A download speed of 36Mbps allows you to stream full HD video on 7 devices at the same time, or download a HD movie in 15 minutes.
If you’re using a broadband internet connection with download speeds of 36Mbps, you can comfortably stream full HD quality video on up to 7 devices at the same time. Alternatively, you can download an entire music album in around 19 seconds or a HD-quality movie in about 15 minutes (increasing to 1 hour, 14 minutes if you’re downloading a movie in 4K ultra-HD quality).
Several UK internet service providers have an entry-level fibre broadband plan with download speeds of around 36Mbps. Companies offering a plan in this range include BT, EE, TalkTalk and Vodafone. It's normally a little cheaper than their 67Mbps plans.
In this article, we’ll look at what you can do on a 36Mbps connection, including for online video, music, gaming, video calls and general web browsing. We’ll also look at download times on a 36Mbps connection and at how much you’ll typically need to pay for 36Mbps broadband at different ISPs.
Contents
How Fast Is 36Mbps?
A download speed of 36Mbps is a little slower than the UK’s average home broadband service (63Mbps).
Although it's a little bit slower than average, you'll still be able to do most of the things you'd want to do online. For instance, there wouldn't be any problems with day-to-day usage such as web browsing, video calling, watching videos online or playing multiplayer games.
In some cases, things may start slowing down if you're using multiple devices at the same time (e.g. you wouldn't be able to stream ultra-HD video on multiple devices at the same time).
Streaming & Other Activities
If you’re using a 36Mbps broadband connection, it will support most things you’d like to do online. This includes browsing the web, making video calls, listening to music and watching video online.
In the following table, we’ve listed a number of online activities and the minimum speed required for each one. We’ve also listed the number of devices you’d be able to use at the same time when accessing these services through a 36Mbps connection.
For instance, watching online video in full HD (1080p) quality would require a download speed of 5Mbps on each device. You can therefore watch on up to 7 devices at the same time if you have a 36Mbps connection.
| Activity | Required Download Speed | Usable on 36Mbps Connection? |
|---|---|---|
| Web Browsing, Messaging & E-Mail: | ||
| General web browsing | 0.1-1Mbps | ✔ Yes, on 35 devices |
| Social media, instant messaging & e-mail | <0.1Mbps | ✔ Yes, on 100+ devices |
| Voice & Video Calling: | ||
| Skype/WhatsApp phone call | 0.1Mbps | ✔ Yes, on 100+ devices |
| Skype/Zoom video call | 0.5-0.8Mbps | ✔ Yes, on 45 devices |
| Skype/Zoom video call (HD) | 1.5-1.8Mbps | ✔ Yes, on 20 devices |
| Zoom group video call (HD) | 2.5-3Mbps | ✔ Yes, on 10 devices |
| Streaming Online Music & Radio: | ||
| Listening to online radio | 0.2Mbps | ✔ Yes, on 100+ devices |
| Streaming music (Spotify, Apple Music, etc) | 0.4Mbps | ✔ Yes, on 90 devices |
| Streaming Online Video: | ||
| Watching YouTube videos (basic quality) | 0.5Mbps | ✔ Yes, on 70 devices |
| Watching YouTube videos (720p HD quality) | 2.5Mbps | ✔ Yes, on 10 devices |
| Watching YouTube videos (1080p HD quality) | 4Mbps | ✔ Yes, on 9 devices |
| Watching iPlayer/Netflix (standard definition) | 1.5Mbps | ✔ Yes, on 20 devices |
| Watching iPlayer/Netflix (high definition) | 5Mbps | ✔ Yes, on 7 devices |
| Watching iPlayer/Netflix (4K UHD) | 25Mbps | ✔ Yes, on 1 device |
| Online Gaming: | ||
| Online Gaming (installed PC/console game) | 3Mbps | ✔ Yes, on 10 devices |
| Cloud Gaming (Stadia/PS Now/Xbox Cloud) | 10Mbps | ✔ Yes, on 3 devices |
| Cloud Gaming (4K Stadia) | 35Mbps | ✔ Yes, on 1 device |
For some activities like instant messaging and email, there's no real limit to the number of devices you can use at the same time. In theory, things would still work on more than 100 devices at the same time when using a 36Mbps broadband connection. In reality, however, you might reach the limit of your home wi-fi network, which can start slowing down when you have lots of devices connected at the same time.
Download Times
With a download speed of 36Mbps, you can download an entire music album in about 19 seconds. It will take 15 minutes to download a HD-quality film (1080p quality) and about 1 hour, 14 minutes to download an ultra-HD quality movie (4K quality).
The following table shows the expected download time for multiple different types of file on a 36Mbps connection:
| Activity | 36Mbps Download Time |
|---|---|
| Downloading a music album: | 19 seconds |
| Downloading a 2 hour movie: | 4 minutes (SD quality) 15 minutes (HD quality) 1 hour, 14 minutes (Ultra HD quality) |
| Downloading a PC or console game: | 2 hours, 47 minutes |
| Downloading a mobile application: | 7 seconds |
| Downloading a high-quality photo: | <1 second |
| Downloading a web page or email: | <1 second |
Typical file sizes used for our calculations: 85MB for a music album, 1GB for a standard-definition movie, 4GB for a full-HD quality movie, 20GB for a 4K Ultra HD quality movie, 45GB for a PlayStation or Xbox console game, 30MB for an iPhone or Android mobile application and 2MB for a high-quality photograph.
