Welcome to the Journal’s guide to full fibre broadband services available in and around Bradley Stoke.
Fibre to the premises (FTTP), also known as full fibre broadband, involves laying fibre optic cables directly from the broadband exchange right into your home. It can offer speeds of up to 1,000Mbps (megabits per second).
The UK government currently defines broadband speeds of 300mbps or higher as ultrafast, although some providers still use this term for speeds that exceed the previous definition of 100Mbps or higher.
By comparison, fibre to the cabinet (FTTC), also known as standard fibre or superfast broadband, offers speeds up to 80Mbps. In this system, the fibre optic cables run only as far as the street cabinet and the connection from there to your home is over standard copper telephone wires. The actual speed achieved depends on the distance from the cabinet to your home.
Quick link: Full fibre broadband providers in Bradley Stoke
The average download speed of 50.2Mbit/s for FTTC connections (as reported by Ofcom in March 2022) is likely to be more than adequate for many households. As a guide, streaming a HD film or TV channel requires around 5Mbps of download bandwidth, while a HD videoconference using Zoom ideally needs 3.8Mbps/3.0MBps download/upload bandwidth. Upload speeds on FTTC packages are typically around 10Mbps.
The superior download and upload speeds offered by full fibre packages will be attractive to online gamers, small businesses, large households, houses in multiple occupation and anyone who frequently needs to upload and download video files (e.g. those working in the creative industries).
Full fibre infrastructure
Many broadband service providers are able to provide a full fibre service via the BT Openreach physical fibre optic network. These service providers include BT, EE, Plusnet, Sky and Vodafone.
Other full fibre broadband service providers, such as Truespeed, install their own physical fibre optic network, often using BT Openreach ducts and poles through an open access agreement known as Physical Infrastructure Access (PIA), but also digging trenches to install their own ducting where necessary (e.g. if the BT Openreach ducts are full).
Telephone service
When you have full fibre broadband installed, the copper wire connection into your home is replaced with a fibre optic connection. If you previously used a landline telephone, you will no longer be able to use it by plugging it in to your new master socket. This is because the new fibre connection doesn’t provide an analogue telephony signal. This may not be a problem if you are content to use a mobile phone to make and receive calls and have a good mobile signal within your home. However, this set up may not be appreciated by regular callers who are charged more to call mobiles than they are for landlines.
Note: If your mobile reception is poor, it may be possible to use wi-fi calling, should your mobile handset and network provider support this feature.
Should you wish to continue using a landline, this may be possible by plugging your phone into your new fibre broadband router. However it is important to note that not all service providers offer a telephony service over full fibre – and those that do will may add an extra charge (typically around £5 per month). Any call charges will come on top of this.
If you expect to make use of features like ‘caller display’ and ‘call blocking’, you should check that these will be available from your chosen provider.
N.B. Telecare devices, personal alarms and security systems may not be compatible with a digital telephony service.
It is worth noting that analogue phone services will be switched off completely by the end of 2025, so you will have to switch to a digital ‘Voice over IP’ telephony service anyway by that date. Read more: UK transition from analogue to digital landlines (GOV.UK)
TV services
If you use premium TV services (a.k.a. pay TV), you may need to consider how you will continue to access these with a new full fibre broadband provider.
If your chosen provider doesn’t offer TV services directly, options such as Sky Stream or Now TV may be worth a look.
Providers using BT Openreach infrastructure
Many homes in Bradley Stoke can now access full fibre broadband from a number of service providers who use the BT Openreach fibre optic network. See some examples below (affiliate links through which the Journal might earn commission are marked *). Activation and P&P charges may apply.
Check availability for your property (Look for the line labelled ‘WBC FTTP‘ in the table of results^): BT Broadband Availability Checker
^ If you see ‘FTTP on Demand’ rather than ‘WBC FTTP’ in the table of results, this means that you are not currently able to access full fibre at regular consumer prices as a custom installation would be required.
Price increases
N.B. On 31st March 2023, some service providers will increase prices for broadband and telephony and calls by the rate of inflation recorded in January 2023 plus 3.9 percent. Depending on the rate of inflation used (CPI or RPI), this could result in increases of up to 17.3 percent. If you are looking to sign up to a deal before this date, be sure to check if any automatic price increase will be applied to your chosen package within days of signing a contract.
Prices last checked on 7th March 2023.
BT
Website: BT Broadband Deals
Download speeds up to 900mbps available.
Example package: Full Fibre 500 (500Mbps) @ £30.99 per month
Optional extras:
- Telephony (Digital Voice) @ £5 per month
- £18 with unlimited calls to landlines and mobiles
- Mesh wifi @ £5 per month (total price for up to 3 additional units)
EE
Website: EE Broadband Deals *
Download speeds up to 900Mbps available.
Example package: Full Fibre Max 100 (74Mbps) @ £37.00 per month
Discount of 10 percent for EE mobile users.
Telephony service not available over full fibre.
Note: “For customers joining in March 2023, the first increase of the monthly plan price will take place on or after 31st March 2024.”
Plusnet
Website: Plusnet Full Fibre Broadband *
Download speeds up to 500Mbps available.
Example package: Full Fibre 74 (74Mbps) @ £26.99 per month
Telephony service not available over full fibre.
Sky
Website: Sky Broadband
Download speeds up to 500Mbps available.
Example package: Ultrafast (145Mbps) @ £29.50 per month
Optional extras:
- Telephony with unlimited calls @ £11.50 per month
TalkTalk
Website: TalkTalk Full Fibre Broadband *
Download speeds up to 900Mbps available.
Example package: Fibre 150 (150Mbps) @ £32.00 per month
Telephony service not available over full fibre.
Optional extras:
- Mesh wifi @ £6 per month (1 additional unit)
Vodafone
Website: Vodafone Full Fibre Broadband
Download speeds up to 910Mbps available.
Example package: Full Fibre 200 (200Mbps) @ £30.00 per month
Optional extras:
- Unlimited anytime calls to UK landlines and mobiles (plus Apple TV 4k) @ £8 per month
Providers using their own infrastructure
Truespeed
Website: Truespeed Ultrafast Broadband
See also: Truespeed begins work on new ‘full fibre’ broadband service for Bradley Stoke (The Journal. March 2023)
Download (and upload) speeds up to 900Mbps available.
Example package: Truespeed 300 (300Mbps) @ £32.00 per month
Telephony service included (call charges extra)
Optional extras:
- Anytime landline calls @ £6.99 per month
- 250 minutes of mobile calls @ £4.99 per month
- Mesh wifi (£7/£14/£21 per month for 1/2/3 units)
Virgin Media
Ultrafast broadband speeds are also available via Virgin Media, which predominantly uses Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) technology in which fibre optic cables run to the street cabinet, with the connection from the cabinet to homes being made over coaxial cable. The current maximum speed available from Virgin Media is 1,100Mbps.