Is 900 Mbps enough speed for me?
900 Mbps is plenty of bandwidth for nearly all households, even if you regularly have 4-5 people online at the same time doing very data-intensive activities, or working from home.
You can now get speeds faster than 900 Mbps in many parts of the UK, but these ultrafast multi-gigabit plans are more of a luxury than a necessity in most cases today.
The only reason you might like to consider a 2 gigabit (or faster) plan is if you are constantly performing extremely large file downloads or uploads, and want to make this process as efficient as possible.
You can use our bandwidth needs calculator to get a more accurate idea of what download and upload speed it’s worth paying for, given how you use the internet, and how many people live at home.
How much does a 900 Mbps broadband plan typically cost?
900 Mbps broadband deals currently tend to cost about £25 to £40 per month, depending on the underlying broadband network that the provider is using.
There is a bit of variance here because some newer broadband providers (such as YouFibre and Hyperoptic) are trying to undercut the larger ISPs (such as Sky and BT) to try and get market share at the moment.
As a result, if you live in an area with altnets such as Hyperoptic or YouFibre available, you can typically get gigabit broadband for a cheaper price than in Openreach or Virgin Media areas.
Use the postcode coverage checker at the top of this page to see which broadband providers offer the best value 900 Mbps deals at your address at the moment.
Is it worth paying more for 2 Gigabit broadband?
It is not usually worth paying for 2 gigabit broadband over a 900-1,000 Mb deal, most of the time.
2 gigabit broadband is typically a lot more expensive than single gigabit, without offering a noticeable real-world performance difference in most cases.
When using WiFi for example, in real-world conditions, you aren’t likely to actually see 2,000 megabits most of the time with one of these plans, and some devices can’t even take advantage of these sorts of speeds.
2 gigabit plans are best if you have devices plugged into the router directly, rather than using WiFi, that you know can take advantage of these sorts of speeds, and often demand very large amounts of bandwidth.
Which broadband providers offer 900 Mbps plans?
Currently, most Openreach broadband providers offer a 900 Mbps tariff, including BT, EE, Sky, Plusnet, and Vodafone.
Some altnets such as YouFibre and Hyperoptic also offer broadband deals with a 900 Mbps download speed.
A number of other ISPs offer plans with a download speed of around 1,000 Mbps, such as Virgin Media and Community Fibre.
What to look for in a 900 Mbps broadband deal
When comparing broadband deals in this speed range, consider:
- The upload speed – some smaller providers in particular offer symmetric downloads and uploads, while others only offer upload speeds of about 100 Mbps or so.
- The WiFi router – getting a good router is important to ensure that you get speeds close to 900 Mbps over WiFi as often as possible.
- Any add-ons, and their cost – sometimes, at this sort of speed, providers have a regular, cheap 900 Mbps plan, then another more expensive one with benefits such as WiFi extenders and 4G broadband backup devices. Consider whether you really need these add-ons before buying the more expensive tariff.