Slow broadband? Here’s what BT, Virgin Media, TalkTalk, and Sky customers need to do

If you’re struggling with sluggish download speeds at home, it might be time to switch to a new provider. Not only could that unlock faster broadband, but it’s likely to save you a shedload of cash too. With recent energy bills and council tax rises, there’s not a lot of opportunities to make savings on your monthly expenditures …but broadband is the exception.

Research published by Which? earlier this month showed that most broadband customers are overpaying by around £90 a year, compared with the deals available if they switch. Its research shows the average monthly bill for UK broadband customers is £33.77, but customers could save £89 a year if they switched to a super-speedy introductory deal which costs, on average, £26.34 a month.

So, you’ll be getting faster download speeds and cheaper bills.

The average Sky broadband customer pays £37.32 a month, but could save £131.76 a year if they switched to an introductory deal. BT customers pay £36.30 a month on average and could save £119.52 – while TalkTalk customers pay £28.98 a month but could save £31.86 a year.

Virgin Media customers could save the most by switching (£143.64 per year), as they have the highest average monthly bill out of the big four providers at £41.68, Which? added. However, it’s worth noting that Virgin Media offers some of the fastest speeds available in the UK, with more than 15 million customers able to access downloads in excess of 500Mbps. For comparison, the average UK home broadband speed is 71Mbps.

BT, Sky, Virgin Media, and a host of new start-ups, including the likes of Hyperoptic, Community Fibre, Zzoomm, Giganet, and more, are rolling out gigabit-capable broadband connections too. These typically cost a little more, but for those who will be working from home permanently – or have busy household with multiple people streaming shows in 4K, making video calls, downloading video games, backing up photos at the same time each night – these speeds, which top out above 1,000Mbps, ensure you’re never faced with buffering.

With a gigabit broadband connection, you’ll be able to download 25 songs in one second and a feature-length film in HD in around 36 seconds.

Whether you’re hoping to cut back on the cost of your monthly broadband bills or want to increase the bandwidth coming into your home, Express.co.uk has rounded up some of the best deals around. Check out the speeds and prices available below…