Best UK Broadband Deals: Looking for the best offer in your area? We’ve got you covered… (Image: GETTY • EXPRESS NEWSPAPERS • BT • TALKTALK GROUP • SKY • VIRGIN MEDIA O2)
Whether you’re looking for the best broadband deal to boost your download speeds or cut your monthly bills, we’ve got you covered. We’ve scoured the latest batch of bargains from BT, Virgin Media, Vodafone, TalkTalk, Hyperoptic, Sky and dozens of other providers to find the best broadband deal in your area today.
Not in the mood for a lot of reading? Here are the UK broadband deals you really need to know about – Three Mobile is offering free broadband for three months with its next-generation 5G-powered Wi-Fi hubs, which is perfect for those who’ve just moved house or want a few months of free bills over the summer months. If you’d rather have a traditional fixed-line internet connection, Vodafone offers faster download speeds than the UK average home broadband for just £22 a month. Vodafone recently confirmed that it’s now the biggest full-fibre supplier in the UK – beating BT and Virgin Media so, chances are, its speedy broadband will be available in your area.
Of course, there are plenty more broadband deals where those came from – including free £100 gift cards, laptop giveaways, and more. Scroll down for our complete guide.
What Are The Best UK Broadband Deals in June 2022?
If it’s been a while since you’ve switched to a new broadband package or a different broadband provider, you’re likely missing out on huge savings.
According to the latest figures from Ofcom, around 40% of all broadband customers in the UK are currently out of contract. That equates to 8.5 million people nationwide who could unlock a better deal by renegotiating a new contract with their current provider or switching to a new broadband supplier. Are you one of the 8.5 million paying over the odds for internet?
If you want the best broadband deal, it’s always a good idea to ditch your current deal as soon as you fall outside of the minimum contract term. Estimates from the team at Which? suggest that out-of-contract customers could save as much as £140 a year by switching to a different internet provider. And that’s not to say anything about the other benefits, including a speedier Wi-Fi Hub included with your new bundle, freebies like £110 pre-paid rewards cards, and more.
While all internet firms provide discounts for existing subscribers, new customers usually get the best deals – showing just how crucial it is that you switch to a new company at the end of your existing contract. And that’s never been more important than this year, as record-breaking price rises kick in from BT, Sky, TalkTalk, Plusnet, EE, and Virgin Media.
Below you’ll find our top picks for some of the standout deals available right now. If you need a little more information about your broadband connection, including the difference between a full-fibre connection and copper cable, keep scrolling to find all of the answers to your broadband-related queries…
There are a dizzying number of broadband deals available in the UK today (Image: GETTY)
Best UK Broadband Deals (June 2022): What Is The Best Overall Deal Today?
There’s some very stiff competition out there at the moment, but for our money, the best broadband deal available nationwide right now is Vodafone.
Right now, you can get download speeds of 100Mbps for just £25 a month. With the average broadband speed in the UK sitting at 70Mbps, this deal comes with faster download speeds, an unlimited download allowance, and no upfront cost. For comparison, BT charges £33.99 for slower download speeds of just 74Mbps, and Sky Broadband offers little more than half of the download speeds (59Mbps) with its similarly-priced Superfast plan (£28 a month).
Even better, Vodafone includes a speed guarantee with its broadband plans, so if you’re struggling to achieve download speeds of at least 50Mbps, you’ll be able to walk away from your 24 month contract without paying an early termination fee. That should provide peace of mind for those who haven’t used Vodafone as a broadband supplier before. And since this deal is only available on next-generation fibre connections, you won’t have to worry about the hassle of a home phone or landline rental fees either, which is a bonus.
If 100Mbps isn’t quite speedy enough for you, Vodafone will double the download speeds available for just £5 more.
Best UK Broadband Deals (June 2022): What Is The Cheapest Broadband?
If you’re just looking to drop your monthly bills, look no further than the excellent Super Fibre broadband plan from NOW (formerly NOW TV) at £20 a month. The Sky-owned NOW offers average download speeds of 63Mbps for that monthly cost, which is a little under the average UK broadband speed …but it’s still fast enough to stream boxsets from Netflix, make video calls, and download the latest software updates for your phone and laptop. Just don’t be surprised if there’s a little buffering in busier households.
NOW allows you to pick between a 12-month contract or a rolling monthly contract which can be cancelled at any time. However, the latter arrives with a much steeper upfront cost. It’s also worth noting that 12-months is a much shorter contract than you’ll get from BT, Vodafone, or Sky.
