Why is an Altnet better?
Fast, Reliable, Value for Money
Altnets are different because they are building brand-new networks from the ground up—mostly full fibre straight to homes and businesses (some with wireless options for the most rural areas). Unlike the traditional providers, they don’t have to deal with the cost and hassle of keeping the old copper networks running. Consequently they are more economic to run enabling Altnets to offer very competitive prices for their services either directly or through third party Internet Service Providers.
That means:
- Faster speeds – full fibre can deliver up to 1 gigabit per second or more.
- Greater reliability – full fibre is inherently more reliable meaning no more dropouts or slow connections.
- Better value – because their networks are cheaper to run, Altnets can offer very competitive prices.
Often you can buy your service directly from an Altnet, or in some cases through the broadband brands that use their networks—but either way, you’ll get the benefits of a faster, more modern connection.
Challenging the Status Quo
Altnets are by nature a challenger in the market to the incumbents such as Openreach and Virgin Media. The networks they build are typically full fibre from the beginning, and freshly designed to deliver the fastest services. They also offer products which are often superior.
Fibre = High Performance
Altnets deploy full‑fibre (FTTP) networks from the start. This ensures faster, more stable connections with symmetric download and upload speeds. They bypass the copper bottlenecks common to FTTC services or even G.Fast. By using full fibre from the beginning, the network is highly scalable for future technologies. In 20 years, we’ve seen services using fibre optic cables go from 1Gbps to 800Gbps and more, but the fibre optic cable remains the same.
Better Value & Service
Altnets are often better value than services based on incumbent platforms as reported by thinkbroadband in their UK Broadband Report in March 2025. The recurring costs are significantly lower, and many Altnets also offer services without annual mid-contract price increases.
Many Altnets also offer symmetric speeds so the upload speed is the same as the download speed, as they don’t have legacy business leased line revenue to protect.
Driving Full Fibre Rollout
Altnets are at the forefront of the digital infrastructure revolution – replacing the old phone network with the fibre and wireless connections of the future.
They offer:
- Connections for under-served areas — Altnets often target areas that are poorly served by BT Openreach, both rural and urban. They boost local connectivity and economic opportunity, providing consumers and businesses with fast modern connections without having to wait years for rollouts from incumbent operators.
- Faster speeds — full fibre can deliver up to 1 gigabit per second or more.
- Greater reliability — full fibre is inherently more reliable meaning no more dropouts or slow connections.
- Better value — because their networks are cheaper to run, Altnets can offer very competitive prices.
- More choice — often you can buy your service directly from an Altnet, or in some cases through the broadband brands that use their networks—but either way, you’ll get the benefits of a faster, more modern connection.
