BT broadband's unlikely new rival offers faster speeds at a cheaper price

BT continues its drive to bring faster speeds to more customers across the UK. The telecom firm has recently announced a major update, which is now offering some consumers the chance to download files at speeds of almost 1Gbps – that’s fast enough to whizz a feature-length Hollywood movie in full HD onto your TV in under a minute.

Although that sounds impressive, BT’s Fibre 1000 is only available in limited areas and if you’re stuck with sluggish speeds it might be worth shopping around as you could save some serious money and get a big boost to your connection. BT’s competitors continue to grow and the latest challenge to their domination comes from a very unlikely rival.

Shell is best known for powering our cars, but the fuel firm also provides broadband and their internet service has just got a whole lot quicker. Known as Shell Energy, it just launched its fastest-ever broadband option, which is capable of beaming content to your living room at 290Mbps – that’s over four times quicker than the UK average. Not bad for a petrol company, right?

Not only is Shell offering speedy internet access to boost your boxset binges, video conferences when working from home, and more, but it’s also reduced the price making it a very attractive option.

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As a comparison on price, BT offers its Full Fibre 100 plan (guaranteed speeds of 100Mbps) for £39.99 per month and its Full Fibre 300 (guaranteed speeds 150Mbps) for £49.99.

News of this upgrade comes as a new report suggests that the UK is falling behind many parts of Europe when it comes to download speeds. According to the latest report from cable.co.uk, the UK is now 47th in the world with an average internet speed of 37.82Mbps. At that rate, it should take roughly 15 minutes to download a feature-length movie in High Definition (HD).

The UK manages to trump 174 other countries globally but falls way behind 46 other nations in the speed league, including 21 in Western Europe.

This puts the UK among the slowest in Europe when it comes to average broadband speed. The Government has pledged to bring full-fibre broadband – with speeds comparable to these European nations – to more households soon, but these speedy new connections aren’t expected to be plugged in until the later this year.

source: express.co.uk