4th Utility is an alt net (an alternative network) with full fibre broadband and decent prices. But how much of a viable alternative to Openreach providers it is really? We take a look.
4th Utility is an independent broadband provider that offers fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) broadband only.
Known as Full Fibre, this means there isn’t a trace of copper wire at any point in your connection, with fibre optic cables coming straight into your home.
You’ll need to have such infrastructure installed in your area in order to sign up to a 4th Utility deal.
Why choose 4th Utility Broadband?
4th Utility speeds are very much in line with household name providers, such as BT and TalkTalk. And its prices are pretty much in line with those providers too.
However, where 4th Utility stands out is that all its packages are full fibre. That means you should get a more reliable, consistently fast service, irrespective of the location of your home and the package you choose.
The catch is that 4th Utility has very limited availability. If you're not in the small area it covers, you're out of luck.
On the plus side if you are in a 4th Utility area, though, 4th it's one of the few remaining providers to offer 12 month contracts so you're not making a huge commitment. And even offers one-month, rolling-contract broadband, which can be great for short-term lets.
Pros of 4th Utility Broadband
- All broadband is full fibre, meaning excellent speeds
- You don't have to pay for a landline
- Great range of deals, from 50Mbps all the way to 900Mbps
- Good value plans with regular new-customer incentives
- Option to take our 24-month, 12-month or rolling contracts, meaning greater flexibility to suit all needs and budgets
- Offers a social tariff for qualifying customers
Cons of 4th Utility Broadband
- Cheaper broadband is out there
- Faster speeds are on offer from EE and Virgin Media
- Coverage is limited to certain parts of the country
- No home phone. If you want a landline you'll need to get VoIP from another provider
How fast is 4th Utility Broadband?
- Remarkably Fast – 50Mbps: This entry level package comes with 50Mbps upload and download speeds, great for browsing, scrolling and a bit of streaming on the side
- Super Fast – 100Mbps: At 100Mbps, super fast is designed for streaming, working from home and some gaming too. Upload and download speeds are identical
- Ultra Fast – 250Mbps: The 250Mbps ultrafast offering is billed as being ideal for large homes with lots of devices, from consoles and TVs to smart home products
- Exceedingly Fast – 500Mbps: At 500Mbps, this package will suit all but the most hardcore of users, with highly impressive top download and upload speeds
- Ridiculously Fast – 900Mbps: One for the future proofers, gamers and 4K streamers, this 900Mbps package is the best 4th utility has to offer
Does 4th Utility Broadband offer broadband-only options?
As 4th Utility only deals in full fibre packages, all of its deals are broadband-only. Full fibre does not require an old style landline to get into the home, which standard fibre optic ('fibre-to-the-cabinet') and slower ADSL broadband both do.
You can still get home phone to add onto your broadband, however. It just means that calls will be made over the internet via VoIP, rather than the usual copper phone lines.
If you can’t get 4th Utility…
So you've used our postcode checker and discovered you can't get 4th Utility. The good news that there are plenty of alternatives.
Full fibre broadband is also available from BT, EE, Sky and other household-name providers. Some of which might even work out a bit cheaper, depending on what new-customer incentives they're running.
You might also want to look at other independent full fibre providers, such as Hyperoptic, Cuckoo, Community Fibre or Gigaclear.
