Four in five households can now get lightning-fast gigabit broadband... but do they need it?

Lightning-quick gigabit broadband is now available in 24 million UK homes, equating to four in five households.

Gigabit broadband is capable of download speeds of 1 gigabit per second, or 1,000 megabytes.

Now regulator Ofcom has confirmed that the broadband is available to 80 per cent of UK homes, up from 73 per cent a year ago.

The reason is that Openreach has increased the number of homes that can access gigabit broadband to 14 million.

Speed, at a cost: Gigabit broadband offers extremely quick internet, but at a high price

Openreach is owned by BT and powers the broadband available from firms such as BT, EE, Plusnet, Sky, TalkTalk and Vodafone.

Virgin Media runs a separate network, with all homes it connects to also being able to access gigabit broadband packages.

But gigabit broadband remains unpopular, with the average broadband speed being just 69.4 megabytes per second, or Mbps.

Which? director of policy and advocacy Rocio Concha said: ‘A fast and reliable internet connection is essential to modern life and while it’s positive that gigabit-capable broadband infrastructure has progressed, more needs to be done to improve take up levels among households.

‘Consumers need better information, clearer and more consistent terms describing these services as well as targeted voucher and discount schemes.

‘The Government and Ofcom also still need to consider gigabit capability for more rural areas so that no part of the country gets left behind.’

So what are the advantages of gigabit broadband, what are the drawbacks – and who really needs internet that fast?

The pros of gigabit broadband

Speed

The main advantage of gigabit broadband is the obvious one – the incredible speed.

Many households will not need gigabit-fast broadband, but equally it may come in handy in many living situations.

This includes large households, those working with big digital files, or homes that do a lot of gaming and streaming.

Reliability

Gigabit internet runs on physical wires, either fibre optic or co-axial cables. This makes gigabit service very reliable when it comes to patchy connection or outages.

The cons of gigabit broadband

Cost

Gigabit broadband is expensive when compared to traditional broadband.

The cheapest deals depend on a variety of factors, including where you live and what you can negotiate from your would-be provider.

The cheapest deal found by This is Money is for £40 a month, from Fibrely, but a more typical cost is between £50 and £80 a month.

Standard fibre broadband normally costs between £15 and £30 a month, so is considerably cheaper – but for much lower speeds.

How much? Signing up to gigabit broadband can cost up to £80 per month

And like most broadband packages, the cost of gigabit broadband will almost certainly go up every year in line with inflation.

This year broadband customers saw inflation-linked internet price hikes of up to 7.9 per cent.

Ofcom is planning on banning mid-term broadband tariff increases, but the earliest this would happen is this summer.

If the regulator does take action then the initial cost of all broadband, including gigabit, could rise to make up for the loss of income to providers.

Overkill

Many homes simply do not need to have internet as fast as gigabit can provide. Browsing the internet, streaming and even gaming can be done effectively enough on far slower connections, for most people.

It may not be available

Ofcom figures suggest that 20 per cent of homes cannot get gigabit broadband even if they wanted to, as they are not living in parts of the country where it has been rolled out.

Broadband price pitfalls to be aware of

When considering any broadband package it is also sensible to look beyond the initial advertised monthly price.

This is because broadband firms know that households and price comparison websites rank deals based on monthly cost.

This has led to the growth of introductory offers and set-up fees which muddy the waters when trying to work out what a deal really costs.

For example, some deals advertise a low rate, but this only applies to the first few months. After that point a higher rate kicks in for the rest of the deal.

Another thing to look out for is set-up fees. As the name suggests, these are one-off costs paid at the beginning of a new broadband deal, and are normally around £10.

There may also be an exit fee to pay if you leave your existing provider before the fixed-term contract is up.