On this page: But what’s so good about full fibre broadband, I hear you ask? Well, put simply, it can offer much faster speeds than other broadband deals. That’s because it delivers the connection through fibre optic cables directly from the exchange and into your home. It’s not routed through one of those green boxes on the side of the road and an old copper wire phone line. The one major caveat is that you need to be in the network area to be able to get it, which currently encompasses only about 8 per cent of UK homes. If you can, though, it’s definitely worth considering as the increase in download speeds are hugely beneficial - and not just for gaming. Sure, you’ll be able to download the latest bajillion GB update for Call of Duty much quicker than before, but a busy home will also be able to more easily cope with multiple devices gaming, streaming or downloading all at once. For those benefits, you’d usually expect a big jump in price but full fibre broadband doesn’t actually cost a whole lot more. In fact, for the most part, it can be the same or cheaper than standard broadband deals. There are more expensive options available, though, if you really want to bump up that download speed up to a massive 900Mb/s. Sky has also just introduced an Ultrafast Plus subscription. This bumps up the download speeds to an average of 500Mb/s - a pretty significant boost over the standard offering. For this, you’ll need to pay £42 per month with zero set up fees. Sky Broadband’s newest and fastest full fibre broadband package, Gigafast, promises speeds of up to 900 Mb/s and a speed guarantee of 600 Mb/s for £52 per month on an 18 month contract. Our latest post explaining the benefits of Gigafast can help you decide if this top tier package is for you. If you’re not lucky enough to live in an area that’s capable of taking advantage of its speediest Ultrafast option, you can also get Sky Broadband Superfast. This also uses the new FTTP technology for a quicker and more reliable full fibre connection but average speeds will drop to 59Mb/s. That’ll set you back £30.50 per month. You can choose to add a WiFi Guarantee for an extra £2.50 per month that, well, guarantees WiFi in every room of the house or you’ll get money back, plus a few other perks. Onto the offers, the best value of the pair is the Full Fibre 100 option. This comes with average download speeds of 100Mbps for £29.99 per month - though some areas can achieve much higher. With the current offer, you’re getting a handsome saving of 25 per cent off the usual price of £39.99. If you want to take a step up you can go for BT’s Full Fibre 300 broadband instead, which offers download speeds of up to 300Mbps. Right now, the monthly fee on that is also reduced by 20 per cent and is down to £39.99. In both instances, the contract lasts for 24 months and you’ll have to pay £9.99 postage and delivery for your new hub. However, there are no other hidden fees or activation charges to pay. Similar to BT, you can choose between three options. The best value is Fibre Max 100 at £32 per month for 100Mb/s download speeds. You can also upgrade to Fibre Max 300 at £40 per month or Fibre Max 900 at £50 per month for 300Mb/s and 900Mb/s download speeds, respectively. Each product includes an EE Smart Hub router and requires a £25 set up fee. As you’ve probably already spotted, the prices for these subscriptions is more than BT for exactly the same speeds. However, existing EE customers on a 12/24 month SIM plan or monthly mobile phone contract will want to take a closer look as some bonuses do apply. For example, you can get a monthly discount of up to £6 on your broadband, a free 20GB mobile data boost and access to Apple TV 4K for the duration of your contract. Some pretty useful and welcome extras! For example, you can set up a rolling monthly contract with Hyperoptic, forgo a landline connection completely if you don’t need one and receive mirrored upload speeds - perfect for massive file transfers or live streaming on Twitch. As a newcomer in the space, though, it has even more limited availability across the UK. Therefore, unless you live in the big cities or very specific regions then you might not find it’s available in your area. Hyperoptic is constantly growing its reach, though. Here’s a breakdown of each of its five offers below. Hyperoptic Superfast is the most sensible and best value for money pick, though you may want to upgrade to the quicker speeds depending on your needs when they’re more deeply discounted. These prices are without a phone line included, otherwise, you’ll need to add an extra £2 per month to the cost. You’ll also need to pay a £29 activation fee, though it’s currently free on the Ultrafast and Hyperfast deals (and reduced to £9.99 on the 30Mb option). While its speeds can be excellent, Virgin is one of the more expensive providers out there. That said, there always seems to be a new offer available every few weeks to help lessen the sting a little. What is full fibre broadband? Also known as fibre to the premises (FTTP), full fibre broadband brings your internet connection directly from the exchange and into your home. That means it’s a much quicker and more reliable connection compared to standard fibre broadband. The majority of other fibre broadband connections are known as fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) which run through to a box in the street and then into your home through traditional copper wire cables. Thus, speeds are much more limited and your top speed could be reduced depending on your distance from the cabinet. What does FTTP mean? FTTP is just the initialism used to shorten fibre to the premises. As explained above, the term describes the significant difference between this new tech and the more common fibre to the cabinet broadband. Essentially, FTTP and full fibre are interchangeable, with the latter being adopted by more providers as it’s easier to grasp in a glance than fibre to the premises. If you see either, know you’re getting the new - and potentially faster and reliable tech - as part of your fibre broadband deal. What are the benefits of full fibre broadband? Speed. Speed. Speed. That’s the quick and easy answer. With full fibre broadband, you can achieve download speeds of up to 1Gbps on the top-end subscriptions. It’s still extremely fast at the lower end of the scale, too, with even the entry-level options boasting average download speeds of at least 100Mbps. In comparison, average fibre broadband speeds are from 35Mbps to 67Mbps. Can I get full fibre broadband? Full fibre broadband is currently available in a limited number of homes across the UK, but the technology is becoming more widely available all the time. For example, right now, big cities such as London, Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Swansea and more are getting faster speeds. The best way to check availability, though, is to enter your postcode on each provider’s website for all the latest information. According to USwitch, full fibre broadband is available in only 8% of homes across the country, so you can see just how limited it is right now. That said, with government investment, this number is set to grow and bring full fibre to more homes in the coming years - and more are being added every month. Which providers are offering full fibre broadband? Currently, BT, EE and Hyperoptic are the main players in the world of full fibre broadband. You just have to hope you’ve won the postcode lottery and it’s available in your area. Hyperoptic, in particular, has focused heavily on new build flats and apartment blocks. TalkTalk and Vodafone are taking steps to start providing full fibre broadband, too, so expect to see them on this page very soon. You can also achieve similar speeds to full fibre with a Virgin Media connection. However, that requires you to be an area where its own coaxial cables have been installed. That just about concludes our roundup of the best full fibre broadband deals that are currently available. As the technology becomes more widely available we expect to see more providers and better offers, so we’ll be sure to keep this page updated. You can also follow Jelly Deals on Twitter for up-to-the-minute savings across games, technology and everything else.
