Gigabit broadband March 2026

What Is Gigabit broadband?

Gigabit broadband is internet that can achieve download speeds of a gigabit per second, or 1,000Mbps. That’s the fastest speed currently available in the UK, allowing you to download a full-length film in a fraction of a second. The government’s target is for gigabit broadband to reach every part of the UK by 2030.^[2] But it could be in your area already.

Key features of gigabit broadband:

The new gold standard for broadband speed
Download speeds of at least 1,000Mbps
Delivered through a full fibre or cable connection
Being rolled out across the UK

Is gigabit broadband in my area?

83% of UK homes had access to gigabit-capable broadband networks as of July 2024.^[3] This suggests the government’s Project Gigabit is comfortably on track to reach its target of full coverage by 2030.^[2]

The Office for National Statistics has a map showing the percentage of homes and businesses reached by a gigabit-capable network in the UK, so you can see how your area fares in comparison with others. Top of the charts for gigabit coverage is Hull, with 99.1% of eligible buildings covered. Bottom of the list is the Western Isles of Scotland with 5.6%.^[4]

There’s a big difference in gigabit coverage between the countries of the UK. Northern Ireland has 92.7% coverage but Wales only 72%.

How fast is gigabit internet?

The speed of an internet connection is a measure of data transferred over time. So it’s measured in megabits (the data part of the calculation) per second (the time part), or Mbps for short.

Gigabit broadband allows you to transfer a gigabit of data or more in a single second (1 Gbps). There are a thousand megabits in a gigabit, which means gigabit broadband has a minimum speed of 1,000Mbps.

That’s more than four times faster than the UK average of 223Mbps.^[5] And it would have seemed unimaginably fast not that long ago. In 2010 the European Commission announced a 2020 target for all citizens to have access to “much faster internet speeds” of 30Mbps or higher.^[6] (Ofcom still classes 30Mbps and above as “superfast”^[7].)

Gigabit broadband voucher scheme

The UK government has a target of getting gigabit broadband to basically every home and business in the UK by 2030. The Conservative government’s 2022 “Levelling Up” policy paper^[8] promised:

85% gigabit broadband coverage by 2025
Nationwide coverage by 2030

The first part has already been delivered and Labour have said that they are committed to delivering the second part.^[9] But reaching the last 15% of homes and businesses is a challenge. So in 2018 the government launched Project Gigabit, with a total funding pot of £5 billion. It has identified areas of the UK where businesses are unlikely to see a commercial return for investing in gigabit broadband, and earmarked these for intervention. The government has signed over 30 contracts directly with suppliers to build networks in hard-to-reach places.^[10]

Some places aren’t getting a government-funded gigabit network but could be eligible for funding through the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme (GBVS). At the time of writing, this is limited to just a few regions^[11]:

Birmingham and the Black Country
Merseyside and Greater Manchester
Greater London
Isle of Wight
Derbyshire
Devon

Where you live could be a candidate for gigabit voucher funding if you’re in one of these regions and there are:

No commercial broadband providers planning gigabit coverage
No government plans for gigabit coverage
Top speeds of below 100Mbps

Gigabit voucher funding is up to £4,500 per home or small business, but you don’t get any money directly - it’s done through suppliers. Your first step is to check out the official voucher scheme information webpage and find out who your local registered supplier is. Then you need to ask them if they’re putting together a voucher-funded project. The webpage explains where to go from there.

Gigabit broadband deals

As of March 2025, there were 12 providers on the Go.Compare panel offering speeds of 1,000Mbps and above (including two business tariffs). The actual speeds available to you depend on the network capability in your area. Use our postcode checker for an accurate idea.

The top speed from BeFibre is a blisteringly fast average 2,300Mbps (2.3Gbps). All their deals have symmetrical upload and download speeds.

Three providers on our panel are offering deals with average speeds of 2,000Mbps (two gigabits per second). They’re all altnets, which means they build their own fibre networks. They all started out in a limited geographical area and then began expanding their coverage. You can only switch to them and access their 2-gigabit deals if you’re in a part of the UK that their network already reaches, so use our postcode checker (above) to see what’s available to you.