For more context, Plusnet charges £25.99 a month for 66Mbps speeds, Shell Energy Broadband charges £23.99 a month for 67Mbps, TalkTalk charges £23.50 a month for 38Mbps, and – as mentioned above – NOW charges the same £22 a month price for slower speeds.
Best UK Broadband Deals (June 2022): What Is The Best Full-Fibre Deal?
If you’re looking for the fastest broadband speeds, you’ll need a full-fibre connection.
Delivering broadband to the Wi-Fi router in your home with fibre-optic cables results in much faster speeds and better reliability. Older connections tend to rely on ageing copper cables for the final few metres from the exchange to your front door …and that seriously slows your downloads. Full-fibre connections also tend to be more reliable and faster uploads, which is important during video calls, backing up photos to the cloud, and collaborating on documents with co-workers remotely, for example.
Unfortunately, full-fibre connections aren’t available at every address in the UK, although it’s likely that – if you’re missing out at the moment – your area will be upgraded soon.
Did You Know?
Household brands like BT, Sky and Virgin Media aren’t the only companies racing to upgrade UK broadband speeds to next-generation full-fibre connections. It’s worth keeping an eye on a number of (much) smaller broadband companies specialising in full-fibre internet, like Hyperoptic, Community Fibre, Zzoomm, Giganet. These firms all offer 1Gbps download speeds …or higher.
Lesser-known brands can offer incredible discounts that BT, Virgin Media and TalkTalk never come close to matching. So, what’s the catch? Well, all of these up-and-coming firms have a very limited reach. For example, Community Fibre only operates in London… so if you live outside of the capital, you’re out of luck. Others only supply a few thousand homes. Nonetheless, if you’ve seen upgrade works taking place in your street, it’s worth checking out these brands.
Virgin Media has the most expansive network of gigabit-capable connections across the UK, with 15.5 million customers able to access average download speeds of 1,130Mbps (the average home broadband speed in the UK currently sits at 70Mbps – around 16x slower than what you can unlock with Virgin Media).
Meanwhile, BT-owned Openreach is upgrading thousands of connections across the UK, with plans to reach 25 million premises by December 2026. As it stands, roughly 6.4 million homes are up and running with full-fibre broadband infrastructure managed by Openreach, which is used by a number of popular brands like BT, EE, Sky, TalkTalk, and more. Vodafone uses a combination of Openreach and CityFibre to reach customers, which means that its full-fibre network reaches more people than brands that rely on Openreach alone, such as BT, Sky, and EE.
If your area has been upgraded to full-fibre or is supplied by Virgin Media’s broadband network …the best full-fibre deal available is undoubtedly TalkTalk.
The excellent TalkTalk Future Fibre plan costs just £49 a month and unlocks download speeds of 900Mbps. Not only that, but subscribers will also be sent a pair of Amazon-designed Eero Pro 6 routers, which support the latest (and fastest) Wi-Fi 6 standard.
With a £209 price tag each, this combination is easily the best Wi-Fi router bundle available from any broadband provider in the UK right now. The two Eero 6 nodes work in tandem to provide a solid Wi-Fi signal across 4,000 square feet.
For a limited time, TalkTalk is offering a £100 reward card to anyone who signs up for its Future Fibre plan. These pre-paid Mastercard can be used anywhere that accepts Mastercard which is – in a nutshell – absolutely anywhere. Since you’ll already have taken delivery of one of the fastest Wi-Fi hubs and extenders that Amazon sells, you can put that £100 towards a treat for yourself!
For comparison, BT charges £54.99 a month for its 900Mbps plan (although the first three months are currently half price at £27.49), Virgin Media charges £62 a month for its 1,130Mbps speeds, Vodafone charges £58 a month for 910Mbps, and Sky Broadband charges £55 a month for its Gigafast plan (with 900Mbps).
Best UK Broadband Deals (June 2022): What Is The Best Freebie Available?
Aside from dropping your monthly costs or unlocking faster speeds, another great reason to sign-up to a new contract is the generous freebie. Broadband companies can bundle brand-new televisions, Bluetooth speakers, cases of wine, and other goodies to tempt you away from rival firms. Even when there isn’t a new gadget to open, broadband firms will include a pre-paid gift card to spend on anything you’d like.
If you’re looking for a generous giveaway, the best deal on the market is comfortably Three Mobile. While you might associate the brand with SIM deals and pay monthly phone contracts more than home broadband, it taps into its vast 5G network to offer speedy, wireless broadband. The Wi-Fi hub is powered by a SIM card, exactly like the one inside your smartphone, and taps into the 4G or 5G network to access superfast internet speeds. It then beams out Wi-Fi so you can connect all of your gadgets.
