Superfast VS Ultrafast Fibre Broadband: Providers & Download Speeds

You’ll often see terms like superfast and ultrafast broadband when comparing fibre broadband providers.

In the UK, you’ll often see terms like “superfast fibre” and “ultrafast fibre” when comparing home broadband services. These terms are intended to distinguish different categories of home broadband, based on the maximum download speed that’s available on the service.

In this article, we’ll look at the different types of home broadband in the UK. We’ll also look at the definitions of “standard broadband”, “superfast broadband” and “ultrafast broadband” before comparing different broadband technologies in more detail.

Superfast & Ultrafast Fibre Broadband

In the UK, you’ll often see home broadband services being marketed as “superfast broadband” or “ultrafast broadband”. This is based on the maximum download speed available on the service, with the official definitions from Ofcom (the UK’s regulator for telecommunication services) being as follows:

• Standard broadband (download speeds of less than 30Mbps). All home broadband services delivered through ADSL technology using a BT Openreach phone line fall within this category.
• Superfast broadband (download speeds of 30Mbps to 300Mbps). The term ‘superfast broadband’ is used to distinguish home broadband services with a download speed of more than 30Mbps. This includes all fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) services as well as the lower tiers of Virgin’s cable-based home broadband service. Broadband that’s delivered through G.fast or 4G technology would also normally be classified as offering superfast speeds.
• Ultrafast broadband (download speeds of more than 300Mbps). Ultrafast broadband refers to services offering a download speed of more than 300Mbps. Full fibre services (also known as fibre-to-the-home or FTTH) are the gold standard within this category. However, the higher tiers of Virgin Media’s cable-based broadband and 5G broadband would also count as ultrafast broadband. Prior to 2015, the threshold for ultrafast broadband was only 100Mbps. Some ISPs continue to use the old definition, marketing their G.fast services as ultrafast broadband even though they offer download speeds of less than 300Mbps.

It’s worth noting that Ofcom’s official definitions are fairly one-dimensional when it comes to broadband speed. It ignores lots of other factors such as the upload speed available and the ease of actually getting the maximum available speed.

To give an example, full fibre (or fibre-to-the-home) services tend to offer symmetrical speeds where you can upload at the same speed you download. This is beneficial for things like cloud-based storage where you often need to upload lots of data. Other broadband types like cable normally have asymmetric speeds where uploads are substantially slower than downloads. Another factor that’s missed out is the difference between actual and maximum speeds. For instance, you’ll normally only be able to get a fraction of the maximum possible speed when using 4G or 5G home broadband. Meanwhile, cable or fibre-based broadband will normally give you close to the maximum advertised speed.

Other terms that are sometimes in use include Hyperfast and Gigafast. These terms don’t have a standard industry-recognised meaning: they’re just marketing terms used by certain internet service providers to describe their own service.

Broadband Plans By Speed

The following table shows how much you would need to pay for a home broadband service at a range of different download speeds. It also shows the percentage availability amongst UK households:

Download Speed	Monthly Price	Availability
10Mbps	From £26.95/month	98% of UK households
36Mbps	From £17.99/month	95% of UK households
50Mbps	From £25.00/month	95% of UK households
67Mbps	From £22.00/month	95% of UK households
100Mbps	From £22.99/month	60% of UK households
150Mbps	From £26.99/month	60% of UK households
200Mbps	From £25.99/month	60% of UK households
300Mbps	From £29.00/month	60% of UK households
500Mbps	From £29.00/month	50% of UK households
900Mbps	From £34.99/month	20% of UK households

UK Broadband Providers

The following table shows a list of internet service providers (ISPs) in the UK. For each ISP, we’ve shown whether they offer standard, superfast and ultrafast broadband services. We’ve also shown the type of technology that is used for each one as this is often much more informative and relevant to what you can do with the service:

Internet Service Provider (ISP)	Standard Broadband (<30Mbps)	Superfast Broadband (30-300Mbps)	Ultrafast Broadband (>300Mbps)
BT Broadband	✔ ADSL	✔ FTTC & G.fast	✔ Full Fibre
EE	✔ ADSL	✔ FTTC, G.fast & 4G	✔ Full Fibre
Hyperoptic	✘	✘	✔ Full Fibre
Now Broadband	✔ ADSL	✔ FTTC	✘
Post Office	✔ ADSL	✔ FTTC	✘
Plusnet	✔ ADSL	✔ FTTC	✘
SSE	✔ ADSL	✔ FTTC	✘
TalkTalk	✔ ADSL	✔ FTTC & G.fast	✔ Full Fibre
Three	✘	✔ 4G	✔ 5G
Shell Energy	✔ ADSL	✔ FTTC	✘
Sky Broadband	✔ ADSL	✔ FTTC & G.fast	✔ Full Fibre
Virgin Media	✘	✔ DOCSIS Cable	✔ DOCSIS Cable
Vodafone	✘	✔ FTTC & 4G	✔ Full Fibre & 5G

On full fibre (fibre to the home or FTTH) services, your connection will normally always be capable of achieving gigabit download speeds (1Gbit/s or 1,000Mbps). However, on some cheaper price plans, the download speeds might be restricted (e.g. sometimes down to as little as 50Mbps or 100Mbps). This technically brings the service within the realm of offering superfast speeds, although the line is technically capable of providing ultrafast speeds.

