Best broadband in Manchester

Broadband in Manchester

Manchester is one of the UK’s most connected cities, with broadband coverage from all major national providers as well as a growing clutch of alternative networks (altnets). In a nutshell: There's plenty to choose from. You can compare what's available at your address using our postcode checker at the top of the page, ord for a broader overview of what’s available and which providers are leading the speed race, we've got you covered right here in this guide.

National broadband providers in Manchester

Manchester is, unsurprisingly as a major UK city, covered by every national broadband provider, resulting in a wide range of speeds, prices and bundling options being available. These include (but are not limited to) popular providers like BT, Sky, Virgin Media, TalkTalk, Vodafone, Plusnet and EE Broadband. And with so many providers competing, most Mancunians will have access to speeds ranging anywhere from decent to absurdly quick.

The majority of Manchester providers deliver broadband over the Openreach network, meaning you’ll often find the same speeds available from different companies, while customer service quality, bundled extras like call packages, TV subscriptions or mobile deals, and monthly pricing do vary quite a bit. Virgin Media is the main exception, using its own separate network, and there are also a smattering of local providers (altnets) across the city – covered a bit further down.

Broadband speeds among national providers in Manchester range from around 35Mbps with Standard Fibre to 2.2Gbps with the fastest Full Fibre connection. Full Fibre availability is growing quickly – around 65% nationally, and higher in major cities like Manchester – but getting it still depends on your exact postcode. Virgin Media’s Gig2 package is available in some areas, while Vodafone’s Pro II plan offers up to 2.2Gbps some, subject to your exact location. Most other providers including BT, Sky, TalkTalk, and Plusnet offer Full Fibre packages up to around 900Mbps.

Broadband speeds in Manchester

Manchester has some of the fastest broadband in the country, largely due to excellent Full Fibre coverage and strong competition among providers. But while the top speeds are impressive, what you can get still depends heavily on which package you choose and whether Full Fibre is available at your postcode.

For those able to access Openreach Full Fibre or Virgin Media's network, speeds way beyond those averages are available. Virgin Media offers packages up to 2Gbps (Gig2) in some postcodes, while Vodafone’s Pro II packages reach up to 2.2Gbps if you can get it. Other major providers including BT, Sky, TalkTalk, and Plusnet offer Full Fibre plans up to 900Mbps or greater, and EE Broadband offers a 1.6Gbps package to anyone who can get Full Fibre on Openreach – well over two thirds of Manchester residents.

In practice, most households in Manchester will find speeds of around 100–300Mbps tick all the boxes in terms of working from home, streaming, gaming, and day-to-day browsing, which is why the average sits around there.

Local broadband providers (altnets) in Manchester

In addition to the big household names, Manchester's also served by a growing number of alternative network providers (or 'altnets'). These smaller operators often build and run their own Full Fibre networks, focusing on specific areas that tend to be underserved by the big nationals. As a group, they tend to offer competitive pricing, symmetrical upload/download speeds, no price-hike promises, and in some cases, faster speeds.

Some Manchester altnets operate entirely independently, while others partner with network providers like CityFibre, Freedom Fibre, or ITS. Their coverage is much more more postcode-specific than the national providers, but where they are available they can offer a seriously tempting alternative to the larger brands. Here's a snapshot of some, but by no menas all, of the local alternative networks available in Manchester. This is meant to give you a flavour rather than a complete directory.

Broadband availability in Manchester

Manchester has extremely good broadband coverage, with most homes having access to Full Fibre via national providers, and sometimes to even faster Full Fibre via an altnet. Most people in Manchester will end up on one of the two major networks, though: Openreach or Virgin Media. Openreach provides both Standard and Full Fibre connections (and ADSL for the smattering of houses that can get nothing else – around 0.15%, while Virgin Media operates its own network, offering up to 1.1Gbps to most, and up to 2Gbps to some (Gig2 is still pretty early on in its rollout).

To find out what's available to you personally, you can use our postcode checker at the top of this page.

The fastest broadband provider in Manchester

There’s a lot of competition when it comes to broadband speeds in Manchester. While many national providers now offer Full Fibre packages up to 900Mbps or 1.6Gbps, and altnets like brsk and Hyperoptic are well worth a look, there’s a clear winner for top speed, and it’s not even close.

Keep in mind, though, that not every postcode can get every provider or every speed. And that's particularly true of the fastest packages from our winner, as somewhat true Vodafone and Virgin Media's top speeds — so check your address using our postcode checker (top of this page) to see what’s actually available to you personally before getting too excited about the staggering top speed available from our winner.

Winner: YouFibre — up to 7Gbps!

YouFibre, operating over the Netomnia network, offers packages up to a staggering 7Gbps in some parts of Manchester. No other provider currently comes close to this level of speed in the city. Here are the top performers.