Home broadband deals in Portsmouth
Portsmouth residents have access to various fixed-line home broadband services, giving them plenty of choice when it comes to selecting a broadband package. Unbundled ADSL and fibre optic broadband from a variety of providers are on offer at the area’s exchanges.
ADSL is where you want to start if you’re after the cheapest broadband. It uses standard BT phone lines and provides average speeds of 10-11Mb for unlimited broadband. That's sufficient for typical online activities such as streaming video, gaming, web browsing and email.
All the Portsmouth exchanges are unbundled, which means ISPs are allowed to install their own equipment, but the availability of providers can vary, so when comparing broadband you may find your preferred supplier is not on offer.
If you carry out a lot of downloading and uploading a faster connection is better. For this, there’s the option of fibre optic broadband from either Virgin Media or providers on the Openreach network.
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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.
Virgin fibre has the fastest mass-market service available, currently topping out at a rapid 1Gb+. The downside is its availability can be limited. Plus, even if your exchange is set up for Virgin, it doesn't guarantee that the cable lines actually run to your street or home.
Alternatively, there’s Openreach (BT line) network fibre optic broadband. While not quite as fast, it can still provide speeds up to around 65Mb, and because it uses BT lines the coverage is greater than Virgin Media.
Finally, largely thanks to a partnership between City Fibre and Giganet, there's full fibre broadband in Portsmouth, albeit with limited availability. This can offer ultrafast speeds of 1Gb+ and is available (although in quite limited fashion) in the Portsmouth area.
When searching for a broadband package, you can add your address into our deals checker to narrow down the options by location. This will use data from your closest exchange to list only deals which should be available to your home.
Comparing mobile broadband in Portsmouth
When it comes to mobile broadband, Portsmouth is generally well-connected. In the central parts of the city, coverage is ample and available on all four network providers — O2, Three, EE, and Vodafone.
4G is strong across the centre of Portsmouth and out into areas such as Gosport, Fareham, Havant and Porchester - with O2 and Vodafone seemingly providing the best coverage in these areas. Three Mobile report the signal to be weaker to the west of Waterlooville and north of Porchester and Fareham.
For faster connectivity, there are 5G mobile networks in Portsmouth too, with Vodafone boasting the best coverage.
For the best mobile broadband experience, it’s vital to ensure you have a good signal, so before buying anything be sure to check coverage for yourself. Our guide to mobile broadband coverage has further information, or you can click the network logos below to access the official coverage check tools:
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