U.K. households with ultrafast broadband connections have a more reliable experience than those with superfast

Authored by Sam Fenwick
Data analysis by Giulio Sinibaldi and Simon Lumb

Modern life comes to a screeching halt in the absence of reliable home broadband. We need it for both work and play — streaming shows and movies or playing the latest video games. It’s therefore important to choose the right home broadband package for your needs and this can be tricky given the number of options available.

However, our data shows that if you upgrade to ultrafast broadband (average download speeds of more than 300Mbps*) you’re likely to get not just faster speeds, but a smoother and more reliable experience compared to those on superfast connections (30-300Mbps*). All major providers perform well, but EE, Vodafone, and Plusnet are consistently strong across the board for ultrafast broadband.

* As defined by Ofcom, the U.K.’s telecom regulator

Key findings:

• Households with ultrafast connections have the most reliable and consistent experience. Our ultrafast households have a superior home broadband experience in terms of Consistent Quality, Reliability Experience and Video Experience compared to those on superfast connections.
• EE and Vodafone are unbeaten in superfast home broadband experience. These two internet service providers (ISPs) are joint winners across Consistent Quality, Reliability Experience and Video Experience for superfast broadband.
  • Plusnet is a joint winner for Consistent Quality and Reliability Experience.
  • Virgin Media picks up two such accolades for Reliability Experience and Video Experience.
  • Sky shares first place for Video Experience.
• EE, Plusnet and Vodafone can’t be beaten for ultrafast home broadband experience. All three of these ISPs are joint winners across the three measures of the ultrafast experience we have analyzed. Talktalk shares the winners’ podium with them for Reliability Experience, while Virgin Media and BT do the same for Consistent Quality. All seven ISPs are statistically tied for Video Experience.

To obtain these results, we assigned each U.K. household in Opensignal’s data to a different speed category based on their maximum observed download and upload speeds over the prior 30 days, and excluded observations from households with persistent sub-optimal router configuration.

For each of the seven national ISPs that provide users with home broadband services (BT, EE, Plusnet, Sky, Talktalk, Virgin Media and Vodafone), we then calculated the experience of the households in these two categories across three key measures of the home broadband experience: Consistent Quality, Reliability Experience and Video Experience. We have kept BT and EE separate, in line with recent news regarding the strategy for these brands. In addition, we aggregated all seven national providers together to directly compare the experience of our ultrafast and superfast households.

The Ultrafast experience is more reliable than that seen with superfast

Opting for an ultrafast connection is likely to give you a more reliable and more consistent home broadband experience than that seen with superfast connections.

Our ultrafast households have higher scores than their superfast equivalents for Consistent Quality, Reliability Experience and Video Experience.

The difference is particularly marked for Reliability Experience — ultrafast households score 853 points on a 100-1000 point scale, 120 points higher than superfast households.

For Consistent Quality, ultrafast households score 89.9% — over six percentage points higher than that seen for superfast.

Finally, when it comes to their experience when streaming on-demand video over home broadband connections, ultrafast households score 78.8 points on a 100-point scale, nearly three points higher than those with superfast connections.

When providers go head-to-head, the superfast contests are too close to call

When it comes to choosing a superfast broadband provider, in terms of the experience observed by our households, EE and Vodafone are narrowly out in front. This is because EE and Vodafone are the only two ISPs to be unbeaten across all three measures of the superfast experience.

EE, Vodafone and Plusnet share first place for Consistent Quality, when measuring the national superfast home broadband experience. They do so with statistically tied scores of 86.5%-88.1%.

There is a four-way tie for Reliability Experience, with Vodafone, Plusnet, EE and Virgin Media sharing first place with scores of 739-756 points on a 100-1000 point score.

A similar situation exists for Video Experience with four providers sharing the winners’ podium: Virgin Media, Sky, Vodafone and EE. They do so with statistically tied scores of 76.5-76.7 points on a 100-point scale.

