Rural Broadband Deals

Compare broadband for rural areas

If you’re based a long way from the nearest town, this could affect your broadband options.

Just under half of rural homes are yet to get a full fibre connection, according to Ofcom. Although countryside dwellers are more likely to pay for faster speeds where they are available.

Put your postcode into our broadband comparison tool, then choose your address from the dropdown and we’ll show you deals you can get exactly where you live.

Rural broadband at a glance

The latest figures from Ofcom show that:

• Homes in rural parts of the UK are a lot less likely to have access to full fibre broadband - 61% compared to 81% in towns and cities
• Where full fibre is available, people in rural areas are more likely to connect to it than their city-dwelling counterparts. Take-up of full fibre is significantly higher in the countryside than in urban areas (56% in rural areas vs 40% in urban areas)
• Rural areas are driving the growth in satellite broadband as people with poor or non-existent wired connections seek alternatives
• Broadband on the 4G or 5G mobile networks is another alternative to wired broadband, but cities get the lion’s share of coverage here, too

What is rural broadband and what makes it different?

The UK government classes your home as rural if the place you live in has fewer than 10,000 inhabitants. That includes small towns, sizeable villages and hamlets, as well as very remote areas, so there’s a lot of variation within this category. But in general, rural homes are less likely to have access to full fibre broadband.

There are a few reasons why the full fibre broadband rollout has been slower in rural parts of the UK:

• The denser the population of an area, the lower the cost per household of installing fibre connections (because you can use shorter fibres)
• Rural areas have more features that make broadband installation tricky, such as lakes, hills and woodland
• Getting the landowner’s permission to install the fibres can be less straightforward in the countryside

A lot of rural broadband is delivered through Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC). It’s sometimes also called part fibre or hybrid fibre. This means a speedy fibre connection as far as your nearest street cabinet, then copper telephone wires to your actual address. With the old-style copper wires, the distance from the nearest cabinet really makes a difference to the speeds you can get and the reliability of the connection.

Cable is probably not an option

Cable broadband can achieve fast speeds but it’s not a common way to deliver rural broadband. The main provider of cable broadband in the UK is Virgin Media, which tends to focus on developing its network in towns and cities. As ever, it’s worth using our postcode checker to get accurate options for your address.

Types of rural broadband solutions

Your broadband options depend on exactly where you live. Put your postcode into our checker and you’ll only get results that are relevant to you.

Full fibre

Over half of rural homes have the option of full fibre broadband. It’s usually the most expensive but fastest option. Use our postcode checker to see if it’s available at your address.

Hybrid fibre

Hybrid fibre, also called FTTC, is the next best thing if you can’t get full fibre. It means older-style telephone wires go from your home to the nearest connection point in the fibre network (usually a roadside cabinet).

It’s a very common way to get rural broadband. In fact, research by Ofcom shows that 91% of rural areas have access to superfast broadband. In theory, hybrid fibre can achieve speeds of up to around 80 Mbps, but the limiting factor will be the link between your home and the cabinet. The actual speeds you’d get could be much lower.

ADSL

ADSL uses the landline phone network to carry a broadband signal. It’s the oldest and slowest type of service and obsolete in many parts of the UK, including rural areas. It might be the only wired connection you can get in remote places where you can’t get a cable or fibre network. If that’s the case for you, it’s worth exploring options like mobile or satellite broadband instead.

Satellite broadband

Ofcom says that satellite broadband connections in the UK increased in 2025 compared to the year before, from 87,000 to 110,000. Most of these new customers were in rural areas and 12,600 were in places with no wired internet connection.

You’ll need to get a satellite dish installed before you can get online. Satellite broadband is usually one of the most expensive ways to get your internet, with equipment and installation fees to pay. But it could be a game-changer if your wired connection is poor or non-existent.

Broadband on the 4G or 5G network

Another option to bypass the need for a wired connection is mobile broadband. With 4G and 5G broadband, your router has a SIM card (like a mobile phone) and converts mobile signals into Wi-Fi.

But this won’t work if the mobile signal at your property is poor. Mobile data coverage has historically been better in urban areas but that’s changing with the government’s Shared Rural Network scheme. 96% of the UK now has coverage from at least one mobile network operator.

Why compare rural internet options with Go.Compare?

If you live in a rural area, your broadband options depend heavily on your address. You don’t want to waste time looking at deals that aren’t even available for your home, so we’ll show you the rural broadband deals that you can choose from. In 2025, over 16,000 people switched home broadband deals through us.

What are the typical rural internet speeds in the UK?