Trooli started out in the south-east of England, but these days it also covers East Anglia and parts of Scotland
Zzoomm began in Henley-on-Thames and is still focused on bringing coverage to market towns
Lightspeed is focused on the east of England

There’s wider geographical coverage from Vodafone, offering 1,800Mbps (1.8 gigabits per second).

Also offering gigabit broadband are three final providers with deals delivering speeds of 1,000Mbps:

The “gigabit broadband” label seems to make deals more desirable, so you might notice a jump in price between deals just under the 1,000Mbps threshold and those just above it. Do you really need 1,000Mbps, or would 900Mbps or thereabouts give you an identical experience? If you’re not obsessed with the “gigabit” tag then you could bag a deal that’s much better value for money.

FAQs

Is 1Gig broadband worth it?

Most households don’t need a full gigabit of bandwidth, even if there are multiple people gaming and streaming at the same time. Our bandwidth calculator will give you a rough idea of what speed you need.

How much does 1 gigabit internet cost?

The average starting cost for a gigabit broadband deal on the Go.Compare panel is £34.07.^[12] What you’ll pay depends on the specific deal you go for. The monthly price will probably go up at some point during your contract, usually in April each year. Providers have to be transparent about this, so you will see when you’re comparing deals what the new price will be and when it’s going up. Our search lets you quickly compare by full contract price as well as by starting monthly payment.

Can I use my existing router with gigabit broadband?

When you switch to a gigabit broadband deal, your provider will supply you with a router that’s designed to work with gigabit speeds and approved for their service. There’s no good reason not to use it. It might even say in the terms and conditions of your contract that they can’t guarantee delivering the top speeds unless you use their router, or that they can’t offer tech support for third party routers.

What's the difference between cable and fibre gigabit broadband?

Both cable and fibre connections are capable of achieving gigabit speeds. Fibre gigabit broadband is delivered through fibre optic cables that connect your home directly to the exchange (known as full fibre).

Virgin’s cable broadband is delivered through a combination of coaxial cables (electrical cables that transmit radio-frequency signals) and fibre optic cables. This is sometimes known as HFC, short for “hybrid fibre-coaxial".

The two types of broadband network do exactly the same job of delivering incredibly fast internet to your home. So your choice shouldn’t be based on which technology is “better” but on what’s available in your area and what the best deal is for you.

Aren't all gigabit connections created equal?

If it’s a gigabit connection, by definition it’s capable of download speeds over 1,000Mbps. Where you might see a difference is with the upload speeds. Fibre is capable of symmetrical upload-download speeds, while HFC isn’t (yet). But ask yourself what upload speeds you actually need. Even if you’re a content creator streaming videos live, you’ll probably get enough upload bandwidth from any gigabit connection.

When will I get gigabit internet?

The Project Gigabit target is for gigabit-ready internet to reach the whole country by 2030. Many parts of the UK already have it. Check out the ONS map to see how your area is doing, although it’s based on last year’s data so things could have changed.

When there’s a gigabit-capable network in your area, you’ll usually get more than one provider offering deals at this speed. Use our site to compare what’s available to you.

How many GB is a good internet speed?

GB isn’t actually a measurement of speed at all. The capital letters GB represent a gigabyte. Bytes, megabytes, and gigabytes are units of data—so are bits, megabits, and gigabits.

When we talk about internet speeds, we usually talk in terms of how much data can be transferred across the connection in a second. We use bits rather than bytes for this because they’re smaller. There are eight bits in a byte, eight megabits in a megabyte, and so on. Most broadband providers advertise their speeds in megabits per second (Mbps).

It’s easy to mix up gigabytes with gigabits, but comparing data allowances to connection speeds is like comparing apples to oranges. To give you an idea of what a GB of data looks like in the real world:

The film Wicked in its high-definition format has a file size of 8.94GB.^[13]
A data allowance of 1GB on your phone lets you browse for 20 hours or send and receive 6,000 emails with normal-size attachments, according to BT.^[14]
The most common phone data plans give you over 5GB a month.^[15]

As for speeds, a connection of 30Mbps is at the bottom of the superfast range. It would download 1GB of data in less than five minutes. Gigabit broadband at 1,000Mbps would take just eight seconds.

To get an idea of what internet speed is right for you, take a look at our bandwidth calculator.

Last updated 20 March 2025