BT broadband deals

Why choose BT broadband?

There’s a long and varied list of reasons why BT is a safe bet when it comes to broadband.

BT Smart Hub router – The provider insists that its WiFi router, known as the Smart Hub, is the most powerful available to customers. While we can’t verify or disprove that claim, we can show you the results of a range of tests carried out against Virgin Media and Sky Broadband’s routers, published on BT’s website. For a modest extra fee, BT also offer an interesting option called Hybrid Connect, which enables your Smart Hub to be even smarter by automatically switching between your broadband and EE's mobile network to achieve 'unbreakable WiFi'.

Unlimited usage – BT offers all of its broadband packages with unlimited usage, so you won’t come up against any download limits, no matter how much time you spend online.

WiFi hotspots – BT boasts millions of WiFi hotspots across the UK, and as a customer, you’ll have access to all of these. It's not going to be useful for everyone, but it does mean you’ll be able to get online free of charge almost wherever you are – at an airport, motorway service station, shopping centre or cafe.

Rewards and offers – BT frequenly offers cashback in the form of virtual reward cards, so it's worth keeping an eye out for those deals as they come up. Usually they're in the form of prepaid 'virutal' Mastercards that can be used to spend online pretty much as you like. BT switched from offering physical cards back in November 2021.

Extras – Finally, there's a range of additional benefits ranging from parental controls to the free antivirus software included in many of their deals.

As with all internet providers, there are some downsides to signing up for a deal with them. The most obvious of these is that the brand’s prices tend to be on the higher end of the spectrum - though the quality of service, great speeds and access to WiFi hotspots while out and about are incentive enough for some customers to invest a little more.

The ISP comes up short, from time to time, when it comes to feedback on customer service, and the brand doesn’t offer any form of short-term arrangements, with only 24 month contract lengths on all its packages.

To get a fuller picture of what BT has to offer, and what it’s really like being a BT broadband customer, check out our expert BT broadband review.

Broadband speeds

The provider offers one standard ADSL broadband deal and a choice of three fibre broadband deals, each with a different average download speed. All of them, at any speed, feature unlimited data allowances. On top of these are the newer FTTP Full Fibre packages, if you can get them.

BT Standard broadband

The most affordable package offers average download speeds of 10Mbps, similar to those provided by most other UK broadband companies. This should be fast enough for individuals, couples or smaller households who use the internet to browse social media, shop, stream music and watch catch-up TV - but it may struggle to meet the needs of larger households where everyone uses the internet at once or people stream HD content. Again, this is only available from BT if you can't access fibre broadband.

BT Fibre Essential

Its basic fibre package, Fibre Essential, has respectable average speeds of 36Mbps. If you want an upgrade on a standard deal, but don’t need superfast speeds, this is the right package for you. Like the standard deal, it also comes with the Smart Hub router, their stay-fast guarantee, and Virus Protection for up to two devices.

BT Fibre 1

For only a small price increase, the Fibre 1 deal offers a much better average speed than the basic Fibre Essential package, clocking in at an average of 50Mbps. It’s ideal for larger households of three or more people who watch HD TV, play games online and download large files like albums and movies - even if these things are happening simultaneously. It also comes with the brand’s famous Smart Hub router, 200GB of BT cloud storage and Virus Protection for up to two devices.

BT Fibre 2

If your large and busy household needs very fast download speeds and streams 4K TV regularly, the provider’s fastest widely available service is well worth a look, with average speeds of 67Mbps. Fibre 2 isn’t cheap, but should future proof a home where kids are turning into teenagers, and everyone’s vying for the internet connection from a different room. The ISP sweetens the deal with some great extras including Virus Protection for up to 15 devices.

BT Full Fibre: 100, 500 and 900Mbps

BT Full Fibre is the same as fibre to the home (FTTH) or fibre to the premises (FTTP) products – essentially it's fibre all the way to your door, rather being slowed by old fashioned telephone cables between you and the cabinet. It's still somewhat on the expensive side, and availability in the UK is still limited but, especially with Openreach's UK network, it's growing fast. To find out if you can get BT's fastest broadband speeds where you live, use our BT postcode checker.