Broadband Technologies

In our opinion, it’s far more meaningful to look at the actual broadband technology used rather than relying on top-level categorisations such as “superfast” or “ultrafast”. This will tell you a lot more about how the broadband service is delivered, along with what you can do with it and the associated pros and cons.

The technologies used to provide home broadband in the UK are as follows:

Broadband Technology	Maximum Download Speed	Maximum Upload Speed	Average Download Speed	Average Upload Speed
ADSL	Up to 17Mbps	Up to 1.5Mbps	11Mbps	0.8Mbps
FTTC	Up to 80Mbps	Up to 20Mbps	60Mbps	18Mbps
G.fast	Up to 300Mbps	Up to 50Mbps	280Mbps	45Mbps
DOCSIS Cable	Up to 1,104Mbps	Up to 54Mbps	1,104Mbps	54Mbps
Full Fibre	Up to 1,000Mbps	Up to 1,000Mbps	1,000Mbps	1,000Mbps
4G Wireless	Up to 450Mbps (Cat9)	Up to 50Mbps	15-30Mbps	8-10Mbps
5G Wireless	Up to 1,000Mbps	–	150-250Mbps	80-100Mbps

ADSL

A standard home broadband service that’s delivered through your BT Openreach phone line uses a copper connection between your home and the telephone exchange.

With ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) technology, it’s possible to obtain download speeds of up to 17Mbps and upload speeds of up to 1.5Mbps. Actual download speeds will depend on the distance between your home to the telephone exchange, with average speeds normally being in the region of 10Mbps.

Almost all UK homes can get access to ADSL broadband.

FTTC (Fibre To The Cabinet)

The majority of fibre broadband services sold in the UK are actually fibre-to-the-cabinet services, or FTTC for short.

With FTTC, a fibre connection is used from the telephone exchange to your nearest green street cabinet. That’s as far as the fibre connection goes, and a copper connection is then used from the street cabinet to your home (what’s often referred to as the “last mile” connection).

With FTTC, it’s possible to obtain download speeds of up to 80Mbps and upload speeds of up to 20Mbps. Actual speeds in reality depend on the distance between your home and the street cabinet but average download speeds are normally in the region of 60Mbps.

Around 91% of UK homes are able to get a fibre-to-the-cabinet service.

G.fast

G.fast is a hybrid technology that brings the fibre connection one step closer to your home. Rather than the fibre optic cable stopping at your nearest street cabinet, it goes one step further and ends at a G.fast pod that’s installed on your nearest telephone pole or pavement chamber.

The “last mile” connection between the G.fast pod and your home still uses a traditional copper cable. However, as the amount of copper is greatly reduced, you can get maximum download speed of up to 300Mbps and maximum upload speeds of up to 50Mbps. Average speeds vary in practice but you can often see an average download speed of around 280Mbps.

Around one million UK homes currently have access to G.fast broadband.

DOCSIS Cable

In the UK, Virgin Media provides a home broadband service using cable and a technology known as DOCSIS. Technically speaking, DOCSIS is a fibre-to-the-cabinet service but it uses co-axial cables (Hybrid Fibre Coax) between the cabinet and your home. This means performance is a lot better than on regular FTTC which uses basic copper cables rather than a HFC cable.

On Virgin’s latest Gig1 broadband service, it’s possible to obtain download speeds of up to 1Gbit/s. This uses the latest version of DOCSIS 3.1. Upload speeds of 54Mbps are available (this is an asymmetric service unlike full fibre connections). In areas where Gig1 broadband is not yet available, Virgin Media offers download speeds of up to 500Mbps.

Full Fibre (Fibre To The Home)

The gold standard for home broadband is full fibre (also known as fibre-to-the-home or FTTH). The fibre optic cable runs all the way into your home, meaning you’ll you get the highest possible speeds.

Today’s full fibre services offer up to 1Gbps symmetrical speeds: that’s 1,000Mbps on both the download and upload. Typically, these speeds are marketed as 900Mbps. In the future, even higher speeds should become available as newer hardware takes advantage of the fibre optic cable.

Although full fibre services can offer gigabit speeds in both directions, some full fibre services are sold with slower speeds. This is used to make the service more affordable as many people do not require the maximum available speed.

4G Wireless

As an alternative to receiving broadband through a phone line or cable, it’s also possible to get home broadband through 4G technology. Here, a wireless connection is used between your home broadband router and the nearest 4G mobile mast.

With Category 9 LTE technology, it’s possible to get download speeds of up to 450Mbps and upload speeds of up to 50Mbps. In practice, however, speeds on 4G are normally much slower than the maximum. This is due to signal strength not being perfect and due to resources on the mast being shared with other users (contention). A more typical range for download speeds on 4G home broadband is 15-30Mbps.

5G Wireless

5G is the next generation of wireless home broadband, offering download speeds of up to 1Gbps.

Today’s 5G home broadband services will give you an average download speed of around 100Mbps. It’s possible, however, to get higher download speeds than this if in you’re in an area with good 5G coverage and with plenty of capacity.

More Information

For more information, you can read our in-depth reviews of BT Broadband, EE Broadband, Hyperoptic, Shell Energy Broadband, Sky Broadband, TalkTalk Broadband, Three Broadband, Virgin Media and Vodafone Broadband.