Community Fibre vs Virgin Media vs Hyperoptic Broadband

Choosing the best option from similar broadband providers can be tricky – let’s compare all the features of Community Fibre broadband, Virgin Media and Hyperoptic before making an informed decision that best suits your needs.

Speed

All three providers offer ultra-fast speeds ranging from 100Mbps to 1000Mbps (1Gbps) and beyond, allowing customers to enjoy smoother gaming with lower latency, better streaming quality, and faster downloads.

Community Fibre beats the competition with its top available speed of 3Gbps, while Virgin Media’s top speed of 1.13Gbps is for homes that need fast internet but aren’t too keen on gigabit speeds.

Hyperoptic offers broadband speeds from 50 Mbit/s to 920 Mbit/s throughout the service area.

Upload speed

Community Fibre and Hyperoptic are known for their Full Fibre broadband (FTTP) offering symmetrical upload and download speeds. That’s not the case with Virgin Media, which offers slower upload speeds on its cable network, though its packages offer some of the fastest download speeds in the UK, and also beat the other two with its wide network coverage.

While Virgin Media’s upload speeds remain solid on the fastest plans like M500 and Gig1, when comparing broadband providers it’s important to consider whether your home needs symmetrical or asymmetrical internet speeds.

Price

One of the main benefits of community Fibre and Hyperoptic broadband over Virgin Media is affordability. Both Community Fibre and Hyperoptic offer fibre packages at a lower cost than Virgin Media, making them ideal for homes on a tight budget but still need a reliable broadband connection. Plus, both providers offer the same upload speeds as download speeds.

If you live in an area connected by Community Fibre and Hyperoptic, this is a great way to save money compared to expensive Virgin Media packages.

All three providers help families with low income, as well as people who receive Universal Credit, by providing low-cost broadband through a few social tariff broadband plans. Virgin Media and Community Fibre offer their social tariff plans starting at £12.50 per month. With Virgin Media, you get a speed of 15Mbps. With Community Fibre, you get a speed of 20Mbps. Hyperoptic also has a social tariff plan. It costs a bit more, at £15 per month. But, you get a faster speed of 50Mbps.

WiFi router

Whether you’re signing up for a basic or top tier package with any of the three providers, you’ll get the latest WiFi routers included in your deal. With Virgin Media, you can also choose to upgrade your router at an additional cost if required – upgrading will generally provide better WiFi coverage and speedier connectivity throughout your home.

On the other hand, Community Fibre and Hyperoptic provides their top tier packages with Mesh routers.

When it comes to optional add-on and premium support, all providers offer WiFi guarantee as well as Wi-Fi boosters and Mesh routers to provide customers with an even reliable WiFi connection.

Landline, TV and mobile SIM

Virgin Media, Community Fibre and Hyperoptic offer customers the fastest broadband speeds in the UK. But if you’re also looking for a comprehensive broadband and TV package, then Virgin Media is your only option.

Virgin Media offers a wide range of popular TV packages that subscribers can bundle with a broadband connection. Depending on the plan, you can watch over 250 digital channels in HD quality and UHD resolution.

Hyperoptic, on the other hand, doesn’t offer a TV option, while Community Fibre customers have the option to add Netgem TV, which has fewer TV channels in its package.

• Netgem TV offers over 200 channels, including Freeview and a range of premium content available via subscription services such as Amazon Prime Video. It comes with more than 40 apps, including BBC, ITV, and Channel 4.
• On the other hand, Virgin Media TV provides hundreds of channels, including premium ones like Sky One, Sky Cinema, and Sky Sports.
• The Virgin Media TV 360 box allows you to record up to six shows while watching a seventh, boasting a 1TB hard drive for storage. In contrast, to record content with the Netgem 4K box, you’ll need a separate pen drive.

Neither Community Fibre nor Hyperoptic offer traditional landline service — however, digital phone line options like VoIP are available to customers of both providers. By contrast, Virgin Media offers its customers landlines and a range of call plans.

Additionally, Virgin Media offers bundled packages with mobile SIM, allowing customers to bundle more services with their broadband package – another area where both Community Fibre and Hyperoptic are lacking.

Short-term contract options

If you want a short term contract like 1 month contract, then Hyperoptic might be the best choice – they offer 1 month, 12 month and 24 months contracts to choose from. One-off £29 setup fee will apply.

Virgin Media offers a 30 day rolling contract, which is more expensive. It costs nearly double compared to its standard 18-month contract. For the M125 broadband and phone package, which includes a speed of 132Mbps and weekend calls, the cost is £51 per month. There’s also a £35 setup fee. Additionally, a £45 fee for the rolling contract also applies. These fees are payable in addition to the monthly cost.

Community Fibre broadband plans come with 12 month and 24 month contracts.

Availability

Virgin Media broadband is more widely available than Community Fibre and Hyperoptic.
Virgin Media has the widest coverage of the three broadband providers. It is available in most urban and suburban locations (60% of the UK), while Community Fibre and Hyperoptic are more focused on major cities across the UK.

Community Fibre broadband is only available in London. The service is available in the following London boroughs: Barnet, Brent, Bexley, Bromley, Camden, City of London, Croydon, Ealing, Enfield, Greenwich, Hackney, Hammersmith and Fulham, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Islington, Kensington and Chelsea, Kingston upon Thames, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Newham, Richmond upon Thames, Southwark, Sutton, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest, Wandsworth and Westminster.

Hyperoptic broadband is available in over 60 cities including London, Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Southampton, Chichester and covers over 800k premises across the UK.

Additionally, Virgin Media offer bundled packages with TV and mobile SIM, allowing customers to bundle their TV service with their broadband package – another area where both Community Fibre and Hyperoptic are lacking.

Customer Service

Both Community Fibre and Hyperoptic have earned reputations for outstanding customer service and top rankings in surveys and reports.

Virgin Media, on the other hand, doesn’t score well for customer service – customers often complain about poor customer service and long wait times on the helpline.

Reviews

• BT
• Sky
• Virgin Media
• Vodafone
• EE
• Plusnet
• Now
• Onestream
• Shell Energy
• Hyperoptic
• Community Fibre
• Zen
• YouFibre
• Gigaclear
• Truespeed
• G.Network