If you’re calculating the download time for another file, it’s important to remember that 36Mbps stands for 36 Megabits per second (where 8 Megabits are equal to one MegaByte). For this reason, if you’re downloading a 36MB (36 MegaByte) file, it will take you 8 seconds to do this and not one second.
Home Network Considerations
If your broadband connection has a 36Mbps download speed, this refers to the speed at your router or hub. This may be different from the actual speed on your individual devices.
If you're connecting to the internet over wi-fi, the download speed on individual devices may be slower than 36Mbps. This is often due to poor wi-fi or congestion from other networks. This will stop you from getting the full potential of your broadband service. For instance, you might experience buffering when watching videos online due to poor wi-fi, even if your broadband connection is able to support it.
Where possible, you should use a wired Ethernet connection to get the fastest available speeds. If you're not able to do this, look at ways to improve the wi-fi signal in your home. Getting a wi-fi repeater or a mesh wi-fi system such as BT Whole Home Wi-Fi or Google Wi-Fi can be a highly effective way of improving speeds on your home wi-fi network.
How Much Does 36Mbps Broadband Cost?
In the UK, it’s currently possible to get 36Mbps broadband with prices starting from £17.99/month. However, not all of the services are likely to be available at your address, so you’ll need to check the availability of different services at your address.
Several UK internet service providers have an entry-level fibre broadband plan with download speeds of around 36Mbps. Companies offering a plan in this range include BT, EE, TalkTalk and Vodafone. It's normally a little cheaper than their 67Mbps plans.
The following table shows 36Mbps broadband plans:
| Service | Average Speed | Contract Length | Upfront Price | Monthly Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Fast 30Mbps (24 months) | 30Mbps download | 24 month contract | £9.99 | £17.99/month |
 Superfast 1 | 38Mbps download | 24 month contract | £0 | £20/month |
 Superfast Fibre | 35Mbps download | 18 month contract | £0 | £21.99/month with 3 months free |
 Unlimited Fibre | 36Mbps download | 18 month contract | £0 | £21.99/month |
 Fab Fibre | 36Mbps download | 12 month contract | £5 | £22/month |
 EE Fibre | 36Mbps download | 24 month contract | £0 | £24/month |
 Fibre | 36Mbps download | 12 month contract | £0 | £25/month |
 Fibre 35 | 38Mbps download | 18 month contract | £0 | £25/month |
 Fibre Essential | 36Mbps download | 24 month contract | £29.99 | £28.99/month |
 Sky Superfast 35 | 36Mbps download | 18 month contract | £0 | £30.50/month |
Other Download Speeds
The cost and availability of different home broadband services depends on the download speed you’re able to get.
The following table shows how much you'd need to pay for a broadband service with different download speeds. It also shows the percentage availability amongst UK households:
| Download Speed | Monthly Price | Availability |
|---|---|---|
| 10Mbps | From £18.00/month | 98% of UK households |
| 36Mbps | From £17.99/month | 95% of UK households |
| 50Mbps | From £17.99/month | 95% of UK households |
| 67Mbps | From £22.00/month | 95% of UK households |
| 100Mbps | From £25.00/month | 60% of UK households |
| 150Mbps | From £25.00/month | 60% of UK households |
| 200Mbps | From £31.00/month | 60% of UK households |
| 300Mbps | From £36.00/month | 60% of UK households |
| 500Mbps | From £30.00/month | 50% of UK households |
| 900Mbps | From £35.00/month | 20% of UK households |
More Information
For more information, see our in-depth guides on download speed and upload speed. You can also read our other home broadband guides, including our review of all the major UK broadband internet providers.
EdShift said:
I’m with Virgin and I’m getting a solid 10 megabytes per second download speed from Steam.
I’m connected over Wi-Fi with one range extender directly above upstairs from the router.
Very impressive.
Christopher Jesty said:
I subscribe to my service provider for a download speed of 300mbps and upload of 50mbps. In reality the download speed sometimes exceeds 300mbps however, I simply cannot watch TV channels because of severe buffering. I have an ethernet connection rom my TV box to my latest state of the art modem and my Fibre Optic replaced the old copper wire only last week. I thought that by upgrading to 300mbps all my streaming problems would be over but I am still frustrated at not being able to enjoy watching my favorite channels.
H Wainwright said:
Thanks for the interesting article. I wonder if you have any opinion on fibre to mast which seems to be what BT/Openreach are suggesting for the suburbs of Sheffield instead of fibre to home for their Cityfibre project.
Ken replied:
Hi there,
Thanks for your comment. I believe BT were previously deploying Gfast technology in some areas which can give download speeds of up to 330Mbps (so somewhere in between regular fibre broadband and fibre-to-the-premises). However, I believe this has now been halted and the focus is very much on FTTP (fibre to the premises). I’m not aware of any ongoing major Gfast deployments?
Ken
Fred replied:
I just signed up for AT&T’s Fiber Internet 500, and a speed test after installation shows me getting speeds even faster than 500 mbps. But nobody mentions that download speed isn’t based solely on your own Internet connection. It’s also dependent upon the speed of the person uploading the file. And so far, in a few days of testing,I’ve never encountered a download clocked at over 5 or 6 mbps, And most of them are a lot slower. So in practical terms, what good does it do you to have a superfast connection if most real-life download speeds are 100 times slower than what you are capable of receiving?