What's the best broadband in my area?
Not every UK home has access to the same broadband services. Did you know you might even have different options to a nearby neighbour? Options also change all the time, as new developments or local installations might mean you get new access to faster or cheaper deals.
Broadband Genie is here to make sure you can spot the best broadband deals in your area today, quickly and easily, so you can switch broadband providers with minimal fuss.
There’s no ‘one size fits all’ when it comes to broadband packages. The best choice will depend on your budget, the options available at your home and how you use your internet connection.
Not everyone needs the fastest broadband. For example, if you live on your own, and you just use your internet for emailing and casual web browsing, a cheap broadband deal at the slowest speed available will suit you fine.
But if there are a few of you in your family, and you often all stream TV at the same time, you may find a fast cable, or full fibre package the best choice.
How do I find the best broadband deals for my area?
At first glance, it may seem like your choice of broadband is obvious, and you might be drawn to the cheapest. But there are many other factors you should consider before you commit to signing a new contract.
With our comparison search, you can use our helpful filters to only show packages of a certain speed, price, or contract length. You can also make sure you’re only shown deals that include calls or TV bundles, or options that don’t involve any upfront costs.
It’s important to use the postcode checker. This makes sure the results don’t show packages you can’t actually get at home.
As standard, the packages shown in our comparison tables are presented in popularity order. But you can adjust to view by:
Monthly Price: Budget is a massive priority for most. If you’re looking to save money, sort by cheapest first.
Contract Length: View rolling monthly tariffs first if you’re keen to sign up to a broadband deal without being tied into a long contract.
Set-up cost: There often additional upfront costs like installation, equipment or even just postage and packaging. We will highlight these on our comparison table and in the 'Offer details and pricing' section.
In-contract price rises: Could the price you pay go up within the agreed minimum contract period? With most deals, prices go up every Spring. This will be visible on the deal (e.g. price rises by £3 in April) with the 'Offer Details and Pricing' dropdown. Look out for deals with fixed-price promises to avoid this.
Speed: As long as you’ve entered your address or postcode, you’ll only see deals that are available to you. Switch to see the fastest internet speeds first if you’re a heavy internet user or live in a busy home.
Effective Monthly Cost: Every day, there are great reward deals available on Broadband Genie that come with a gift voucher or bill credit for new customers. If you take the value of these off your total contract bill, you end up with an effective monthly price that’s much lower. You can also manually check an effective monthly cost calculation on every deal if you click on the ‘offer details and pricing’ dropdown’.
With the broadband comparison tables like our availability checker's results, you can do a like-for-like comparison with the option to filter out every bundle that doesn't include what you want.
Using search filters to find the best fibre broadband in my area
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Alternatively, here are some quick searches you can try:
- 'Compare Cheap Broadband'
- 'Compare Broadband and Phone Deals'
- 'Compare No Contract Broadband'
- 'Compare TV and Broadband Deals'
Finally, If you'd prefer to have someone else talk you through your options you can also call us on 0333 0417 273! Our advisors will help you compare all the relevant factors and make a decision regarding which broadband deal is best for you and, for many providers, they can even sign you up over the phone.
Why should I use Broadband Genie to find the best internet in my area?
As well as making light work of your broadband search, here are some other reasons why switching providers with Broadband Genie is the right choice:
- Amazing exclusive deals: We work hard to secure great deals from different broadband providers. You’ll be able to find deals on our site that you won’t find anywhere else.
- We love broadband: We’re unashamedly broadband geeks, and we’ve been supporting our customers for two decades! If you want advice on a new provider, broadband tech help, or guides for getting the most out of the internet, you’re in the perfect place!
- We love our customers: Our main drive is to make sure that our customers have a flawless broadband connection and aren’t overpaying for the privilege. Whether its getting great deals, or making switches simpler, we like to go the extra mile.
- Our customers love us: We're proud to be rated 4.6 ('Excellent') on Trustpilot! We think this makes us the UK's best-rated broadband comparison site. When it comes to broadband, you can certainly trust us.
How does the broadband postcode checker work?
We’ve partnered with local broadband experts thinkbroadband, who provide some of the most accurate and up-to-date broadband availability data in the UK, right down to your address.
And once you've used the checker, you'll find some of the very best value broadband deals available on the market – including the many exclusive special offers we work to get you every single week!
What broadband providers are listed on Broadband Genie?
Broadband Genie lists deals from some of the best broadband providers in the UK as part of our unbiased broadband comparison service.
Compare broadband with us, and you’ll find offers from well-known internet providers, including:
We also list a lot of the smaller networks too. In addition to the providers above, we’ll take you through the options you have for broadband deals with the likes of BeFibre, Gigaclear, Hyperoptic, Community Fibre, Rebel Internet and more.
We're also home to more and more smaller, alternative networks (also known as ‘altnets’). If you're lucky enough to have one (or more) in your area, you can expect amazing speeds at incredible prices. Plus, smaller providers are less likely to hit their customers with mid-contract price rises.
Who’s the best provider in my area?
This depends on what you're looking for. However, we have a few resources that can help with this question:
- Broadband Genie Awards. We run this annually, polling the UK public and asking them to rate their provider.
- Our broadband reviews. These give you a glance into real customer experiences. As well as scores on satisfaction, customer service, speed and reliability, we give everyone a chance to air their honest opinions.
What’s the cheapest broadband in my area?
The easiest way to compare the cheapest internet deals in your area is to use our deals checker and sort the results by ascending price.
Broadband deals are available from just over £20 per month, but you need to make sure that it’s suitable for you in every way. Will the connection be fast enough? Are you missing out on extra features that might be useful, such as bundled phone calls?
Visit our cheap broadband page to compare offers and learn how to get the best deal.
