Finding the best internet provider in Birmingham
As England’s second city in terms of population, Birmingham is well served by the leading broadband suppliers. Much of the city is covered by the latest superfast fibre services from both Virgin Media and the Openreach network.
Most home broadband deals should be available to the majority of Birmingham residents. This includes broadband and TV packages, as well as the cheaper options. However, not all postcodes are created equal.
If you're looking for the best cheap broadband deals in Birmingham, enter your full address into our deals checker. This will filter the results to show only services available through your local telephone exchange right to your front door. You might find if you're on the outskirts of the city, your options get a little bit more limited.
Once you know what’s available, you can simply order the results as best suits you. Filter by contract length, price, broadband speed, data limit, free set-up, TV and phone bundles or internet only. Then it’s simply a case of clicking through to the provider’s official website to sign up.
-
What is Openreach?
Openreach is the company that maintains the former British Telecom Network used for the majority of broadband and phone services. If a repair or installation is required, it’s Openreach who will send an engineer, not your provider.
More than 650 service providers using the Openreach network. That’s the majority of the UK’s broadband providers. This includes Sky, TalkTalk and BT. The exception to this is Virgin Media - it uses its own, separate cable network.
How good is superfast broadband coverage and speed in Birmingham?
Birmingham now has over 98% superfast (30Mb+) broadband coverage on all exchanges, and ultrafast speeds (100Mb+) available to around 95%. Average download speeds in most areas are around 140Mb (all data from ThinkBroadband).
Much of this is down to the Black Country Broadband project, which spent millions to improve broadband in Birmingham and surrounding areas.
So, if you're a Birmingham resident and want to take advantage of these incredible speeds, start by typing your address into our deals checker below.
Comparing mobile broadband in Birmingham
Central Birmingham was one of the first areas to benefit from 4G mobile broadband. Now, most major UK mobile networks have reportedly strong 4G coverage across the vast majority of the Birmingham area.
It’s also worth considering 5G mobile broadband. 5G is also now available in the area, although the deployment of this new technology is an ongoing process and coverage is currently more limited than 4G.
However, it doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed to have a trouble-free time whoever you choose. In highly populated areas, the big problem tends to be capacity. It’s all well and good putting masts all over the city, but if they’re not powerful enough to cope with the load, you’re still going to struggle to get a signal.
Always check coverage for yourself before purchasing any mobile service. The key is often word of mouth; ask around with both your neighbours and colleagues about their experiences to make sure you’ll get a good signal wherever you regularly use mobile broadband. You can also make use of the official network coverage tools by clicking the logos below:
 |
 |
 |
Where we get our information
We strive to keep our local broadband information as up-to-date as possible. This means using trustworthy sources with regular checks. The information on this page comes from the following:
- Local exchange information: Sam Knows
- Local broadband speed information: labs.thinkbroadband.com/local
- Mobile broadband coverage (1): nperf.com/en/map/GB
- Mobile broadband coverage (2): checker.ofcom.org.uk/en-gb/mobile-coverage