It will depend on the type of internet connection available for you. Here are the speeds you can expect:

• FTTC broadband - Superfast broadband with speeds of up to around 80 Mbps
• Full fibre broadband - Ultrafast broadband, more than capable of producing gigabit speeds
• 5G broadband - The latest Mobile Network Signal Report by Opensignal shows that Three is the winner for the fastest 5G broadband with a download speed of 187 Mbps, which is well ahead of the other mobile broadband providers
• 4G broadband - Ofcom states that 4G coverage extends just beyond 99% of premises in the UK. The only 4G broadband deal that you can compare with us from Three has an average speed of 10 Mbps
• Satellite broadband - The Starlink speed map shows that you can get satellite broadband speeds between 150 Mbps and 320 Mbps in the UK, depending on where you live

It’s worth noting that you won’t necessarily receive the average speed advertised on a broadband deal. But there should be a minimum guaranteed speed in the terms and conditions. So always check that it’s adequate for your needs.

If it falls below this speed regularly and the problem can’t be resolved by your provider within 30 days, you’re entitled to leave your contract without paying an exit fee, according to Ofcom’s voluntary Broadband Speeds Code of Practice.

Who are the top rural broadband providers?

Openreach has the largest broadband network in the UK, with 99% of the UK able to connect to it, including in remote areas. A large number of broadband providers use the Openreach network, including:

• BT
• Plusnet
• Sky
• TalkTalk
• Zen Internet

Also, a number of altnet providers, which have their own broadband networks, are expanding to connect rural areas, including:

• Airband - States that it specialises in providing high-quality and high-speed broadband for rural areas in the UK
• Fibrus - Made it possible for 81,000 homes in north England, especially in rural areas, to get access to gigabit-capable broadband, as reported by Farming Life
• Quickline - An altnet provider with a focus on getting rural homes and businesses connected with ultrafast full fibre broadband

High speed internet for rural areas - how far have we come?

What a difference five years makes…but there’s still an urban/rural connectivity divide.

Is broadband more expensive in the countryside and rural areas?

It can be more expensive to get a reliable and fast internet connection in rural areas.

There are a few reasons why this could be the case:

• Less competition - Fewer providers will be available in more rural areas, which means that you don’t have as many deals to choose from. That makes it even more important to compare broadband packages and get the best deal for you
• Expensive installation costs - There could be installation costs to take into account, especially with options like satellite broadband. Always check the total annual cost, as well as the monthly cost to get the full picture
• Lack of infrastructure - It’s more expensive for providers to install fibre networks in remote areas than in towns and cities. The costs could be passed on to the customer, which means that you (and any neighbours) could be charged for upgrading infrastructure in your area. This could amount to thousands of pounds

How to improve broadband speed in rural areas

If your home internet seems slow, run our broadband speed test to see exactly what speed you’re getting. You might need to run it a few times to get a more accurate picture. There are various ways to improve your experience, like moving your router - see our tips for speeding up your internet connection.

But with rural broadband, the problem can be bigger than a faulty router. It might be an infrastructure issue affecting your whole area. Use an online tool like Down Detector to check for real-time outages.

Your right to a decent connection

Did you know that you have the legal right to a decent broadband connection? This is defined as a download speed of at least 10 Mbps and an upload speed of 1 Mbps or more. If you don’t have access to this, the Ofcom site explains how you can request one. But this could take up to two years.

Fibre Community Partnerships

In the meantime, there’s hope that the full fibre rollout will reach your area. Openreach is aiming for a “balanced build”, which means that a “fair proportion” of the work happens in rural areas. But this still leaves a lot of rural areas out.

Check if your part of the UK is in the full fibre build plan using BT’s postcode tool and if not, you can register your interest.

Areas not in the plan could still be eligible for a Fibre Community Partnership, but this requires work from you and your neighbours. The steps for the voucher-funded option are roughly as follows:

• Fill in an Expression of Interest form to find out if your community meets the criteria
• BT reviews it and tells you if you’re eligible for a fully-funded solution
• Get as many of your neighbours as possible to apply for a voucher under the government’s Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme and upload their forms to a dedicated online portal
• If the technical survey doesn’t show any problems and the value of the vouchers is equal to the cost of the work, the fibre rollout goes ahead for your community

It’s a slow process and requires a lot of community participation to collect enough vouchers. But if you’re seriously fed up with slow broadband in your area and nobody is doing anything about it, this is a way to take control.

If you can’t collect enough vouchers, there is also the option of community fundraising to cover part or all of the costs.

Will the weather affect my rural broadband connection?

Yes, adverse weather can disrupt rural broadband connections.

For example, heavy rain can damage the copper cables used in FTTC and ADSL broadband.

If you have satellite broadband, strong winds and snow can affect your dish, blocking the signal or knocking over equipment, leaving you without a connection.

Stormy weather could even affect overhead cables and infrastructure used for the mobile broadband network.

Make sure that you report any issues to your provider as soon as you can and it’s safe to do so.

Page last updated 17 March 2026

Kate Griffin

Broadband and energy expert

Reviewed by Catherine Hiley

Information on this page was reviewed by our fact-checkers before it was published. Learn more about our fact checking process and our editorial guidelines.