Study: Britain’s Broadband Divide – £15/month in Cardiff, 76% More Elsewhere

In recent years, a number of independent broadband providers, known as altnets, have rolled out new fibre networks in different parts of the UK.

As a result, many towns and cities can now get full fibre broadband for the first time.

However, this advancement has led to a large broadband price disparity between different parts of the country.

Altnets often offer much lower prices than the incumbent networks. Meaning, if you’re still stuck with Virgin Media or Openreach, you might be paying a lot more for broadband compared to the rest of the country.

Broadband cost study

We wanted to find out what broadband costs in each city in the United Kingdom, to measure the price disparity between different regions.

To do this, we recorded the lowest monthly cost for a broadband package with at least a 100 Mbps average download speed, in each city in the UK.

We found:

• Cardiff is the city with the cheapest broadband in the UK, at just £15/month for 100 Mbps.
• Scotland is the country with the most expensive broadband in the UK, at an average of £24.63 per month – 64% higher than in Cardiff, or £231 more over a 24 month contract.
• Hereford, Ripon, Truro, and Westminster in England and Bangor, St. Asaph, and St. Davids in Wales have the most expensive broadband at £26 per month – 76% more than in Cardiff for the same download speeds.

Having access to the right altnet at your address can make or break your monthly broadband bill.

Most Scottish cities rely on Virgin Media or City Fibre for coverage, both of which charge in the region of £24-£25 per month for 100 Mbps internet. This is why Scotland has the most expensive broadband in the UK.

On the other hand, in Wales, many can access broadband from YouFibre or Ogi, which offer much cheaper prices – around £15-£20 per month or so.

As a result, in Cardiff, you can save £109.20 per year on broadband, compared to the UK average.

Big population centers also have a leg up when it comes to saving money on broadband.

We found that small cities were much more likely to be stuck with Openreach or Virgin Media broadband. On the other hand, in cities like London, you can usually get fast broadband for under £22 per month.

Full data

Averages

• Wales: £23.43
• England: £24.11
• Northern Ireland: £24.16
• Scotland: £24.63
• UK: £24.10

Methodology

To find the cheapest broadband in a given city, we searched for the package with the lowest monthly cost, and a download speed of at least 100 Mbps, using fixed-line broadband. We excluded packages with pricing that was attached to a short introductory discount, such as plans that came with 50% off for the first three months for example.

We considered a package as “available” in a city when it was on offer to at least a proportion of homes in a three mile radius of the city centre. Where a provider only offered coverage in a ring around the city centre (not inside it), we did not consider their packages as available in that city.

We gathered data for the 76 official cities in the United Kingdom. Data was collected on October 1, 2024.

About the author

Tom Paton

Tom is the founder of Broadband Savvy. He has more than five years’ experience writing broadband tutorials, reviewing routers and internet service providers, and explaining broadband-related concepts. Tom is experienced as a writer, and also hosts videos on the Broadband Savvy YouTube channel.

He currently specialises in writing content designed to help people understand broadband jargon and terminology, increase their download and upload speeds, and improve their Wi-Fi connectivity. Tom also occasionally contributes to buyer’s guides and review articles on Broadband Savvy, utilising his knowledge of the broadband market in the UK.

When he’s not writing about broadband, you’ll find Tom walking his dog (Rex) or playing agar.io.