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Broadband speeds at my new postcode

Our Broadband Expert says...

Virgin Media offers superfast broadband with speeds of up to 10Mb, 30Mb, 50Mb and now even 100Mb speeds.

As well as the top advertised speeds, Virgin Media also delivers around 90% of its promised connection - a better performance than any other internet service provider (ISP).

But the cable network it uses to deliver these speeds is only available to around half of the country, and if you don’t live in a cable area, you'll have to use traditional copper wire phone lines to get online.

Your new postcode

Your new home is not in a cabled area, so, as mentioned, you'll have to use a traditional phone line to access the internet. As well as having a lower maximum speed, these types of connections are subject to distance from the exchange - which means the further you live from the telephone exchange, the slower your broadband will be.

Your new postcode is approximately 2.7km from the nearest telephone exchange. As you know, this means that your broadband will be significantly slower than the top advertised speed on your package.

Speeds of “up to 20Mb broadband” are available at your new address, but according to BT, you'll get between 1Mb and 3Mb with an actual download speed estimate of 2Mb.

iPlayer on BT Vision

A speed of at least 2Mb is needed to BT’s digital TV service BT Vision - though this only applies to the internet-connected on-demand content - all the Freeview channels you receive will be delivered through an aerial in the same way as a normal set-top box.

Now though, the BBC iPlayer is available direct to your TV on BT Vision - in the same way that Virgin Media customers can enjoy the catch-up service on their TV set. This will replace the selection of BBC catch-up TV in the TV Replay pack, though you'll still get access to ITV Net Player, 4 on demand and Demand 5.

But because BT Vision uses part of your home internet connection to deliver on-demand content to your TV, using this part of the service will use up bandwidth - leaving less for you to use to surf the net, send emails or check into Facebook.

When it comes to high-definition (HD) TV though, BT has nowhere near as much on offer as Virgin Media. Only on-demand movies and TV programmes are available in HD, with 40 films to download to your TV and 10 new titles added each month. You will need a Vision+ HD box and a HD ready TV to watch high-definition content.

Other ways to watch

As a viable alternative, you could sign-up to a cheap ISP, like Plusnet broadband or TalkTalk broadband, with packages starting from £6.49 or £6.50 a month respectively - though TalkTalk is currently offering six months half price cutting costs to just £3.25 a month for broadband with a 40GB download allowance and inclusive phone calls.

You can then buy a Freesat HD box to watch TV. This will give you access to the BBC iPlayer, with the ITV Player set to launch on Freesat soon. You'll also get HD access to BBC HD, BBC One HD, ITV1 HD and 4 HD as well as the NHK World news channel - and best of all, Freesat is subscription free. So once you've bought your box and set up your connection, you'll be able to watch all your favourite shows without paying a monthly fee. You will need a Freesat HD box to watch the BBC iPlayer as well as HD programmes, and a broadband connection of at least 1Mb.

Future broadband speeds

Local loop unbundled (LLU) providers like O2, Sky broadband and TalkTalk have installed their equipment in the exchange, giving you faster speeds and more competition.

While this means that providers at your exchange might be able to offer speeds of up to 20Mb or 24Mb broadband, you will still only get between 1Mb and 3Mb in reality as the signal degrades on its route to your home.

BT is rolling out a fibre optic broadband service offering speeds of up to 40Mb broadband across parts of the UK. BT Infinity is now available to around five million homes and businesses, and BT plans to extend this to two-thirds of the UK by 2015.

However, BT has no plans in the next six months to upgrade the Portishead exchange for BT Infinity, and with less than 9,000 homes connected to the exchange, you might not get superfast broadband any time soon.

Virgin Media also has no plans to extend its cable network this far.

Although the government wants 90% of homes and businesses to get speeds of at least 25Mb by 2015, it recently revealed it has only half the cash needed to make this happen. And for the remaining 10% of the country, a minimum of just 2Mb is required.

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