And for a limited time, if you sign up for 5G-fuelled broadband from Three Mobile (£30 a month) with an unlimited download allowance, the company will send you a free Samsung-branded laptop worth £379. The Samsung Chromebook 4+ boasts a sleek aluminium chassis with a “zero screw” design, an expansive 15.6-inch Full HD LED display, and access to the latest version of Google’s popular Chrome OS software.
Best UK Broadband Deals (June 2022): What Is The Best Social Tariff?
Regulatory body Ofcom has released its annual report into affordability, which has highlighted the low uptake of so-called “Social Tariffs,” which are only available to households that receive – or are eligible to receive – Universal Credit or other legacy benefits. There are only six broadband suppliers in the UK that offer these “Social Tariffs”: BT, Community Fibre, G.Network, Hyperoptic, KCOM and Virgin Media O2.
Each of these discounted bundles offers an average download speed of between 10 to 67Mbps. The latter is the average home broadband speed recorded in the UK last year. Prices for these discounted packages vary between £10 to £20 a month. And there are a number of other benefits too, BT only requires a 12-month minimum contract term for its Home Essentials bundle, which is half what you’ll need to sign-up for when buying one of its standard broadband bundles.
But despite the clear benefits of these “Social Tariffs”, of the 4.2 million households who receive Universal Credit and are eligible for these discounted deals, a meagre 55,000 homes have signed up. That’s just 1.2 percent of those eligible, Ofcom research shows.
So, if you live in one of the 4.2 million households eligible for a “Social Tariff”, we’d recommend signing up for BT’s Home Essentials plan. It includes average 67Mbps download speeds and 700 minutes of calls from the landline for £15 a month. For comparison, BT charges £32.99 a month for its Full Fibre 2 bundle, which offers average download speeds of 74Mbps. So, Universal Credit claimants will benefit from some hefty savings – around £17.99 a month, or over £215 over the course of a year. And the benefits don’t end there.
BT will never charge an early exit fee if your circumstances change, so you can leave within the 12-month minimum contract term and not worry about any extra charges. That’s different to every other broadband deal available from BT.
Best UK Broadband Deals (June 2022): What Is The Best Broadband With No Contract?
Want to avoid signing up for an 18- or 24-month contract with your new broadband deal? There are a number of benefits to a contract-free broadband deal, including the fact that you’re free to switch to any other deals that catch your eye, you can upgrade to faster speeds at the drop of a hat, or you can downgrade your speeds to cut your monthly bills. If there’s a price rise on the horizon, you can switch to another provider to unlock a better deal. And of course, if you’re living in a rented property, you won’t pay for a month more than you use.
Sounds great, doesn’t it? The only catch is that contract-free broadband deals typically cost a little more than longer contracts. The stability provided by signing up to a two-year contract allows you to unlock cheaper deals with bundled freebies, like the deals already listed this article. However, the flexibility afforded by a contract-free deal could outweigh the extra costs each month. When it comes to contract-free, there are a number of options on the market, including new-kid-on-the-block, Cuckoo Broadband.
But when it comes to contract-free broadband, the best deal is NOW, formerly NOW TV. The Sky-owned firm offers contract-free access to its best satellite channels, movies, sports, and broadband. For £20 a month, NOW’s Super Fibre broadband plan offers download speeds of 63Mbps.
Granted, that’s not going to set any records, but it’s fast enough to stream boxsets in 4K Ultra HD quality from Netflix and Prime Video, as well as stutter-free video calls, and music streaming. NOW offers unlimited downloads, so you don’t need to worry about any extra charges for streaming all hours of the day. If you want a monthly rolling contract, you’ll need to pay £60 upfront cost (this is waived if you sign-up to a 12-month contract), but that extra charge is a small price to pay for the flexibility to leave at any time.
Best UK Broadband Deals: What Deals Are Available In My Area?
If you want to see what else is available on the market right now, Express.co.uk has rounded up every deal that’s worth your time (and hard-earned cash) below. This should provide some context on why we believe the above deals are such standouts, but also, might flag a similar offer from a preferred broadband supplier that might be a better fit for your needs. One thing is for sure – if you’re currently out-of-contract, you should be able to find a brilliant new deal below…
What Broadband Speed Do You Need?
That’s a toughie. It really depends on what you want to do with your Wi-Fi network. The average UK broadband speed currently sits around 70Mbps, which is more than enough to stream a boxset on Netflix, make a video call on WhatsApp or FaceTime, or back up your photos to the cloud. But if you attempt to do all of these tasks at the same time, you’re likely to run into some extended loading times.
