City focused full fibre broadband ISP Hyperoptic, which already covers well over 500,000 UK premises, has launched a new promotion that slashes the cost of their top Gigabit tier (average speed of 900Mbps) to just £38 per month (plus a £19 one-off activation fee) for the first 12 months of service (£60 thereafter).
The pricing level is lower than last year’s Black Friday sale for the same package, which charged £40 a month but also offered free activation. As usual new customers can pick from either a broadband and phone bundle or a broadband-only service on a 12 month contract. You can also get a “no contract” option (broadband-only), but this tends to cost a few pounds extra.
The packages all include unlimited usage, 24/7 support, a wireless router (e.g. ZTE H298A but we believe a better one is coming) and a dynamic IP address (IPv6 support has been rolled out) or £5 extra per month for a Static IP. Hyperoptic’s network is currently on course to cover 2 million homes by the end of 2021 and then possibly 5 million by 2024 (here).
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In order to benefit from the new price you’ll also need to place an order online using their promo code – SAVE19. The downside is that their slower tiers have gone up in price, at least for the first contract term (post-contract prices are unchanged).
Package | Broadband Only (£19 Activation) |
Broadband and Phone (Free Activation) |
30Mbps | £20 a month (*£22) | £21 a month (*£25) |
150Mbps | £27 a month (*£35) | £28 a month (*£38) |
900Mbps | £38 a month (*£60) | £39 a month (*£63) |
Wow, that’s a great offer. Makes rural ADSL2+ look increasingly poor value for money same sort of price (although does include line rental), but 100 times slower.
This pricing reflects their current base of FTTB and probably to fend off the current barrage of advertising, particularly Vodafone. The big ISPs are all scrabbling to maintain market share a lock consumers into 18 month contracts while the landscape goes through significant change.
Hyperoptic’s standard pricing is welcome though and will act as a good target for the other urban providers to aspire to.
Unfortunately rural FTTP is likely to have entry level products starting at £40 (if offered). BT and VM may stick to national pricing but we may need to get used to Urban/Semi-rural/Rural price differentials. Cheaper USO products may appear going forward but they are likely to come with data limits.
I don’t believe large scale rural FTTP will ever happen – 4G will provide better value for money. I find it is almost good enough now – a bit too variable, especially latency, but already two to three times as fast as my ADSL2+ and cheaper. By the time Gigaclear get to my area (2+ years) they will have a hard sell with their starting package the same ball-park speed as 4G and more expensive.
Problem with 4G is its metered, if it was unmetered I would jump on it, With all the stuff I do on the internet I would use more then 600gb per month.
Three AYCE is 1TB cap per month.
I use 3’s unlimited tethering, and if there is a cap I’ve never reached it (lots of YouTube watching and audio upload/download). My internet travels with me, which is really useful. Upload speeds are quite a bit better than I was getting with VDSL2/fttc too.
Three unlimited is unlimited
No mention of upload speeds? Is it symmetric?
Yes.
I had a discussion with Virgin Media’s customer services, regarding their pricing increases after a year, and who have always been more accommodating than BT. They helpfully lowered my price, and upped my speeds to 350mbs, although I usually get up to around 380mbs/390mbs according to speed tests. It always helps to negotiate.
How much is your 350mbps?