All seven home broadband providers place in the Very Good (68-78) category for Video Experience, including that our superfast households are, on average, able to stream video at 1080p or better with satisfactory loading times and little stalling.

EE, Plusnet and Vodafone narrowly have the edge when it comes to ultrafast broadband

While many ISPs share first place across our measures of the ultrafast broadband experience, EE, Vodafone, and Plusnet have done particularly well, being on the winners’ podium across all three categories. This makes them the obvious choice for anyone looking for an ultrafast broadband provider from an experience perspective.

Even though most ISPs may be using the same wholesale network, the home broadband experience seen by their customers can vary due to their choice of Wi-Fi router, speed plan and access technologies. These factors along with the configuration of ISPs’ core networks all have an influence on the real-world home broadband experience.

For ultrafast Consistent Quality, Plusnet, Virgin Media, BT Vodafone and EE share first place with statistically tied scores of 87.9-91.1%. Talktalk narrowly misses joining these ISPs on the winners’ podium, as its confidence intervals do not overlap with Plusnet’s.

Talktalk, Vodafone, EE and Plusnet share first place for ultrafast Reliability Experience with statically tied scores of 858-882 points on a 100-1000 point scale.

There is no statistically significant difference in our ultrafast household’s experience when streaming on-demand video over home broadband connections. All seven national ISPs therefore share first place for Video Experience, with scores of 78.1-78.9 points.

Our ultrafast households’ video experience across all seven national ISPs places in the Excellent (78 or above) category. This means that they are, on average, able to stream video at 1080p or better with fast loading times and no stalling.

The shift to faster speeds 

While some U.K. households are still reliant on old copper-based connections, they are a shrinking minority, making the experience of households with superfast and ultrafast connections increasingly important — both commercially and from the perspective of anyone seeking to understand the country’s home broadband market.

According to Ofcom’s Connected Nations 2024 report, by July 2024 98% of UK premises were covered by superfast (30Mbps or faster) home broadband services, 83% had gigabit-capable coverage and 69% were covered by full fibre.

While coverage in broadband terms normally refers to the proportion of homes or premises that can access services, take-up is the proportion that are actually using them. According to Ofcom, the take up of superfast services has hit 75%. This matters as 75% is the point when a review of the broadband Universal Service Obligation (USO) is likely to be triggered to ensure it remains relevant. The USO provides the legal right to request a decent broadband connection (10Mbps download, 1Mbps upload), up to a cost threshold of £3,400 per premise.

Full fibre take-up is also on the rise — according to data from  the FTTH Council Europe, as of September 2024, of the 21.4 million households covered by FTTH (2023: 17.2 million), the take-up rate is 37.1%, up from the 31.8% seen in 2023. This means that more households are now benefiting from faster and more reliable broadband.

Of the approximately 32.5 million premises in the U.K., Openreach’s full fibre network covers around 18 million and it is seeking to reach 25 million by December 2026, rising to 30 million by 2030. To increase the likelihood of this coming to pass, Openreach is pushing for legislation to make this rollout easier, such as the introduction of a flexi-permit scheme for street works and easier access to large residential buildings such as blocks of flats (often referred to in the industry as multi-dwelling units — MDUs) . Greater availability of full fibre broadband will mean that less households will be dependent on out-of-date technologies.

At the same time, Openreach is gradually ceasing to sell copper-based broadband products — as part of its program to switch off the legacy Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) by January 2027. It is doing so for each exchange when 75% of the premises connected to it can get a full-fibre connection. Phasing out copper will improve the overall experience of U.K. broadband and will alleviate skills and parts shortages.

Massive increases in speed are on the horizon, given Openreach’s intention to trial FTTP over XGS-PON in 2026 (it has already been deploying XGS-PON ready equipment). While many applications won’t see much benefit from 1Gbps speeds, they will be a boon to anyone updating computer games or those trying to share large files.

We’ve seen that when we split our households into ultrafast and superfast categories — ultrafast households have the best home broadband experience. Look out for more from Opensignal on the U.K.’s mobile and home broadband experience in future reports and analyses.