Imagine your broadband speed is a motorway. To stretch this metaphor to breaking point, the total download speed available with your contract represents the number of lanes in the motorway. As more traffic uses the motorway at the same time, everything slows down.
What Speed Does Netflix Recommend To Stream?
- For Standard Definition: 1Mbps
- For 1080p High Definition: 5Mbps
- For 4K Ultra HD Definition: 15Mbps
For busy households, with multiple people attempting to work from home or families with children streaming TV shows in their rooms at peak time, you’ll ideally be aiming for a broadband deal that offers between 100 – 200Mbps. With that bandwidth under your belt, you’ll still be able to collapse onto the sofa and stream a show from catch-up services like BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub or All4 without interruption …no matter what is happening in the other rooms of your house.
The fastest speeds currently available in the UK, like the ludicrous 1,130Mbps download speeds available from Virgin Media, are really about future-proofing your home for the next generation of technology, like 8K video streaming, virtual reality gaming, and more. You’re unlikely to need those speeds at the moment. However, those who are heavily invested in smart home kit – internet-connected lightbulbs, thermostats, wireless speaker systems, video doorbells controlled by Alexa and Google Assistant – might benefit from the extra bandwidth provided by 500 – 1,000Mbps broadband connections. Again, this is just to ensure that metaphorical motorway doesn’t get too crowded at peak times.
What Is Full-Fibre Broadband?
Fibre broadband is the future of the internet, and telecoms firms like Virgin Media and BT’s Openreach have been hard at work upgrading their networks to deliver these super-fast download speeds. While existing broadband connections rely on copper cables to deliver internet from those green communication boxes littered throughout UK streets, full-fibre broadband – as the name suggests – uses more powerful (and reliable) fibre-optic cables to your front door instead.
The fastest fibre broadband speeds currently available in the UK is offered with Virgin Media’s Gig1 package, which boasts average download speeds of 1,130Mbps. That’s light years ahead of the average broadband download speed in Blighty, which stands at around 70Mbps as measured earlier in 2021.
As an example of the benefits of fibre connections, Gigabit broadband will let you download a feature-length movie in High Definition in just 36 seconds, or a crisp Ultra HD 4K film in under three minutes. These speeds mean busy households will be able to back up their photos, download software updates, make video calls, binge boxsets in 4K, and play video games online all at the same time at peak times without a hint of buffering. It also future-proofs homes for the next wave of technology, including 8K video quality, virtual reality, and more.
By the end of 2021, Virgin Media upgraded its entire network of 15.5million homes to gigabit-capable broadband (although it will take longer until all of those customers are using full-fibre connections). So if you’re covered by Virgin Media you can sign up right away. While BT’s Openreach will finish its full-fibre network upgrade (some 25 million homes) by December 2026. So far, the super-fast downloads are available to more than six million properties covered by Openreach, which supplies infrastructure for BT, TalkTalk, Sky, Plusnet, EE, Vodafone, and many more.
Smaller companies, like Hyperoptic, Gigaclear and Community Fibre, have sprung up to bring full-fibre broadband to areas not currently served by either Virgin Media or Openreach. These include projects specifically targeted at rural villages or commuter towns. If you can’t wait for next-generation broadband, these are a great option – and can be cheaper than better-known brands too.
The average UK broadband speed currently sits around 70Mbps (Image: GETTY)
Which Broadband Offers The Fastest Speeds?
In a nutshell, the fastest broadband speeds available in the UK come from Community Fibre, which offers a mind-bogglingly speedy 3Gbps. With download speeds of 3,000Mbps, you’ll be able to download movies, stream boxsets from Netflix, join video calls, back-up photos and data from your devices, and play online multiplayer around 43x faster than the average home broadband connection in the UK, which was measured at 70Mbps last year. At £89 a month, Community Fibre’s 3Gbps full-fibre broadband plan doesn’t come cheap. But the biggest hurdle is the availability.
Community Fibre is currently only available in London …and even if you do live in the capital, the 3Gbps package isn’t available anywhere. It’s worth checking to see whether the full-fibre in your street has been upgraded to support the speeds, but don’t hold your breath.
Virgin Media offers speeds up to 1Gbps, or 1,000Mbps – some 14x faster than the standard British homeowners’ internet connection, to more than 15.5million premises. For context, Netflix recommends at least 25Mbps to watch its boxsets and movies in the best picture quality available, 4K Ultra HD. That should give you some idea about the dizzying amount of bandwidth available with a 1Gbps connection for most users. Signing up to one of these full-fibre bundles will suit even the busiest households – with multiple people streaming music, making videocalls, collaborating on documents online, downloading video, backing up devices, and more, at the same time.
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