Wondering what your broadband options are in Bristol? Our page goes through the types of broadband you can get, as well as the top providers in this South West city.
Compare broadband in Bristol
Living in a big city like Bristol has its advantages when it comes to broadband. The South West city offers a wide variety of packages and providers. So, whether you’re looking for affordable entry-level fibre broadband or a top-of-the-range package, you can shop around and compare plenty of deals.
All homes in Bristol should be able to standard ADSL broadband, as well as fibre optic broadband. Depending on where you live, you’ll have a couple of different fibre broadband options.
The most widely available is fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) broadband, which averages speeds around 36-68Mbps. If you’re lucky to be living at an address with access to fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) broadband, you can get ultrafast speeds ranging anywhere between 100Mbps to over 1,000Mbps (1Gbps). Our page on FTTP vs FTTC broadband goes through everything in more detail.
As Bristol is a big city, many postcodes will be covered by either Openreach’s full fibre infrastructure, or Virgin Media’s ultrafast cable network. Furthermore, smaller companies like Hyperoptic, Gigaclear and Truespeed operate full fibre networks in and around Bristol.
All this is to say that fibre connectivity in Bristol is excellent. If you live in this area, you’ll likely be able to enjoy some of the fastest internet on the market.
Best internet providers in Bristol
Most UK providers cover Bristol, from the major players to smaller, niche names:
Which one is the best? Well, that largely depends on what you’re looking for in a broadband deal, as well as what’s available at your address.
If we’re talking about sheer speed, Virgin Media is the fastest – and it’s got pretty wide availability across Bristol, too. That said, many other providers offer full fibre broadband with comparable speeds, including the household-name providers and smaller specialist ones.
Bristolians should be able to get fast or ultrafast fibre broadband with any provider that uses BT’s Openreach network. This includes the likes of Sky, EE, Plusnet, TalkTalk, NOW, Vodafone, and BT.
