a speedy and reliable broadband service in your home.
Table of Contents
A note on affiliate links
Please note, many of the links to service providers in this post are “affiliate link”. This means that I may be credited with a fee for referring you to the service provider in question. This covers my costs producing, researching and publishing this very fast page cram packed full of broadband deals for your pleasure.
Practically everybody who posts content about broadband deals is likely to be paid a commission.
- Money Saving Expert – is paid a commission.
- Money Supermarket – is paid a commission.
- Uswitch – is paid a commission.
- Compare the Market – is paid a commission – those Meerkats won’t stuff themselves.
- Broadbandchoices (etc) – all paid commissions.
I am not affiliated in any way with some providers – for example, B4RN I am just a delighted customer… one who believes this landmark service should be replicated nation-wide. The don’t pay me a commission to say this… but it is not available everywhere. It should be.
Please leave a comment under this post if you know – or think you know – of a better broadband deal or scheme, and I will add it to the table, whether or not I am paid a commission 🙂 .
Best Standard Broadband Deals
What do I mean by “Standard”? I mean not hyper-optic. Normal high speed broadband, usually coming at you via copper wires. These are the deals you can get basically “anywhere” (though not anywhere, anywhere) – anywhere that a broadband supply is available.
It is the same phone line, and the same supply, so shopping around for the best deal does make some sense here.
Shell Energy Fast Broadband
- Average Speed: 11mbps
- Router & line rental included
- Save on Shell fuel
- £16.99 per month
Sky Broadband Superfast
- Average Speed: 59mbps
- Term: 18 month contract
- £28 per month (includes line rental)
- Click here for more and to get started.
John Lewis Broadband
Like everything in John Lewis, you’ll probably be thinking “ah, it will be lovely, made of wood, and probably have polka dots, but it’ll be 2x more expensive…” well, it isn’t:
- Average Speed: 10mbps
- Term: 12 month contract
- £19 per month, including line rental
- Router included, no activation fee
- Click here to find out more.
Best Fibre Broadband
Fibre broadband offerings, but which are not FTTH (which are further below, and are way better!).
Sky Ultrafast Fibre
- Average speed: 145mbps
- Term: Minimum 18 months
- £35 per month
- Setup £19.95
- Click here for more information, and to sign up online
John Lewis Fibre Broadband
- Average speed: 36 mbps
- Deal: Includes line rental
- Term: Minimum 18 months
- £25
John Lewis Fibre Extra
This is currently available for £28 a month – down from £32.50!
- Deal: Includes line rental
- Average Speed: 66 mbps
- Term: Minimum 12 months
- £28 per month
- Click here to find out more.
Plusnet Fibre Unlimited – Fibre Extra
- Deal: Unlimited Fibre Extra (no calls included)
- Includes line rental
- Average speed 66mbps
- Minimum 12 months term
- £25.99 per month
- No activation fee
Plusnet also have call centre staff with nice relaxing Yorkshire accents, if this is of any benefit to you to know 🙂
Best Broadband Deal in the UK
1,000 Mbps fibre-to-the-premises from £30 per month
The best broadband deal in the UK is 1,000 Mbps fibre-to-the-house (FTTH) broadband from B4RN in Cheshire, East Anglia and the North West for £30 per month.
1,000Mbps FTTH broadband to every property in our coverage areas, costing households only £30 per month.
If this is available where you live, grab it with both hands. You can even ditch your “landline”, get VOIP and stop paying line rental too.
If this is near where you live, apply pressure, make donations and generally ask nicely for this to come to your area soon.
Apply political and social pressure to make FTTH a reality everywhere in Britain. I have this package for £30 a month. It is incredible. Life changing, even. You should have it too.
Other Options
For everyone who doesn’t live in the selected coverage areas, the most speed per £* is as follows:
Hyperoptic
1,000Mbps fibre-to-the-premises from £45 per month
Gigabit fibre to the building services for selected areas including London, Bristol, Cardiff, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester and Reading from £45 per month. Check out the coverage map for homes here.
Gigaclear
900Mbps fibre-to-the-premises from £49 per month
Hyperfast FTTP from Gigaclear PLC is now available in the following locations: Devon and Somerset, West Oxfordshire, Herefordshire & Gloucestershire, Berkshire, Essex, Northamptonshire & Wiltshire.
The usual suspects
The major telecoms companies and what they say they can offer:
Broadband Provider | Top Speed Package |
EE Home Broadband | Fibre Max 2 Broadband – 300 Mb/s – £47 per month for 24 months – £25 Fibre set-up fee (“plans are totally unlimited so there are no usage caps or download limits. “….If you’ve got an EE pay monthly plan we’ll also boost its monthly data allowance.“) |
Plusnet B2C | Unlimited Fibre Extra Broadband download: 66Mb, from £25.99 per month |
O2 Mobile Broadband PAYG | 18GB data, 4G, Unlimited minutes, Unlimited texts, Sims fit all devices – top up £10 per month |
XLN Telecom | Unlimited 76Mb Fibre £29.95. 18 month contract |
*Speed expectations based on Ofcom Report. 4G service is available in selected areas with 4G coverage. 4G speed will vary depending on location and number of people using the service.
What’s “best”? A history of broadband coverage in the UK
Having lived a substantial amount of time in a “not spot” where broadband coverage was… worse than dialup speeds were… I know a thing or two about “best”. A few years back, cable was the thing to deliver the best broadband speeds at an affordable price, and, to be fair, still is a good package.
Gigabit with FTTP (AKA FTTH) in the home – B4RN Example
Now though, with Fibre, it is possible to get Gigabit (1000mbps+) speeds to the household, as well as businesses. This is legitimately the best way ahead for the UK, in my view. I am incredibly lucky to be served by B4RN, and achieve an incredible around 800mbps upload and 800mbps download speed. This is the absolute truth. I tested it just now – see the proof below:
You can have this in the UK – if only your community and Government wanted you to
Several things are worth noting about this excellent broadband performance:
- The Upload speed is insanely fast… your provider probably filters and throttles your upload speed. Who knows why they do this, but they probably do.
- Checkout the “ping” rate. This is near instant to a server in Manchester. No lag.
- This costs just £30 per month.
- We do not require a phone line, line rental, nor any “other” or extra service charge to obtain this excellent service. You can get telephone (voice) services via Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) at a fraction of the monthly cost on this service.
Share your insight
Please feel free to share your speed tests and broadband community projects in the comments section below. If you found a great broadband deal and you think it should be mentioned above… well mention it. The internet is not printed – we can add improvements as we move through time. That’s why it is superior in every way to the technologies of the past… in the right hands (you know, fake news etc 🙂 ).
Seems like the plan are very interesting and I want to try it soon. I hope that I will be satisfied with the plan I will choose soon. Thank for sharing your plan list.