BT Full Fibre 100 Broadband Review – Is it worth it?
With 4K streaming and online gaming now popular in UK households, 100Mb broadband is becoming a popular choice for UK households without the need for expensive ultra-fast plans.
A minimum of 100 Mbps is often considered an ideal connection, providing enough bandwidth for these activities, especially if multiple users are connected at the same time.
BT Full Fibre 100 comes with an average download speed of 150Mbps and offers reliable WiFi using its Smart Hub 2 router. With so many other options to choose from, is the BT Full Fibre 100 the perfect choice for you?
Let’s find out more about the features, speeds and value for money of this package in this review.
What is Full Fibre Broadband?
Technically, full fibre broadband reaches homes via FTTP (fibre to the premises) networks. This advanced technology uses fibre optic cable as the entire connection between the exchange and the user’s premise, this is why it’s called full fibre or fibre to the premises broadband. Conversely, FTTC (fibre to the cabinet) is slowly becoming outdated technology that uses fibre only to the street cabinet, each user is then connected to it using copper.
Since fibre cable is more effective at transmitting data at a faster rate, full fibre connection is preferred over FTTC broadband as it is more reliable and more than 10 times faster than FTTC broadband.
Full fibre broadband also offers incredibly faster upload speeds and lag-free internet. It can connect up to 50-100 users simultaneously and provides consistent data transmission to all connected devices. Due to these advantages, full fibre is often considered the first choice for UHD streaming and online gaming.
Additionally, many UK providers are upgrading to FTTP broadband for the reasons mentioned above, which has resulted in increased nationwide availability in recent years.
Overview of BT Full Fibre broadband
BT Full Fibre 100 is an entry-level package with an average download speed of 150Mbps and an average upload speed of 30Mbps. This is double the speed of BT Fibre 2 broadband, BT’s fastest FTTC broadband plan.
BT also offers two other full fibre options with faster download and upload speeds. All plans have similar features, the only difference being speed. You can choose the best plan based on speed and the number of devices you use at the same time.
Overall, a comparison of these packages looks like this:
Full Fibre 100
- Average download speed: 150Mbps
- Average upload speed: 30Mbps
- Minimum guaranteed speed: 100Mbps
- Router: Smart Hub 2
Full Fibre 500
- Average download speed: 500Mbps
- Average upload speed: 73Mbps
- Minimum guaranteed speed: 250Mbps
- Router: Smart Hub 2
Full Fibre 900
- Average download speed: 910Mbps
- Average upload speed: 110Mbps
- Minimum guaranteed speed: 455Mbps
- Router: Smart Hub 2
BT Smart Hub 2
While the old Smart Hub is the standard router with regular fibre packages, BT offers full fibre customers the new Smart Hub 2 with advanced features.
Smart Hub 2 is a WiFi 5 router with hardware capable of supporting 802.11ac, 4 Gigabit Ethernet connections, dual-bands (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz), and automatic channel selection.
It comes with 7 antennas, making it one of the best routers that can transmit data with a strong signal.
Additionally, the Smart Hub 2 supports DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications) phones, allowing you to use your phone wirelessly within a range of 300 meters from its base.
Is BT Full Fibre 100 worth the money?
BT full fibre broadband is not a cheap option compared to most UK providers including Virgin Media. In particular, Full Fibre 100 is more expensive than Virgin Media M125 fibre broadband or Sky Ultrafast. The toughest contenders are Hyperoptic and Community Fibre offering the cheapest deals for this speed. Check out the speeds and prices of plans similar to BT Full Fibre 100:
In this list, Vodafone, Hyperoptic and Community Fibre offer symmetrical full fibre with the same upload speed as download speed.
To wrap up our review, BT Full Fibre may not be as affordable as its competitors, but its free extras like public WiFi and virus protection mean it’s worth the money, while its reliability, improved customer service and excellent availability makes it one of the best full fibre broadband options in the UK.