If you need more information about choosing the right broadband speed for your needs, use our broadband speed guide.

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BT broadband prices

Here's a quick overview of the most popular BT broadband packages, prices and contracts:

BT’s monthly charges start from £27.99 a month for their handily named ‘Broadband’ package – which is basic ADSL. Uniquely among providers, BT will only offer you this if there's nothing faster available at your address – so if you can get fibre, they simply won't sell you an ADSL connection. But helpfully their entry level Fibre Essential package is usually priced to match, so you won't be forced to pay more.

From there it's onwards and upwards with Fibre 1 and Fibre 2 offered at a relatively small premium (and often with quite an attractive virtual reward card) right through to their newest FTTP packages which offer absolutely lightning fast speeds if you're lucky enough to be connected. But do come at quite a cost.

How long are BT contracts?

While BT broadband contracts did once vary, they're now a standard period of 24 months. Some people may feel that's a long time to commit, but many just prefer the security of knowing everything is taken care of for the next few years. It's certainly one less thing to worry about.

As with all providers, if you want to leave your broadband contract part way through, it’s likely that you’ll be charged a hefty early exit fee, so do make sure you're comfortable with the arrangement from the start.

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Packages and bundles

As with most other UK broadband providers, BT currently offers standalone broadband along with packages that combine landline and TV servies. However, in BT's case they really do now mean 'standalone' – you can now opt out of having a landline entirely. Although as of yet they're not offering a price reduction if you do!

Broadband only

BT offers a standard ADSL package with an average speed of 10Mbps (which is in line with most other UK providers). However, as we've mentioned above, it's only available it you can't access fibre broadband.

For most people, BT also has three fibre deals, with speeds averaging 36Mbps, 50Mbps and 67Mbps, all of which come with the brand’s much celebrated Smart Hub router (standard broadband is offered with the less advanced Home Hub 4).

All of their deals come with BT Virus Protect, BT Parental Controls and of course unlimited usage.

You can now choose whether to have a landline, but if you do any calls you do make will be charged on a pay as you go basis, which can be expensive if you use it regularly.

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BT broadband and phone

If you do choose to have a landline, then the provider offers three landline phone packages, all of which come with the option of diverting nuisance calls with BT Call Protect.

Unlimited weekend calls – This package covers all calls to UK landline numbers at weekends, defined as the period between midnight on Friday and midnight on Sunday.

Unlimited evening and weekend calls – This package covers all calls to UK landline numbers at weekends (hours as above) and between 7pm and 7am every weekday.

Unlimited anytime calls – The priciest of BT’s landline deals, this package covers calls to UK landline numbers at any time, on any day. Calls to BT Mobile phones are also free at all times.

If you regularly use a landline to make international calls, you can add these to any package for an additional fee, along with other optional extras like caller display, call waiting and BT Answer 1571.

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Broadband and TV

BT TV is only available to their broadband customers, and the brand has four options to choose from and all come with a recordable YouView G4 box.

The Entertainment option gives you access to Freeview channels along with Sky Atlantic, Discovery and a NOW Entertainment Membership. Big Entertainment bundle adds all the Sky Cinema via a NOW Cinema Membership

With the Sport option you'll get all the four BT Sport channels plus BoxNation, the Premier League, all the UEFA Champions League games (which are actually exclusive to BT Sport), Premiership rugby and lots more. Plus Freview of course.

Big Sport provides all of the above plus the full set of 11 Sky Sports channels meaning more Premiership football, Formula 1 races, major golf tournaments and all the benefits of a NOW Sports Membership – including Eurosport 1 and 2.

Finally, you can go all out with BT's VIP TV package, which basically gives you the whole lot in full HD and a NOW Boost which includes Sky Sports HD and Sky Altlantic HD.

You can add any of these to your broadband package as you wish once you've selected your broadband plan on the BT site.

Find out what to watch on BT TV.

