BT Broadband Review 2024

Author: Rosina Brooker

Last updated: 17 April 2024

BT broadband review 2024

BT Broadband has a wide range of services. It offers everything from standard broadband (also called ADSL) all the way through to ultrafast, broadband. Plus, it offers a range of TV and broadband bundles too (as of December 2023 BT TV was renamed EE TV).

Its unlimited deals come without catches. You don’t have a traffic management or fair use policy to worry about. This means you can forget frustratingly slow speeds and use your unlimited deal to the max. There’s also tons of extra features you can add on, and you don’t need to have a phone line to take advantage of its services.

We’ll say it again, though, all this comes at a hefty price. It’s also worth noting that only a few households can access its fastest broadband speeds.

• What does ADSL mean?

  ADSL stands for ‘Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line’. It’s broadband technology that allows the transfer of data across regular telephone lines. You can make calls at the same time as being connected to the internet.

  An ADSL line will, at minimum, allow for a broadband connection of up to 8Mb. These days, that’s pretty slow and won’t allow you to do much other than emailing or basic web searches.

  ADSL2+ is now available at nearly all exchanges across the UK with slightly faster data transfer rates of around 10-11Mb.

BT Broadband: In Summary

BT Broadband Speed

The standard broadband and ADSL package, 'BT Broadband' is still available and currently has good access across the whole of the UK. However, by the end of December 2025, the UK's traditional copper phone lines are due to be switched off (known as the 'PSTN Switch Off'). 'BT Broadband' needs these copper lines to function, and this packages is gradually being phased out. For this reason, it's no longer the cheapest BT package you can purchase.

ADSL broadband wasn‘t originally built to handle large data. So, if you’re using your internet to game, download files, or stream videos, you might find it a bit slow. With all this in mind, you'll get a much better deal if you go up a notch and opt for a fibre package.

BT Fibre will give you very fast download speeds thanks to the fibre optic cables it uses. So you’ll be able to share the internet on multiple devices without buffering or interruptions to your speed.

Meanwhile, BT's full fibre (FTTP) packages are the fastest you can get. Here, a fibre cable that goes all the way into your home for much faster downloads and uploads.

Let's take a closer look at BT's common packages:

BT Broadband

• Download speed: 10Mb
• Upload speed: 1Mb

This is a basic ADSL broadband service, suitable for small homes that don‘t use their internet regularly. We would refer to this as ‘light usage‘ households.

We highly recommend you opt for 'BT Fibre Essential' and avoid this until you have no other choice.

BT Fibre Essential

• Download speed: 36Mb
• Upload speed: 9.5Mb

This entry-level BT fibre service will suit many homes. It’s perfectly capable of handling streaming, downloading, and gaming for an individual or a couple of people sharing.

BT Fibre 1

• Download speed: 50Mb
• Upload speed: 9.5Mb

If Fibre Essential isn’t quite fast enough, this package offers a nice little upgrade for a small extra fee.

BT Fibre 2

• Download speed: 67Mb
• Upload speed: 19.5Mb

This is the quickest standard fibre service offered by BT. Its speed is suitable for larger homes and can support multiple devices streaming or downloading at the same time.

BT Full Fibre 100

• Download speed: 150Mb
• Upload speed: 30Mb

You can expect a huge increase in speed over Fibre 2 without the hefty price tag. The additional upload speed may be particularly welcome for anyone who regularly needs to send larger files.

This package is available in areas with G.fast.

BT Fibre 250

• Download speed: 250Mb
• Upload speed: 50Mb

This package is only available in areas with G.fast. Coverage for this service is relatively limited, so you may not have this option.

BT Full Fibre 500

• Download speed: 500Mb
• Upload speed: 73Mb

The second-fastest home broadband service from BT uses a full-fibre connection to deliver extremely high download speeds, great for large homes where you may have many people all online at the same time.

BT Full Fibre 900

• Download speed: 900Mb
• Upload speed: 110Mb

The quickest BT broadband package offers a super speedy connection that’ll be more than enough for almost all homes. However, its upload speed is fairly limited compared to how well it handles downloads.

• What is G.fast?

  G.fast is type of broadband technology that can offer download speeds of up to 330Mb. It uses the same lines which currently supply Fibre To The Cabinet fibre optic broadband. Higher speeds are achieved by expanding the frequency range. Unfortunately, this only works over short distances. This means it's limited to customers who live no further than 500 metres from an exchange. The rollout of G.fast has been halted, for the most part, in favour of full fibre broadband.

