Three new fibre rivals making life tougher for BT, Sky and Virgin: Report

A flurry of new full-fibre broadband firms have launched in recent months – promising big speed upgrades at aggressive prices. For more-established competitors, like BT, Virgin Media, Sky and Plusnet, it can be tough to match these lithe newbies. But for those hoping to upgrade their speeds or looking to cut their bills who aren’t being catered to by the behemoths that operate nationwide, these new options can be extremely appealing.

As companies across the UK scramble to try to upgrade the broadband infrastructure, which is one of the worst in Europe – not to mention globally, here are three new-kids-on-the-block that are either expanding rapidly or launching in the coming months. If you’re one of the millions struggling to work from home, study remotely, catch-up with friends and family with a video call, or binge the latest boxset everybody is talking about on Netflix without suffering through an interminable buffering animation… it might be worth looking at some of the new competition.

First up, Community Fibre already has pretty good brand recognition in the capital, with its service vehicles regularly spotted across the roads. The company recently announced that it has doubled the number of premises covered by its network within the last year – now reaching 200,000 homes across London. As well as expanding its infrastructure, Community Fibre has increased the number of customers on its books by 130 percent in the same period.

It’s not all that surprising to see Community Fibre thriving. As more of us spend more time at home, it’s almost-unrivalled 3Gbps broadband option should guarantee you never have to wait for anything to load ever again. For comparison, the current average speed for household broadband in the UK is some 65Mbps. Community Fibre’s top-speed, which equates to 3,000Mbps, is 4,500 percent faster.

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To put that eye-watering amount of speed into context, Netflix only requires 25Mbps to stream its shows and movies in the highest quality on offer. Of course, in busy households, it only takes a few people to stream shows at the same time – or try to back-up their smartphone, download a new update, receive a video call, or update their computer at the same time to quickly top-out a 65Mbps connection and be stuck with the annoying st-st-stuttering. As emerging technologies, such as Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and 8K video streams become more commonplace, a full-fibre connection will likely more from a luxury to a necessity.

Community Fibre might’ve hit a new milestone, but the company is far from done. It has previously announced ambitions to reach 1 million promises (mostly in London, but not all) with gigabit-capable full-fibre connections by the end of 2023. This will see the firm expand in parts of Barnet, Brent, Camden, City of London, Croydon, Ealing, Hackney, Hammersmith and Fulham, Islington, Lambeth, Lewisham, Newham, Richmond upon Thames, Southwark, Sutton, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest, Wandsworth and Westminster.

Community Fibre charges £25 a month for a 300Mbps connection, £35 a month for 800Mbps, £49 a month for 1Gbps and an eye-watering £99 a month for the future-proofed 3Gbps. Although, to be honest, most people will be perfectly happy with either of the first two subscription tiers.

Finally, Gigaclear has slightly smaller ambitions than the previous two newbies, stating intentions to cover 500,000 UK properties with their full-fibre network by the end of 2023. At present, this full-fibre provider offers up to 1Gbps speeds to some 12,000 homes and businesses in the South West. Until now, Gigaclear has mainly focused on rural areas of Devon and Somerset.

Speaking about its plans, South West General Manager at Gigaclear Jo Scarrott told broadband-centric blog ISPreview, “Our time to build is dropping as we streamline our processes and we have heavily invested in the region, all of which are major contributing factors to our strong outlook. In addition to that, we are continuously innovating and trialling new technologies that allow us to be more effective and efficient in the delivery of our service, plus it means we can reach the most remote communities that have been left alone by other providers. Of course, we are always striving for improvement, but thousands of residents in rural villages and market towns across the South West can now look forward to some of the fastest broadband speeds in the world.”