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Broadband and mobile

You won’t be able to combine your broadband and mobile as a bundle, but there are incentives to have both from the provider. For example, their customers get a £5 a month discount on mobile plans.

Broadband, TV and phone

For total convenience, some customers go for combined broadband, TV and landline phone provision. The brand has some great deals available that combine the three services, though it’s not possible to include BT mobile phone provision to complete the full set. BT usually has three ready made bundles which feature their Fibre 2 Broadband along with one of the TV options.

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Installation process and what to expect

If a landline is already installed at your property, which is likely, your service could be up and running within a couple of days – 14 at most. It’s also likely that you won’t have to pay any connection or reconnection charges.

If your property doesn’t have a landline connection (and you want one), then an engineer might need to visit to install one. This means your internet service could take up to 21 days to get up and running. But if you're choosing to opt out of a line, then things should move more quickly.

The provider will confirm how long installation will take when you place an order, agree a date for your services to be installed and tell you whether or not an engineer needs to come to your home.

Installation costs for their fibre broadband are usually quite reasonable, and the brand sometimes offers special deals that waive installation costs entirely. There's usually also a one-off delivery charge of £9.99 for your router, which will be sent out via Royal Mail. Although they sometimes waive this too.

It’s worth keeping in mind that BT isn’t known for the speed of its broadband installation, so if you’re looking for a superfast turnaround, another provider may be a better fit.

If you’d like more information on all aspects of broadband installation, our guide to installing broadband will tell you everything you need to know.

What router will I get?

When you sign up to a contract with the provider, you receive a router as part of the deal. The router you get depends on the package.

BT Home Hub 4 – When you sign up to a standard ADSL Broadband or Fibre Essential package, you’ll receive the Home Hub 4. This router is a dual band 802.22ac router with 7 antennas. It also has a USB port and 4 gigabit LAN ports.

BT Smart Hub 2 – If you sign up to either the Fibre 1 or Fibre 2 deal, you’ll be sent the Smart Hub 2. It’s a second generation of the original Smart Hub and features 7 antennas, which is give you a massive range of WiFi signal throughout your home.

Our guide to setting up a WiFi will take you through the process, step-by-step.

Extras

Along with their broadband packages and combined broadband, landline phone and TV deals, the provider offers some powerful extras and incentives, including:

Stay fast guarantee – Enjoy a specified minimum download speed with your internet service, or claim back £20 (terms and conditions apply).

BT Virus Protect – The ISP’s own virus protection software, included free of charge for a specified number of devices on all broadband deals, standard or fibre.

BT Complete WiFi – An extra monthly charge provides a 'WiFi Disc' which works with your Smart Hub to guarantee connectivity in every room of your home, or you can claim £100 back (obviously some terms and conditions will apply).

BT Hybrid Connect – Another extra charge provides what BT describes as 'unbreakable wifi'. As mentioned earlier, it's basically a fall-back onto EE's mobile broadband network should your home broadband let you down. But it should act completely seamlessly, so you won't even know it's doing its thing. You could make the case that the broadband shouldn't fail in the first place, but it does give you some added peace of mind – especially if a constant connection is absolutely essential.

BT email – All of their packages offer users free access to the BT Mail service, with a personal email address ending in @btinternet.com. Features include a browser-based mail service that can be accessed internationally, up to ten email addresses for family and friends and advanced email security, including antispam and antivirus features.

BT cloud storage – All of their deals come with free cloud storage, enabling users to back up their photos, videos and files safely on the cloud and access them from any location or device. Most packages offer 200GB. Additional space can be purchased if needed.

WiFi hotspots across the UK – The provider boasts millions of WiFi hotspots across the UK, and as a customer, you’ll have access to all of these. No matter where you are, this means you’ll be able to get online instantly, free of charge.

Can I get BT broadband in my area?

Our postcode checker will instantly tell you which service is available in your area. Happily, BT is on offer in most parts of the UK.

For complete transparency, we've included non-affiliated links to listed providers on this page. We don't earn a commission if you choose the following links and you may not get the best deal. Providers: BT