Availability of Fast Broadband
When you compare broadband in your area using our postcode checker above, you will cut out options that aren't available where you live and only compare what's actually relevant.
More hyperfast broadband technologies are rolling out across the country, so you may want to know if you're one of the lucky ones who can now get faster broadband. With Broadband Genie you can compare your options and find a faster or equivalent product can help you get a better deal from your current provider, or switch to something better.
How do I find the fastest broadband in my area?
Enter your postcode or address to start a tailored search for a speedy new broadband package. To view the fastest broadband deals first, change the ‘sort by’ option to ‘Monthly Cost (low to high)'.
Superfast broadband with average broadband speeds of 30Mb+ is now available to almost every home in the UK.
But faster home broadband deals will be available if Virgin Media’s cable network is installed on your street, or if you have access to a full fibre network (also known as ‘FTTP’ or ‘Fibre To The Premises).
Let’s take a look through these options in more detail:
ADSL (broadband via a landline)
ADSL broadband is frequently referred to as standard broadband. But it isn’t very fast, and there isn’t a big variation in speeds for ADSL deals. All ADSL broadband providers advertise average speeds of 10Mb or 11Mb. As this technology relies on old home phone copper wires that are planned to be scrapped in the near future, these deals are slowly being phased out. We highly recommend you opt for fibre broadband if you can.
Openreach 'Fibre To The Cabinet' (FTTC / Part-Fibre)
In most areas, part-fibre connections are the fastest fibre optic broadband available using a standard BT phone line. It’s available from many providers, though the speeds vary to a small degree. The fastest speeds are from BT, which advertises an average 74Mb on the top packages.
Virgin Media
Virgin Media cable broadband offers average speeds of up to 2Gb. As Virgin Media mostly runs off its own cables, it can easily reach faster speeds than most other broadband providers. It’s certainly the most readily available of the faster providers.
Fibre to the Premises (FTTP)
Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) or full fibre broadband is capable of delivering ultrafast or gigabit speeds of 1Gb or more. However, not all homes can get this just yet. If full fibre is available in your area, we’ll show these deals when you use our broadband checker.
For more help, read our guide to FTTP, full fibre and FTTC broadband.
Mobile broadband
Mobile home broadband can offer some of the fastest deals where 5G is an option. Fortunately, it’s becoming available in more and more locations. Broadband Genie currently lists 4G and 5G home broadband deals from Three.
Add your address into our deals checker to find out if these deals are available at your location.
How can I check broadband speed in my area?
If you’re curious to find out the internet speed you’re getting from your current provider, run a speed test. This will measure both your download and upload speeds.
The time of day might affect this, and you need to make sure there are no other devices running for a fair result. For this reason, we recommend doing a few tests and recording the average. With this information to hand, you’ll find it easier if you’re looking for faster broadband.
Broadband providers will advertise an average download speed. We currently don’t showcase upload speeds on our results table. This is because it won’t matter to the majority of customers. Upload speeds only make a difference if you upload files regularly or if you’re streaming online gaming on services like Twitch or YouTube.
Why don’t I have access to all providers and deals in my area?
Broadband coverage tends to be best in urban areas. Networks prioritise areas where there are more people, as installing broadband infrastructure is expensive. So it doesn’t always make sense for them to install new lines or upgrade a connection if it’s only going to serve a few homes.
The BT Openreach network (that powers most major non-Virgin providers) has the widest coverage, reaching nearly all homes, but there are still a few areas where broadband is either very slow or just not available.
The second-largest network, Virgin Media, covers around half of premises, but it tends to be concentrated in larger towns and cities.
CityFibre supplies full fibre broadband in areas not served by the Openreach network.
Finally, we're seeing an increasing number of altnets (alternative networks) popping up. These are smaller, highly-localised full fibre providers, including the likes of:
They can be a great option, with high speeds at really affordable prices.
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What is Openreach?
Openreach is the company that maintains the former British Telecom Network used for the majority of broadband and phone services. If a repair or installation is required, it’s Openreach who will send an engineer, not your provider.
More than 650 service providers using the Openreach network. That’s the majority of the UK’s broadband providers. This includes Sky, TalkTalk and BT. The exception to this is Virgin Media - it uses its own, separate cable network.
The UK has a Universal Service Obligation, which means that anyone living in the UK has the right to request a minimum 10Mb broadband connection.
Even then, there are a few places where fixed line access just isn’t an option. There’s a cost threshold for installation, and those in remote locations may have to pay extra or look for alternatives such as wireless broadband or satellite broadband.
For some of you, this isn’t great news, but you will still be able to get broadband in some way or another. In fact, some of the speeds available in rural locations may actually pleasantly surprise you.
More information about broadband in your area
Want more information about broadband in your town or city? We have dedicated pages to locations all around the UK that go into more detail about home and mobile broadband coverage.
- Aberdeen
- Bath
- Birmingham
- Bradford
- Brighton
- Bristol
- Cambridge
- Canterbury
- Cardiff
- Coventry
- Dundee
- Durham
- Edinburgh
- Exeter
- Glasgow
- Leeds
- Liverpool
- London
- Manchester
- Newcastle
- Nottingham
- Oxford
- Sheffield
- Southampton
- Hull
- Belfast
- Swansea
- York
Expert Summary
When you’re looking for broadband, we recommend you start with an address check. Our deals checker will clearly show the types of broadband available to you.
If you’re in a city, you should have plenty of options available. You’ll be able to sign up to superfast fibre, but you’re also more likely to have access to faster, full fibre broadband, or a 5G home broadband product. Rural broadband can sometimes (but not always) be more limited, so check out our guide to rural internet for more help if you’re struggling to get broadband in the countryside.
Broadband availability is improving across the UK all the time. If you know your current contract is ending soon, we recommend exploring your options in good time, to make sure you're never overpaying for your service.