Ultrafast broadband is a full-fibre connection based on fibre-to-the-premises or home (FTTP) technology, which gives you access to speeds of up to 1Gbps (1,000Mbps). Free from all copper, FTTP uses fibre optic cables for the entire journey from the telephone exchange to your home. It’s ideal for full houses where more than three devices are connected.
Superfast broadband is normally a part fibre, part copper connection based on fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) technology. FTTC works by running fibre optic cables from the telephone exchange to 'street cabinets' – those green boxes you may have seen on your street. From there, existing copper wires connect broadband to your home. Superfast broadband offers download speeds of up to 80Mbps, making it ideal for small households where you have 1-3 devices connected at once.
Find out more about the differences on our full fibre page.
Please visit our interactive maps to find out your broadband status, which will tell you one of the following: you're in a commercial operator's plans; you're in Superfast Essex's plans; or that broadband is not available.
For commercial operator plans, please visit our commercial operators page.
For enquiries about the Superfast Essex rollout, please contact us.
If you're not in build plans, your address will be eligible for investment in future phases of the Superfast Essex programme, if additional funding becomes available. In the meantime, we suggest you register your demand with us as well as directly with commercial operators. We also recommend that you look into broadband funding support schemes.
If an operator tells us they already provide a property with fibre broadband, or have commercial plans to, this address cannot be included in the Superfast Essex programme. This is due to State Aid rules for broadband, which say that we’re legally unable to invest public funding where commercial broadband coverage is already available or planned to be made available.
Even if your area has already benefited from a commercial operator's rollout of superfast broadband, it is likely you will be included in commercial plans for gigabit-capable broadband in the future. This is because the government wants 85% of homes and businesses to have access to a gigabit-capable network by 2025. Under its Project Gigabit programme, Essex will be one of the first counties to benefit from funding to bring faster connections to parts where commercial investment is not viable.
There are a few reasons why addresses may not be in plans.
New build homes
Unfortunately, new builds are currently not included in the Superfast Essex programme. This is because Superfast Essex was introduced to improve connectivity in existing rural areas, rather than to provide fibre broadband to new homes being built.
We are actively engaging with housing developers, as well as local district and borough councils, who are responsible for planning, as we want them to consider broadband provision as another utility which should be installed as a standard requirement along with gas and electricity. We’ve already seen good progress, with some Essex local planning authorities beginning to incorporate broadband requirements into their local planning guidelines.
Addresses claimed by a commercial operator
Superfast Essex regularly holds open market reviews and public consultations to find out which addresses are in commercial operators’ plans for superfast and ultrafast broadband. This has helped us to identify properties that are not included in any plans and are therefore eligible for investment in our programme.
If an operator tells us they already provide a property with fibre broadband, or have plans to, this address cannot be included in the Superfast Essex programme. This is due to State Aid rules, which say that we’re legally unable to invest public funding where commercial broadband coverage is already available or planned to be made available.
Unfortunately, in some cases, commercial operators change their plans and remove addresses from their rollouts. When this happens, the broadband status of these properties changes to ‘no build’, which means they’re eligible for investment in a future phase of the Superfast Essex programme, should more funding become available.
Other addresses not included
As Essex is a large county, we’ve not been able to make fibre broadband available to everyone. However, reaching homes which do not have access to superfast speeds is a priority for us and we are working with BDUK to plan the next steps of our programme, as part of the government’s ambition to upgrade 85% of UK homes and businesses to full fibre broadband by 2025.
In the meantime, we recommend looking into the following:
There are many comparison sites available online which will tell you which internet service provider (ISP) can provide your address with broadband. Alternatively, please visit our Providers page, which links to a full list of superfast and ultrafast broadband providers on the Openreach and Gigaclear networks. We also have a Commercial Operators page, which lists all of the commercial operators active in Essex.
Please note: Superfast Essex is helping to upgrade broadband infrastructure across the county, but we are not a broadband provider and therefore do not offer a broadband service.
There has been a sharp rise in commercial broadband rollouts in Essex in response to the government’s ambition for 85% of the UK to have access to gigabit-capable broadband by 2025.
This means that, even if you live or work in an area which has already been upgraded to superfast broadband, you may see further work taking place. These works may cause a high level of disruption due to partial road closures, diversions, or simply work taking place in wet and muddy conditions. However, all this work will result in faster connections, allowing people to do more online.
It’s important to report any damage caused as a result of this commercial activity. If you have any concerns about roadworks, visit the One Network website to find out who is working in your area and contact them in the first instance. If your enquiry needs to be escalated, please visit the Essex Highways website.
As the rollout of full fibre broadband continues to accelerate across the UK, the cost of taking out a service to gain access to ultrafast speeds is becoming increasingly competitive. Often, the difference in cost between an ultrafast and a superfast broadband service is less than you’d expect.
When we checked in January 2022, a home in Essex with access to full fibre (ultrafast) could take out a service offering 100Mbps download speeds for £24 a month, or speeds of up to 200Mbps for £28 a month. In comparison, a superfast service (download speeds of at least 30Mbps) start at £21.
If you’re still in contract with your internet service provider (ISP), it may be worth contacting them to see if you can upgrade to faster speeds. If you do decide to leave your contract with them, be aware of early exit fees that may apply.
We’d also suggest looking for a new broadband contract around bank holidays or promotional days such as Black Friday, as ISPs tend to offer the best deals around these dates.
If you have access to ultrafast, full fibre broadband, you don’t need a phone line to use the internet. That’s because this type of broadband is based on fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP), which is free from all copper and uses only fibre optic cables to connect your home to the internet.
A phone line is needed in most cases for superfast broadband as this kind of connection normally requires the phone network to connect to the internet. Superfast fibre is typically a part fibre, part copper connection based on fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) technology, which works by running fibre optic cables from the telephone exchange to 'street cabinets' – those green boxes you may have seen on your street. From there, existing copper wires (the phone network) are used to connect broadband to your home.
It might be possible to save some money if you don’t intend to use the phone line to make or receive phone calls. Therefore, it’s worth mentioning this to your internet service provider when you’re taking out a service with them.