Your choice of broadband provider and the speed you can get are hugely affected by where you live. If you live in a rural area, for instance, it’s very unlikely that you’ll be able to get the same speeds that will be available in the city.
Also, fast broadband that is available in one part of the country might not be available in another part. Some areas offer a choice of broadband types so if you’re willing to spend more, you can have a faster connection. In rural areas where speeds are typically lower than in urban areas, you may find there are options such as satellite broadband providers that offer a faster connection than ADSL.
In this article, we’ll explain how to to find out which broadband options are available to you.
Who provides broadband in my area?
The way to find out is to enter your address into
In the UK, most ISPs use the BT-owned Openreach network, such as those below. If you click on the links, you’ll be taken to a postcode checker where you can find out what packages – if any – are available at the address you enter.
There are also independent providers that offer their own network in some UK areas too. These are:
Of course, it can be quicker to use a third-party comparison site which checks all providers at a given address such as Uswitch. This will tell you which broadband packages are available (i.e. ADSL, fibre, and full fibre).
If you’re in the USA, you can use a third-party service such as the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) to check what broadband is available in your zipcode.
Why do broadband speeds vary in different areas?
Broadband speeds vary for a number of reasons.
You’ll probably find that DSL (often called ADSL – asynchronous DSL – because download and upload speeds aren’t the same) is available but this will typically top out at around 20-25Mbps for downloads.
The closer you live to your local telephone exchange, the higher the internet speed will be. That’s because speeds drop off the further the signal has to travel along copper telephone wires.
This means that even if a network provider advertises a certain speed, you should expect that it may be lower at your particular property. However, most providers have become quite good at estimating the speed at each postcode / zipcode.
You can use a broadband checker to get an accurate idea of the speeds that’ll be available to you and your home.
If you’re lucky enough to be able to choose fibre, this could be a fibre connection that goes as far as your local exchange. It then uses the same copper wires that DSL does, and suffers the same speed degradation the farther you are from the exchange. But you you can expect such fibre packages to offer faster speed – up to around 80Mbps down and 20Mbps up.
Few properties are yet blessed with a fibre connection right to the building, but this can deliver gigabit speeds. Similarly, cable broadband, which uses coaxial cable, can deliver up to around 1Gbps. You can check out the fastest broadband in the UK here.
And you can find out more about the different types of broadband.
When you have different types of broadband available in your area, it can be difficult to choose. But you can read our guide on how to choose a broadband service for some useful tips on picking the best package.
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Author: Hannah Williams, Small Business Editor
Hannah is Small Business Editor. She writes news, tutorials and buying advice tailored to very small companies, covering software from Excel to Sage and hardware including laptops.