Increase Broadband Speed

  • Home
  • Guide
  • Broadband Deals
  • Tips
  • Which Router?
  • Superfast/Ultrafast Broadband
  • Blog

Superfast and Ultrafast Broadband

This page describes the latest developments in broadband to bring faster speeds to the UK. These may already be available in your area!

New! To see what services are currently available to you and for the best broadband deals in your area, use our postcode checker on our Broadband Deals page.

A complex combination of commercial deployment of fibre broadband (by BT) and cable broadband (by Virgin Media) and public subsidy by the UK Government and local authorities has substantially increased the availability of faster broadband across the UK. While superfast fibre broadband (with download speeds greater than 24Mbps) is now available to the vast majority of premises, there is still much work to do to deploy ultrafast broadband (with download speeds greater than 100 Mbps) on a widespread basis.

 

Standard broadband is now too slow for many services

Standard broadband  is known as ADSL. While ADSL can potentially deliver download speeds up to 24 Mbps (for premises very close to the BT exchange), speeds are usually significantly less due to the distance between you and the exchange. Typically, standard broadband delivers download speeds of a few Mbps. Upload speeds are typically limited to less than 1 Mbps. Unless you have no choice, we strongly recommend that you opt for much faster superfast fibre broadband or ultrafast broadband. Otherwise, many services such as streaming TV services (e.g. Netflix) will not be accessible to you reliably and in their best quality mode. Also, if you have multiple devices or people in your household, standard broadband will be a significant bottleneck.

Faster broadband provides substantial benefits for both consumers and businesses. Click on the following link for an assessment of the benefits of high-speed broadband:

Why do you need superfast broadband?

 

Superfast fibre broadband delivers download speeds over 30 Mbps

Over the last few years, BT has been rolling out fibre broadband (called FTTC – Fibre to the Cabinet) across the UK. It is now available to nearly 28 million premises. While fibre broadband is capable of delivering download speeds of about 80 Mbps, as described in our What is Fibre Broadband page, exact speeds are dependent on the distance between you and your local green BT street cabinet. So, the fastest speeds are only available if you are located very close to the street cabinet. Fibre broadband generally delivers sufficient speeds for most households currently.  If you subscribe to standard broadband and your area has been upgraded to superfast broadband, you will not automatically be upgraded. You need to proactively upgrade, which you can do through our Broadband Deals page.

 

Ultrafast broadband delivers speeds in excess of 100 Mbps

Ultrafast broadband, which delivers download speeds over 100 Mbps, is delivered by one of three technologies: G.fast, cable (Virgin) or FTTP (Fibre to the Premises). These technologies are described in our What is Fibre Broadband and What is G.fast pages. FTTP and cable are capable of delivering gigabit download speeds (> 1 Gbps) and are sometimes referred to as ‘gigabit broadband’. Several operators are rolling out FTTP, including BT Openreach, CityFibre and Hyperoptic.

BT’s ultrafast broadband network now covers 4.2 million premises, comprising 1.8 million premises passed with FTTP and 2.4 million with G.fast. BT Openreach is currently committed to reach 4 million premises with FTTP by March 2021, and to reach 15 million premises by the mid-2020s.

Broadband has become central to the General Election campaigns of the Conservative and Labour parties. If elected, the Conservative Party is planning to spend £5 billion to bring gigabit broadband to all of the UK by 2025. If elected, the Labour Party intends to bring gigabit broadband to all of the UK by 2030. Watch this space!

We recommend ultrafast broadband if you have several people in your home using services such as video streaming services or you are only able to access slow speeds (30 Mbps or less) using fibre broadband. If ultrafast broadband is now available in your area, please note that you will not automatically be upgraded. You have to proactively upgrade, which you can do through our Broadband Deals page.

 

Keep checking the status for your area!

Our advice is to keeping checking on the status of superfast broadband in your area. You can use our postcode checker to find out what deals are available to you on our Broadband Deals page.

Save Money Now

Broadband Deals

Broadband deals

Superfast/ultrafast broadband

Check to see if you can access superfast or ultrafast services using our Postcode Checker

What is Fibre Broadband? FTTC and FTTP Explained

Why Do You Need Superfast Broadband?

Chart of BT FTTC Speeds Versus Distance From the Street Cabinet

Which Fibre ISP?

What's Involved in a Fibre Broadband Installation?

What is G.Fast?

UK Broadband Statistics

How to Improve your existing connection

Increase Broadband Speed Guide

How to Determine Your Connection Speed

Fit a Filtered Faceplate

Which ISP?

Get a Better Router

Speed Test Guide

Tweak Target SNR Margin

Chart of ADSL Speed Versus Distance From the Exchange

WiFi Optimisation

Multiple lines

Multiple ADSL Connections

What is ADSL Bonding?

What is Load Balancing?

Supporters for this site

Creative Team Events

Contact

To contact Mark, please email:
info@increasebroadbandspeed.co.uk

About

About this Site

This site is provided by Dr Mark Heath, Broadband Champion for Connecting Cambridgeshire.

Copyright © 2019