Can you get 24Mbps?

To provide you with faster broadband speeds of up to 24Mbps, we have upgraded our broadband network.

This new ADSL2+ technology has already received positive feedback on the speed and reliability from those customers who are already using it.

Can you get speeds up to 24Mbps?

To give you the best possible broadband experience we simply let your broadband go as fast as possible, all the time - up to 24Mbps downstream and 1Mbs upstream.

Currently, our broadband upgrade programme has focused on busy metropolitan areas with a greater population density, so that more people will benefit. As a result, around 55% of the UK's population can benefit from these faster broadband speeds - up to 24Mbps.

However, we are based in Devon and we're very sympathetic to rural areas and will be doing everything we can to accelerate the availability of faster broadband for all - not just the big city dwellers.

If you are in an area that has not been upgraded you will continue to receive the fastest speed that your line will support - up to 8Mbps downstream and 448kbps upstream.

To find out an estimate of what speed you can expect simply enter your phone number into our speed checker on the right hand side of this webpage.

Maximum achievable speeds by distance from the exchange

Source: TPG
Note: Distance in the above chart is straight-line distances

What are the factors that affect the speed that you are able to achieve?

The actual speed you experience is affected by one or more of the following factors:

• The distance you live from the telephone exchange: the closer you live to the exchange, the faster your connection is likely to be.
• Telephone wiring: once the broadband internet connection hits your house, it still needs to reach your router/modem. If you've got good quality wiring in your house, you'll be able to enjoy faster speeds.
• Time of day: the internet has busy periods, and traffic on our network will vary from minute to minute depending on the number of people using our network.
• Hardware: the type of modem or router you use can affect the speed you experience.
• Micro filters: the quality of the filters you use will also affect your speed.
• The remote destination that you are connecting to (i.e. a web server, FTP server). If a web site is very busy or has insufficient bandwidth you will get slow responses from that website.

Get the fastest speed available on your line

Every ISP has a finite amount of capacity – there's only so much web traffic that you can get through the network at one time.  If a broadband provider offers unlimited broadband, and users actually try and use it as an unlimited service, then the provider's network will grind to a halt. To avoid this, most unlimited broadband providers will have clauses in their terms and conditions to prevent what they consider to be excessive use and ensure that customers can only download a certain amount that is deemed to be  ‘fair’ to the package (this is also known as a fair use policy  or FUP).

For instance, Virgin Media has recently announced its traffic management policy which will slow down your broadband speed by half if you breach their FUP’s usage allowance during peak hours.  What’s more, most of our competitors offering ‘unlimited broadband’ won’t even tell you how much you can download as part of their FUP; they will just cut your speed when you hit their limit.

If you’ve ever used an unlimited internet connection, you’ve probably already experienced this.   Maybe you’re watching videos from sites such as YouTube or BBC iPlayer and find that your connection is constantly buffering so they’re almost impossible to watch, or maybe you’re an online gamer and find that your games suffer from lag and jitter (which for serious gamers is the difference between winning and losing a game.) This is because you’re ISP is stopping your line from getting super fast speeds.

Our usage based products offer a guaranteed quality experience and make customers a lot happier.  By giving you an inclusive monthly download allowance, we’re able to plan our capacity more effectively so we don’t need to restrict your broadband speeds during peak hours.  This means, that you’ll get a consistent broadband speed, giving you more freedom to download the kind of music and video that you want without interruption.