Hello, my name is Gemma

I am here to help you understand what broadband options are available and what will work the best for you and your family, where you live. You told us that you need faster, or more reliable, broadband and since then we have been looking at how to help. With nearly everything now online we know those without good broadband are really struggling and this is becoming even worse with the rising cost of living.

Online Tool

We have developed an ONLINE TOOL to help identify ways you could improve your broadband. As there is a lot of confusing information about broadband, we have saved you time by reading it first and putting it into one broadband toolkit. When you use this one-stop-shop, it will sometimes send you to other websites, which we do not control and the information there can be hard to follow. For that reason, we have provided you with some instructions to help you navigate your way through! So, please take some time to read the supporting text before you click on a link.

Please click HERE for our online tool and if you have any questions, please email me, Gemma, at communitybroadband@swdevon.gov.uk and I’ll be happy to help.

4 Ways to improve your broadband

In a nutshell, there are four ways to improve your broadband. What is available will depend on your address and in some locations unfortunately the options are still very limited.

Here are the options within the ONLINE TOOL:

1. Fixed wireless – a number of companies provide broadband through radio signals across much of our borough. There can be a lot of difference in broadband speeds between each company. If your house is surrounded by trees, or at the bottom of a hill, this might not be an option for you.
2. Fibre to your house – a number of companies (including Openreach) are taking fibre cables directly into people’s houses. This will provide the fastest and most reliable broadband around. Some companies (such as Airband) have a public contract to build a fibre network across our borough. We would like everyone to have this option, but it costs a lot to lay the cables and so will take a long time and may not reach everyone.
3. Mobile broadband – If you have good 4G mobile signal this is fast enough to provide good broadband at home. Even if you have poor mobile signal inside your house you might find a company can install a booster onto your roof to give you better signal inside for your broadband.
4. Satellite broadband – this uses satellites to link you to the internet rather than a cable. The only company currently offering good satellite broadband is Starlink, but it is the most expensive option.

Handy Hints

Hint 1: Remember that a number of companies provide broadband deals (such as Plusnet, BT, Talktalk and many more) and these are known as Internet Service Providers. These companies all use existing telephone lines, so unless you are switching to a fibre contract, there isn’t much difference in broadband speeds.

Hint 2: If you are being offered a ‘Fibre’ broadband deal make sure to check it is ‘full fibre’ which means the fibre cable comes into your house. If you are only being offered a ‘fibre to the cabinet’ deal your broadband speeds may not improve noticeably.