Best full fibre broadband?

[R33FAL]

Looking to get full fibre broadband- is there anything to differentiate between the different brand (looking at Vodafone vs Sky, as an example) or is it much the muchness? Looking at c 500MBps packages.

[Actual]

As far as I know neither Vodafone or Sky install physical cables themselves so presumably the fibre connection is provided by Openreach and there is no technical difference between suppliers and so the difference will be commercial in terms of bundle, package and price.

A good coverage checker for mobile and broadband is Better Internet Dashboard https://bidb.uk

[Griffith4ever]

I'd choose depending on their customer support offering and location. On that basis, avoid Vodafone like the plague.

[outnumbered]

Griffith4ever said:

I'd choose depending on their customer support offering and location. On that basis, avoid Vodafone like the plague.

Agreed, a couple of quid a month extra is worth paying for an ISP with good customer support, given how reliant we all are on internet connectivity these days.

Example from a small survey here: https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2024/05/new-...

[NaePasaran]

Been with Vodafone for 6 months, fibre to the premises via CityFibre's infrastructure and absolutely no issues what so ever. £32 a month for 400Mb. Incidentally ran a speed test yesterday afternoon and via ethernet was getting 350Mb download with 160Mb upload. Can take 20-40% of that on wireless depending on device and location...

Edit: also got a £70 gift card for going via one of the compare sites.

Edit 2: was with VM before and so far this seems more reliable and much better value. VM renewal was something ridiculous like £54 for 200Mb and it's hardly like they're known for exceptional customer service either....

[hellorent]

Been with youfibre for about 12 months, can't fault them, I'm on a 150mbps package for £19.99pm and get that speed.

Moderator edit: no referral codes

[Griffith4ever]

NaePasaran said:

Been with Vodafone for 6 months, fibre to the premises via CityFibre's infrastructure and absolutely no issues what so ever....

And that's great, as you've not had to deal with customer support. I dearly hope you never have to...... They are so atrociously bad that after the second instance I needed their help, I cancelled my VDSL broadband and switched to 5G with Three business.

[davek_964]

Toob are excellent - very fast and cheap if you're lucky enough to be in an area they cover

[Sixpackpert]

hellorent said:

Been with youfibre for about 12 months, can't fault them, I'm on a 150mbps package for £19.99pm and get that speed.

My Ops Manager has just had youfibre installed. 900mb down AND up for 41 quid a month.

So far he is very happy with that.

[okgo]

Community Fibre here for a couple of years. It’s been almost faultless.

They don’t have it at my new house so I’m going for Virgin as they’re the only ones to offer anything apparently.

[Riff Raff]

outnumbered said:

Griffith4ever said:

I'd choose depending on their customer support offering and location. On that basis, avoid Vodafone like the plague.

Agreed, a couple of quid a month extra is worth paying for an ISP with good customer support, given how reliant we all are on internet connectivity these days.

Example from a small survey here: https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2024/05/new-...

The only caveat to that is that the fibre infrastrucure is pretty much all new. We had FTTP put in about 6 years ago (Openreach cabled the area), and apart from one outage when someone with a JCB cut one of the fibre conduits into the local exchange, it's never gone wrong. We flip between Vodafone and BT, whichever gives us the lowest price contract. OK, I'm a sample size of one, but AFAIK none oof my fibred up neighbours have had an issue either.

[normalbloke]

davek_964 said:

Toob are excellent - very fast and cheap if you're lucky enough to be in an area they cover

Same. Been with them for a year now. Their Linksys router is bionic too.

[DorsetSparky]

We've been with Plusnet for a couple of years now and moved from 60Mb copper to full fibre in our new property. They've never been anything less than excellent.

[R33FAL]

very helpful thank you- will be switching over from Starlink, so that should cut the monthlies on it in half.

Are there any differences between them in terms of how much they raise the annual fees- some I think do it mid-contract, whereas others raise it by some made up CPI+ number every year even if you are in a 2 year contract.

[DorsetSparky]

R33FAL said:

very helpful thank you- will be switching over from Starlink, so that should cut the monthlies on it in half.

Are there any differences between them in terms of how much they raise the annual fees- some I think do it mid-contract, whereas others raise it by some made up CPI+ number every year even if you are in a 2 year contract.

Think Plusnet do it every year but I don't really notice, it's only a couple of quid.
We had Starlink very temporarily as we've just moved to a new home in a new development, and Openreach hadn't connected us. Wife needed internet for work and 4G/5G nearly non-existent; definitely not enough to load web pages.

We were impressed with Starlink but bl00dy expensive!

[Smurfsarepeopletoo]

Check if you can get Virgin in your area, they now do Fibre to the Equipment, run over their own network, via the poles in some areas, they do up to 2gig synchronous.

[Griffith4ever]

Riff Raff said:

outnumbered said:

Griffith4ever said:

I'd choose depending on their customer support offering and location. On that basis, avoid Vodafone like the plague.

Agreed, a couple of quid a month extra is worth paying for an ISP with good customer support, given how reliant we all are on internet connectivity these days.

Example from a small survey here: https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2024/05/new-...

The only caveat to that is that the fibre infrastrucure is pretty much all new. We had FTTP put in about 6 years ago (Openreach cabled the area), and apart from one outage when someone with a JCB cut one of the fibre conduits into the local exchange, it's never gone wrong. We flip between Vodafone and BT, whichever gives us the lowest price contract. OK, I'm a sample size of one, but AFAIK none oof my fibred up neighbours have had an issue either.

The point, really, is given equal choices on price and performance, use support quality as the deciding factor. There isn't much else to help making a decision. Choose one with UK support. Calling Three is a pleasure, calling India/Voda is not.

My last issue was a crushed cable in my house, so no matter how good the infrastructure, you can still break it, and the st I had to go through to diagnose the fault was mind bending :-)

[p4cks]

normalbloke said:

davek_964 said:

Toob are excellent - very fast and cheap if you're lucky enough to be in an area they cover

Same. Been with them for a year now. Their Linksys router is bionic too.

This. UK call centre too

[the-norseman]

I have Vodafone though Cityfibre so not Openreach network. I have the 900 connection its good, most of my devices never get anywhere near 900 but my Google Wifi is getting 900 from the Vodafone router.

[OldGermanHeaps]

Youfibre have been great for price, speed and customer service. Cgnat provider though if that bothers you, but you can add a static ip for a fiver a month and they haggled a fiver a month off for 18 months so worked out great. Upload speed much better than bt or sky.