BT is guaranteeing customers minimum ultrafast broadband speeds of 100Mbps in its two new services.
Ultrafast Fibre 1 and 2 offer speeds up to 152Mbps and 314Mbps respectively. According to Ofcom the average broadband speed in the UK is 44Mbps.
Fibre 1 and Fibre 2 will retail from £54.99 and £59.99 respectively. Customers who sign up for the packages would get £20 in compensation if speeds drop below 100Mbps four times a year.
But only 250,000 UK homes, across 46 locations, in Armley in West Yorkshire to Whitchurch in South Glamorgan and Donaldson in Edinburgh.
The technology behind the new services is called G.Fast, Openreach aims to have the technology rolled out to 10 million premises by 2020.
Virgin Media offers a similar service while newcomer Hyperoptic is installing fibre-optic cables that can offer speeds up to 1,000Mbps to 80 apartments in London this week. It plans to offer services to five million homes by 2025.
Consideration
Broadband Genie spokesperson Rob Hilborn said: “We recommend those that are able to upgrade to these packages first consider a standard fibre package rather than simply jumping up to the fastest package available.
“For most, this will be more than adequate and save you a significant amount of cash.”
ThinkBroadband co-founder Andrew Ferguson added: “The new service is aimed at those who can already get fairly good speeds, but with its largest competitor, Virgin Media, pushing hard with 200-350Mbps products, BT Consumer is now able to offer something with similar speeds which is probably critical to maintaining market share.”