Finding the best internet provider in Oxford
Oxford residents have a good range of options when it comes to broadband. Almost everyone can sign up to a fibre broadband deal and achieve speeds of at least 30Mb.
However, when it comes to ultrafast speeds, the city is improving but still lagging a little. Around one half of premises should now have access to a full fibre (FTTP) package from some provider. In Oxford East, this is likely to be via a smaller "altnet" provider over Openreach while the reverse is true for residents in Oxford West and Abingdon. Virgin Media, known as cable, is a hybrid connection boasting speeds up to 1Gbps with a healthy 84% of availability to Oxford East properties.
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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.
Virgin Media, known as cable, is a hybrid connection boasting speeds up to 1Gbps with more than 84% of availability to Oxford East properties.
When comparing home broadband on Broadband Genie, you type your address into our deals checker to double check what's available for you.
Mobile broadband internet providers in Oxford
When it comes to mobile broadband services, the Oxford area enjoys a reasonably strong level of access, with slightly more choice compared to some other parts of the country.
The four network operators — Three, EE, O2, and Vodafone — all provide good 4G in and around Oxford. 5G service is also available from all providers, although coverage has sometimes been known to be hit or miss across the city.
It’s important to check coverage for yourself when buying mobile broadband, as weak signal will result in a slow connection. For more information, read our guide to mobile broadband coverage, and click the logos below to access the official signal checking tools:
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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