Comparing home broadband 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, which is sufficient for typical online activities such as streaming video, gaming and of course 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.
For a faster connection - more suited to busy households and power users who’ll be doing lots of downloading and uploading - there’s the option of fibre optic broadband from either Virgin Media or BT.
Virgin fibre has the fastest mass-market service available, currently topping out at a rapid 1Gb+. The downside is its availability can be limited, and even if your exchange is set up for Virgin, it does not 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 is 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 use the postcode filter on our tables 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. However, all the networks 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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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: availability.samknows.com/broadband/exchange_search
- 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