Broadband speeds in Belfast

belfastgirl23

Just looking for advice/experiences. We're currently with Sky (have been for a couple of years) and over that time the broadband speed hasn't been great, plus prices have gone up. At the minute we're getting a download speed of 11.16 - my mobile is faster. This is now becoming a problem as DH has changed jobs and will need to be able to download graphics at decent speeds. I'm not saying price isn't a consideration here but speed is the most important thing.

I know there's www.nibroadband.com but at the minute all they're saying is that 'Your area is enabled for Superfast Fibre but your cabinet is not ready yet so you can't place an order today. It is in our plans to be upgraded and we update this info weekly, so please check back later.' As a really stupid question, is this the free Belfast broadband that people are talking about? In my dream world I'm thinking that one day superfast broadband will come free and I can cancel everything else. And does anyone have any knowledge of how fast it's actually being rolled out. 'It is in our plans' isn't a great estimate by any standards.

Also on a quick surf, Virgin Media are advertising speeds of up to 200 mb/s but I've been with them before and this is well over-egging the pudding from my memory, particularly in areas of high demand, which ours is. Has it improved since we left?

We have probably about six weeks to two months until we really need to figure this out. Anyone got experiences to share or any advice?

PS I'm very open to considering other options and providers by the way!

JulieElizabeth

I know there are cheaper options, but personally I cannot fault virgin

They appealed also because I didn't want a phone line or entertainment package

I am in Greater Belfast

Honkycat

Virgin are good and in my experience you get pretty much the speed you are supposed to. I am in Belfast too.

Ticked

Another vote for Virgin. Although the quoted speed is 70mb/s, our wireless network limits it to about half that. Ethernet connected devices are faster, but I haven't measured how much. Anyway, the 35mb/s is plenty fast enough!

Heisenbug

If speeds the top priority then it has to be Virgin, unless you're considering more specialised options. I'm on the 200Mbps and speed tests are usually 190Mbps plus, day to day I don't spend long waiting for multi gigabyte files and it copes with multiple HD streams.

Those speedtests are over wireless, the current router they supply is ac so wireless shouldn't restrict your download speeds unless your have older devices.

I think you may be confusing Superfast with the free wifi Belfast was supposed to get. Superfast is the fibre rollout which normally means faster vdsl as sold by Sky etc with speeds of up to 80Mbps. You can also get fibre to your premises but this is expensive to install.

donnac2558

Another vote for Virgin I am 70mg use wireless and it flies, Rosetta area

bingo_bango

Also on Virgin 70mb and get around 74mb download (Ethernet connection & only 5mb upload mind you) with no contention issues.

almillar

'Belfast' - you need to be more specific - that's the whole problem with the 'up to' thing.
Are you on Fibre with Sky? If not, you may be able to upgrade. Do you know how far you are from your cabinet? This will affect ADSL ('normal broadband') and FTTC (fibre/BT Infinity) speeds. I went from 3mb ADSL to 30mb FTTC - this has since dropped to 20mb and my cabinet is now at capacity. If you're in that situation there's not much within your control - no matter what FTTC provider you go with, it'll be the same cable connecting your house to your cabinet.
UNLESS you go with Virgin...