BT speed summary

Ofcom's home broadband performance report, published in September 2023, shows BT's performance slightly dropped over the course of 2023. However, if you take into considering in 2020, it was only achieving 72% and had the lowest average speed rating, things are still going well.

Our 2024 broadband survey results suggest BT customers are reasonably happy with their service. They gave BT an above-average score of 72% for speed satisfaction.

In many areas, BT uses the same Openreach telephone as other Internet Service Providers (ISPs, for short). So, the advertised speeds for several packages are broadly similar to other deals.

While sharing the infrastructure, it does some things a little differently to other providers.

For starters, it no longer gives new customers the option to sign up for an ADSL package if fibre optic is available. If you can get fibre, BT Fibre Essential is the cheapest deal available, whether you need the speed or not.

There’s also a BT-exclusive fibre optic package that offers a download speed of 50Mb. That’s a reasonable amount of extra broadband muscle for not much more cost than the entry-level 36Mb deal.

In some areas, you’ll also have the option of faster speeds using either G.fast or FTTP technology.

BT Full Fibre (FTTP) packages go up to an average download speed of 900Mb, which is extremely fast. However, unlike some full-fibre services, these are asymmetrical instead of symmetrical. This means the upload rate is much slower than the download speed.

It should also be noted that all BT fibre packages are now 'broadband only' by default. Unless you tell them you need phone service, you won’t get a phone number or an active voice line.

BT Broadband Customer Service

Getting hold of someone at BT shouldn’t be too difficult. BT customer service is open 8am to 9pm weekdays, and 8am to 8pm on weekends and bank holidays.

Technical support used to be open 24/7, but we note that call centres are now open 8am-9pm on weekdays and 8am-8pm at the weekend. Live chat has slightly longer service hours (7am-10.30pm). The call centres are either UK or Ireland based.

For more information and other ways to get in touch, visit our guide to BT customer service.

BT Broadband Value for Money

User reviews for BT broadband didn't fair so well in terms of value for money scores. In our survey, it came in at 61%.

This isn’t a big surprise to us over at Broadband Genie. Of the five biggest ISPs (Internet Service Providers), BT’s standard pricing makes it among the most expensive on the Openreach network.

Plus, the prices shown above just cover costs for the initial contract term. Customers are subject to a mid-contract price rises each spring. In 2024, this was set at an increase of 7.9%.

As we mentioned in the previous section, all BT fibre optic packages now come without phone service by default. However, if you do need an active phone line, it’ll cost an additional £5 per month once the initial contract term has ended.

BT rewards

BT is a generous gift-giver. Its deals are rarely available without some kind of reward. Usually, this comes in the form of a pre-paid credit card with a value in the region of £50-£100.

So, while it does have higher prices than many other providers, these perks can bring the effective monthly cost down by quite a significant amount.

You can compare the latest BT offers on our BT cashback and rewards page. For general help with rewards, visit our guide to claiming free gifts and vouchers.

Check out these top BT freebie deals and grab a reward card:

BT Reliability

BT regularly shows live outage problems on Downdetector. However, this isn’t necessary a sign of poor service, especially when it has a much wider customer base than some ISPs.

Real customer feedback is a better indication of reliability. In our 2024 Broadband Awards, BT came with a satisfaction score of 77%.

It’s clearly confident of its success. It offers customers a ‘Stay Fast Guarantee’ to everyone who’s signed up, or renewed since March 2019. With this promise, you can run a speed test if you’re experiencing problems. BT will run checks and send out an engineer, if needed. If your speeds aren’t back to normal after 30 days, you’ll receive £20 compensation. You’ll also be able to choose to exit your contract without paying a charge for cancelling early. Not all providers have such a clear exit route.

In Ofcom's latest report on complaints about broadband, landline, mobile and pay-TV services (published in April 2024), BT showed a slightly lower than average level of complaints compared to the industry average.

BT Bundled Wi-Fi router

New BT fibre customers will receive a BT Smart Hub 2. This is a decent bit of kit and should offer good coverage.

Setting up your BT router shouldn't be difficult and, unless you need to have a line installed, you'll be able to do this yourself. However, if you do need technical support, you can take comfort that help is available 24/7. There are clear online instructions and informative videos to take you through all the installation steps.

For the duration of your contract, the router remains the property of BT. You'll need to return this in good condition or pay a replacement cost.

For more information on BT Hubs, including full specifications, you can read our full BT router round-up.

