Finding the best internet providers in Birmingham
As England’s second city in terms of population, Birmingham is well served by the leading broadband providers. Much of the city is covered by the latest superfast and ultrafast full fibre broadband services from all the big names including Virgin Media, BT, TalkTalk, Plusnet, Vodafone and Sky.
Most home broadband deals should be available to the majority of Birmingham residents. This includes broadband and TV packages, as well as cheaper 'broadband only' options. However, not all postcodes are created equal.
If you're looking for the best broadband deals in Birmingham, enter your full address into our deals checker. This will filter the results to make sure you only get presented with the broadband packages available right to your front door. You might find if you're on the outskirts of the city, your options get a little bit more limited.
Once you know what’s available, you can simply order the results as best suits you. Filter by contract length, monthly price, broadband speed, free set-up, TV and phone bundles or internet only. Then it’s simply a case of clicking through to the provider’s official website to sign up.
See also:
What are the fastest broadband deals in Birmingham?
Birmingham now has over 98% superfast broadband coverage (packages with speeds of 30Mb+) on all exchanges.
Much of this is down to the Black Country Broadband project, which spent millions to improve broadband in Birmingham and surrounding areas.
So, if you're a Birmingham resident and want to take advantage of these incredible speeds, start by typing your address into our deals checker below.
Can I get full fibre broadband deals in Birmingham?
Full fibre optic broadband is available to 67% of residents in the Birmingham area. Around 55% can get full fibre broadband using a provider on the Openreach network, with just under 20% having an option for full fibre using an alternative network (altnet). However, if you’re not connected to a full fibre network yet, chances are you should still be able to get hold of a fast broadband connection with internet speeds greater than 100Mb.
Find out more about alternative networks in our guide: ‘what are altnets?’
Virgin Media in Birmingham
If you’re looking for a speedy broadband package, but don’t have access to a full fibre internet connection using the Openreach network, you may have better luck signing up to Virgin Media. Over 84% of homes in Birmingham can sign up to a Virgin deal. Its Gig1 package offers a high-speed connection with an average download speed of 1.1Gb.
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What is ‘full-fibre’ broadband?
Full Fibre broadband is also known as ‘Fibre To The Premises’, ‘Fibre To The Home’. This is often shortened to FTTP or FTTH. They’re all the same thing!
Instead of copper telephone wire making up the final part of the journey from that green cabinet on the street, fibre optic cables are installed right up to your home.
It’s amazing the difference in speed this small data journey can have. With full-fibre broadband you can expect to receive speeds of 1Gb+.
The downside is full-fibre is currently only available to just over half of properties in Birmingham.
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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, although only a fraction of these will serve the Birmingham area. This includes Sky, TalkTalk and BT. The exception to this is Virgin Media - it uses its own, separate cable network.
What is the average broadband speed in Birmingham?
| Average Broadband Download Speed in Birmingham | 191Mb |
| Average Broadband Upload Speed in Birmingham | 39Mb |
What’s the best broadband in Birmingham?
New customers and those switching should have plenty of choice. There are many different types of broadband available, from simple no-frills, part-fibre deals to Ultrafast full fibre (FTTP) options for many local residents.
As always, we recommend carrying out a search for your exact address. Even on the same street, different homes can have access to different services.
Don’t forget to make the most of our filters, especially if you’re looking for extras such as bundled home phone evening and weekend or anytime calls. If you’re keen on including a TV service, you can check this too. Once you can see your results, you’ll be able to sort by speed, contract price, setup fee or monthly cost.
Don’t forget to check the ‘offer details and pricing’ for notes on extras you may have to pay for things like line rental, or if any price rises are likely to happen during your contract term.
Cheap broadband deals in Birmingham
With so much choice available in Birmingham and the surrounding areas, you should have no issues signing up to a decent broadband service for under £30 per month. If you’re a light user, you just carry out basic online tasks such as emailing and web browsing, you could easily sign up to a service that costs under £25 per month.
Head over to our cheap broadband deals page for more advice on how to get the best value package.
Comparing mobile broadband in Birmingham
Central Birmingham was one of the first areas to benefit from 4G mobile broadband. Now, most major UK mobile networks have reportedly strong 4G and 5G coverage across the vast majority of the Birmingham area.
For this reason, you might also want to consider home mobile broadband options, from the likes of Three. When you sign up for these deals, you’ll be sent a mobile broadband Wi-Fi router.
Although 4G and 5G home broadband plans tend to be more expensive than a fibre broadband deal, you’ll find they're very flexible. They’re a great choice if you need a temporary internet solution in Birmingham, too. They don’t rely on a fixed line, and they’re available on rolling monthly deals as well as 24-month contracts.
Always check coverage for yourself before purchasing any mobile service. The key is often word of mouth; ask around with both your neighbours and colleagues about their experiences to make sure you’ll get a good signal wherever you regularly use mobile broadband. You can also make use of the official network coverage tools by clicking the logos below:
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Where we get our information
We strive to keep our local broadband information as up-to-date as possible. This means using trustworthy sources with regular checks. The information on this page comes from the following:
- Local broadband speed information: labs.thinkbroadband.com/local
- Mobile broadband coverage (1): nperf.com
- Mobile broadband coverage (2): checker.ofcom.org.uk/en-gb/mobile-coverage
