BEST BROADBAND IN THE UK (2021)

3 November 2021 Broadband

Which Broadband is Best for You?

There’s so much choice when it comes to picking the best broadband provider and we can often feel overwhelmed when the time comes to switch. Exploring pros and cons of each provider can lead you down a rabbit hole and you hit brick wall after brick wall as it becomes apparent certain aspects of one provider won’t suit your circumstances.

Well, dig no more! We’ve arranged the search into several categories and listed the best performing broadband providers for each one. We’ll look at the cost, customer service, customer satisfaction, reliability and speed. 

Ready to find 2021’s best broadband provider for you?

Cheapest Broadband

Keeping monthly costs low is a top priority for millions of UK households, especially now that energy bills are on the rise. Whilst there’s little that we can do against the energy conglomerates, customers can shop around for good broadband deals.

The cost of broadband might be your most important factor when choosing a provider. However, cheapest is not always best value for money. The cheapest broadband more often than not depends on ADSL.

Shell, at the time of writing, offers the cheapest deal. At £16.99 a month you get average speeds of a very limited 11Mb. We’d recommend avoiding this deal if you live with others who also need access to the internet simultaneously. Otherwise, you’ll be paying £16.99 a month for 18 months just to pull your hair out. 

Ouch!   

No doubt you’ll come across offers by the biggest Internet Service Providers (ISPs) that slap on TV bundles, call packages and vouchers. These deals trap customers into 12, 18 or even 24 month contracts. Usually the cheaper the monthly cost, the longer the contract.

Broadband Freedom keeps monthly prices practically the same across the board. Whether it’s Unlimited Broadband for 6 or 24 months, 12 or 18 month home fibre broadband or 6 or 12 month super-fast broadband. Our basic Broadband with 16Mps, has wide coverage across the UK.

Best Customer Service

Great customer service should be a central ethic for all businesses. Many people realise that they received better customer service before they became customers. Follow up calls to see whether you’re still interested in a deal are more common than resolving complaints. Sound familiar?

Ofcom estimated payouts of £8m in compensation over a six-month period to customers who experienced poor broadband services. The automatic compensation scheme actually paid out £20.7m between July and December of 2019.

In January 2020, Ofcom reported an overall 12% of customers of 9 leading broadband providers had complaints. EE scored the highest number of complaints with 15%, although we’re happy to report that they also scored highest for the overall satisfaction of complaint handling.

The same cannot be said for Virgin Media. They resolved complaints to a standard that satisfied only 46% of their customers. They also had the longest average call waiting at 4 minutes and 26 seconds.

Broadband Freedom prides itself on excellent customer service, as shown on the impartial Trustpilot. Our helpful and friendly team are always on hand to quickly resolve any issues you may experience. Plus, we’ve provided useful guides to help you no matter your situation.

Customer Satisfaction

Broadband companies performed very well in terms of customer satisfaction. Nine broadband providers surveyed collectively scored an average of 85%. PlusNet managed to please 93% of their customers! However, longer waiting times on the phone let their customers down.

Only TalkTalk came under the line of average.

Most Reliable Broadband Company

Reliability is make-or-break for the majority of customers. What’s the point of paying for the best broadband available when it keeps dropping out? Customers should be able to access a service they pay for whenever they need it. Of course, we understand that technology can falter sometimes.

But it’s also true that some broadband providers just “do it” better than others.

EE once again hit the five-star mark for customers. Not only did they score well in customer service and complaints, but their reliability for average speeds and low disconnections won them top place as most reliable ISP in 2020 – awesome work if we do say so ourselves.

Not to rain on EE’s parade but the other providers who took part surveyed more panellists. EE’s results came from 43 panellists, compared to runner-up BT who had 384 panellists surveyed. Still, we’re not doubtful when it comes to EE’s reliability. In fact, we believe acknowledgement of our competitor’s successes makes us strive to be even better. Whilst we’re proud of our own reviews, we know there’s always room for improvement.

Fastest UK Broadband

Super-Fast Broadband is becoming a staple in daily home life. More people than ever are watching shows they choose on streaming giants like Netflix. Gone are the glory days of the broadcasters’ programmes.

Broadband providers are tasked with supplying internet that can meet the demands of millions of households. As well as streaming, customers are downloading, gaming, online banking, sending emails, surfing the web and social networking. Broadband has never been busier.

So which broadband providers are up to speed?

Virgin Media comes out on top with impressive download speeds of 516Mb. Plus, their Gig1 provides over 12.8 million UK households with average broadband speeds of 1G. Sure, the majority of Virgin’s fastest broadband is available for customers living in suburbia and urban areas. Yet broadband technological advances mean even customers up int’ ‘ills can enjoy the fastest services available…eventually! 

And if the water pipes run dry, we’re sure the full-fibre rollout will cover everyone!

The Best Broadband for You?

This depends on what the most important factors of broadband services are to you? Of course, from our own research, we’ve found that EE and Virgin Media provide great broadband. We’ve got to be honest though, there’s one factor we think we do better than the rest…

…and that’s flexibility!

Our PAYG and monthly plans work around your circumstances. You’ll find that we avoid unsustainable deals to entice new customers and never punish existing customers with price hikes. At Broadband Freedom we believe choice brings our customers value.

See you in the next one!