• BT broadband extras

  EE TV (the new name for BT TV)

  EE TV is available as an optional extra with all BT Broadband packages. While it doesn’t have quite as many channels as a Sky TV or Virgin Media TV package, it does offer many of the most popular channels via flexible channel bundles. These bundles can be changed each month without penalty.

  TV and broadband bundles come with a TV box that combines Freeview broadcasts and internet TV. Everything is neatly integrated into one interface, so you can switch between live Freeview broadcasts and streaming services without leaving the programme guide.

  BT boxes also include a hard drive for recording, and live pause and rewind features.

  BT Complete Wi-Fi

  Complete Wi-Fi guarantees wireless signal in every room, using a mesh Wi-Fi networking kit with three Wi-Fi boosters. It includes a £100 money-back guarantee if you can't get Wi-Fi throughout your home.

  BT Hybrid Connect

  Hybrid Connect is a 4G backup connection. If your broadband connection goes offline, Hybrid Connect automatically takes over until the fault is fixed.

  BT Halo

  Halo is a bundle of extra support, guarantees, and features for your home broadband. There are two options:

  Halo 3

  • Home Tech Experts. Free in-home technical support. Also includes annual visits to check your broadband is working.
  • Keep Connected Promise. Free 4G Mini Hub to keep you connected in case of broadband faults, or during a house move. Free unlimited data boost for BT Mobile during broadband outages.
  • Price promise. Never pay more than a new customer when renewing your contract.
  • Double mobile data. Mobile data boost for all BT Mobile customers in your household.

  Halo 3+

  All of the above, plus:

  • Hybrid Connect.
  • Complete Wi-Fi.
  • Smart Hub 2 Wi-Fi router.
  • Full Fibre promise. Free upgrade to Full Fibre 100 when it’s available in your area.

  BT Wi-Fi

  BT has a public Wi-Fi hotspot network with thousands of access points around the country. As a BT Broadband customer, you benefit from free access to this network. This is a nice bonus that can provide broadband access outside the home and save on mobile data.

BT Broadband: Expert Summary

BT offers broadband deals with excellent speeds, plus some tempting and useful extras. 

That said, BT isn't exactly cheap. It's likely you'll be able to get faster speeds for cheaper elsewhere. Mid-contract price rises are likely (in 2024, BT's annual price hike was announced as being 7.9%).

Its download and upload speeds are slightly uneven, too, with much slower upload rates even on the very fastest FTTP deals.

The availability of its 100Mb+ services is also fairly limited at present and has some way to go to match Virgin Media, which brings gigabit broadband to around 53% of UK homes.

Switching broadband providers

You can easily check which BT packages are available in your area by entering your address into this checker. Don't forget to use our filters, so you can sort by price, speed or contract length. Our tables will also show you if there are any great reward offers available, too. You'll be able to see how much money these can save you in the long-run with our clear 'Effective Monthly Price' summary.

If you’re out of contract, switching between any provider is easy. 

Check out our guide on ‘how to switch broadband and get an amazing deal’ for more hints and tricks, learn how to save money and upgrade your home's internet connection with little fuss.

More broadband reviews

We review every provider we list on Broadband Genie. Check out the following reviews for our thoughts on other ISPs:

• Broadband Genie’s review policy

  When looking to switch broadband, we know how important unbiased, balanced, expert reviews can be. Our Broadband experts do the research so you don’t have to. We have a dedicated broadband comparison and switching experts on our team who work hard to give you expert insight. We’re in the unique position to give you a really informed opinion on whether or not we think a provider is worth your money. Read on to find out a little more about our broadband provider review process.

  User ratings

  We ask users to review providers on our site as part of our ongoing Home Broadband Survey project. We love our Broadband Genie customers. Thanks to them, we know how people are feeling about their broadband service. They answer our questions about BT broadband so we can get the most accurate and balanced customer feedback as possible. We use these scores, in combination with other factors such as Ofcom research to inform our overall ratings (more on this below) to form our advice for you!

  You can leave your own review on our broadband survey, which also includes a monthly £100 prize draw.

  Overall ratings

  You can trust us, we’re a genie after all. Our overall provider rating is decided by our editors and informed by the user feedback we have received. We will also take into account wider market research such as Ofcom’s speed and customer service research. Plus, other trusted review platforms such as Trustpilot, where appropriate.

  This allows us to create an informed, well-balanced review of a provider. Ultimately, this is the most useful way to decide whether or not a provider is right for you.