What your results mean
The checker reports Ofcom's predicted availability for the premises in your postcode, using the same categories Ofcom uses in its Connected Nations reporting.
- Standard broadband is anything below 30 Mbps. In practice this means ADSL over a copper phone line.
- Superfast is 30 Mbps or more. Usually fibre to the street cabinet with a copper run to your door.
- Ultrafast is 300 Mbps or more, which in almost all cases means full fibre or cable.
- Gigabit is 1,000 Mbps or more, and is full fibre or upgraded cable.
Two things are worth understanding about these figures before you act on them.
They are predictions, not measurements. Ofcom models what each address should be able to get based on the infrastructure serving it. The prediction is reliable for full fibre, where the technology is not distance-sensitive, and less reliable for cabinet-based fibre, where the actual speed depends on the length and condition of the copper between the cabinet and your house.
They are also availability, not what you are getting now. A postcode showing gigabit availability tells you a gigabit connection can be installed, not that yours is one. If you want to know what your current line is doing, run a speed test instead.
Why your neighbour gets faster broadband than you
This is the single most common complaint about coverage results, and there is usually a straightforward explanation.
Most UK homes that are not on full fibre are connected by fibre to the cabinet. Fibre runs from the exchange to a green cabinet in the street, and copper covers the remaining distance to each house. Copper loses speed over distance, and it loses it quickly. A house 100 metres from the cabinet might see close to the full 80 Mbps. A house 1,200 metres away on the same cabinet, served by the same provider on the same package, might see 20 Mbps or less.
That is why two homes in the same postcode, sometimes two doors apart, get very different results. It is not the provider, and switching will not fix it, because every provider using the Openreach network is sending data down the same piece of copper.
Three other things produce the same effect:
- Different networks on the same street. Virgin Media's cable network and the newer full fibre networks were each built out street by street, and neither reached every property. One side of a road can be covered while the other is not.
- Flats and shared buildings. A block of flats needs the network operator to wire the building internally. Until that happens, the street outside can have full fibre while none of the flats can order it.
- Internal wiring. Old extension wiring and poor-quality internal cabling reduce what actually reaches your router, particularly on copper connections.
The connection types, and what each one delivers
| Technology | How it reaches you | Realistic speed |
|---|---|---|
| ADSL | Copper phone line all the way from the exchange | Up to 24 Mbps, often much less |
| FTTC (fibre to the cabinet) | Fibre to a street cabinet, copper to your house | Up to 80 Mbps, falling with distance |
| Cable | Fibre to a local point, coaxial cable to your house | Up to around 1 Gbps |
| FTTP (full fibre) | Fibre all the way into the property | 100 Mbps to well over 1 Gbps |
| Fixed wireless | A radio link from a nearby mast to an aerial on your property | Varies widely by location |
| 4G and 5G home broadband | The mobile network, through a router | Depends on signal and mast load |
| Satellite | A dish, connecting to satellites | Workable speeds, higher latency |
The important distinction is between connections that end in copper and connections that do not. Full fibre is not simply faster. It is more consistent, it does not degrade with distance, its upload speeds are far higher, and it is considerably less prone to the intermittent faults that plague ageing copper. If full fibre has reached your address, it is usually the right choice even where the headline speed looks like more than you need.
Who actually owns the line
Knowing this makes coverage results much easier to interpret, because most providers do not own any network at all.
- Openreach owns the largest network and sells access to it wholesale. BT, Sky, TalkTalk, EE, Vodafone, Plusnet and many smaller providers all sell over the same Openreach lines. If Openreach has not upgraded your street, none of them can offer you full fibre, whatever their advertising says.
- Virgin Media owns its own cable network, which is why it appears in some postcodes and not others, and why its availability follows no obvious pattern.
- Alternative networks are independent operators building their own full fibre, including Hyperoptic, Community Fibre, Gigaclear, toob, YouFibre, brsk and Zzoomm. Coverage is concentrated in the areas each has built, and they often reach places Openreach has not.
The practical consequence: if your postcode shows poor availability, check whether an alternative network covers you before concluding nothing better exists. Their coverage rarely appears in the same comparison tables as the large providers, and it changes month to month.
How to find the best broadband provider in your area
Once you know what is available, four questions get you to the right answer, in this order.
- What can actually be installed? Availability comes first, because it eliminates most of the options before price ever enters into it.
- What speed do you genuinely need? Streaming in 4K needs around 25 Mbps per stream. Video calls need very little down but more up than people expect. The number of devices and simultaneous users matters more than the headline figure. Our guide on what broadband speed you really need works through this properly.
- What happens to the price later? The advertised price often applies for part of the contract, and most providers raise prices during it. A cheaper headline deal can cost more over two years. Our guide to mid-contract price rises sets out what each provider does.
- How good is the provider on the things that go wrong? Complaints data, contract flexibility and how faults are handled matter more once you are a customer than the price did when you signed up. Our provider reviews include Ofcom complaints figures for each one.
When you have narrowed it down, compare current deals for your postcode.
If you cannot get decent broadband
If the checker shows your address stuck below 30 Mbps, or below 10 Mbps, you have more options than the results suggest.
The universal service obligation. UK households have a legal right to request a decent broadband connection, defined as at least 10 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload. If no such connection is available to you, you can request one under the scheme, delivered by BT in most of the country and by KCOM in Hull. It is funded up to a cost threshold per property, currently several thousand pounds, and if the work costs more than that you are offered the choice of paying the excess. It is not a fast process, but for genuinely poorly served properties it is the strongest option available and it is underused because few people know it exists.
Mobile broadband. 4G and 5G home broadband often beats a long copper line comfortably, and needs no engineer visit. Signal strength at your property decides whether it works, so check coverage before committing, and prefer a short contract until you have tested it. Our mobile broadband page covers what is available.
Wait for a network to arrive. Full fibre rollout is still moving quickly, both from Openreach and from the alternative networks. Availability that was checked a year ago is genuinely out of date. It is worth re-checking every few months rather than assuming nothing has changed.
Community schemes. In rural areas, community-led fibre projects and voucher-funded schemes have connected properties that no commercial rollout would have reached. These are organised locally, so the place to ask is your parish or county council rather than a provider.
The copper network is being switched off
The analogue telephone network is being retired, and traditional landline services are moving to digital connections that run over broadband. Providers are migrating customers in stages, and the industry deadline has already moved once, so the date to work to is the one your own provider gives you.
Two practical points. If you have a traditional landline, your phone service will eventually move onto your broadband connection, which means it will stop working in a power cut unless you arrange a battery backup. Providers must offer a solution for anyone who relies on their landline in an emergency, including users of telecare alarms, but you generally have to tell them you need it. And if you have equipment connected to a phone line, such as a care alarm, an alarm system or a lift line, check compatibility before the migration rather than after.
If you are choosing a new connection now, this is a further argument for full fibre where it is available, since it avoids a second migration later.
Checking again later
Coverage changes. Openreach and the alternative networks are still building, and a postcode that had nothing better than a slow copper line two years ago may now have several full fibre options. If you were last told you could not get decent broadband, it is worth checking again.
You may also want to see how speeds in your area compare with the rest of the UK, or test what your current connection is delivering.