Fibrus Broadband Review

Fibrus' main aim is to connect underserved rural areas, and offers full fibre to the home to residents across Northern Ireland and Cumbria in England.

Customers can choose between average download speeds ranging from 96Mbps to 946Mbps, as well as benefit from WiFi 6 enabled Amazon eero routers.

The provider offers UK-based support as well as fairer contract terms with no mid-contract price rises, and also helps customers looking to switch with contract buy outs.

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At a glance

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Who is Fibrus broadband best for?

Fibrus broadband is available to around 40% of homes in Northern Ireland, across both rural and urban areas. They've also started branching out across North West England, with connections already going live in Cumbria.

For those households who can get it then, Fibrus seems to be a very good choice, with the provider offering full fibre connections to every property, competitive pricing, and the latest router technology.

The provider also offers good value for money, with customers able to take a digital phone line with free calls, as well as bundle additional eero router devices for better wireless coverage around the home.

As a challenger to bigger providers like BT and Virgin Media, Fibrus also offer customers benefits such as a promise of no mid-contract price rises, UK-based support, and faster upload speeds - although they're not quite symmetrical.

Overall, Fibrus are easy to recommend, ticking a lot of boxes, but their approach to connecting underserved areas may well make them an obvious choice in any case.

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Fibrus broadband packages

Summary: Fibrus offer three main broadband packages, with the option to add a digital phone line to all plans.

Fibrus broadband offers three main broadband speed choices: Full Fibre 100, Full Fibre 300, and Full Fibre 1000.

These plans are available to the majority of residents served by the Fibrus network, particularly in rural areas of Northern Ireland and Cumbria.

However, for those living in urban areas of Northern Ireland, Fibrus offer a Full Fibre 150 plan instead of the Full Fibre 100 plan:

Full Fibre 150 is usually cheaper than the Full Fibre 100 plan available for rural residents because it costs less for Fibrus to roll out connections to urban locations.

While the approach seems a little confusing at first, it's understandable that Fibrus would offer more competitive pricing where they can, especially in urban areas where customers are more likely to have multiple full fibre providers to choose between.

All customers, wherever they live, also get access to the Full Fibre 300 and Full Fibre 1000 plans, and these also come with the Total Home WiFi add-on included for free, which bundles an additional Amazon eero 6+ router for better wireless coverage around the home.

Benefits of Fibrus broadband packages worth pointing out here is there approach to no mid-contract price rises, which has become increasingly rare, as well as the ability for all customers to add a digital phone line with inclusive anytime calls to UK landlines and UK mobiles for just £9.99 extra per month.

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How does Fibrus broadband compare?

Summary: Fibrus aim to connect underserved rural areas to their ultrafast full fibre broadband, yet prices remain competitive in the market.

While Fibrus have specifically looked to connect properties in rural areas of Northern Ireland, they have wide coverage in the country.

This means many households served by Fibrus may also have the option of Openreach FTTP, especially in more urban areas, so we'll look at how these providers compare on price.

Fibrus' definition of urban areas actually includes small villages such as Carrigan and Rasharkin, so it's likely many households will be able to access the cheaper price of the Full Fibre 150 plan.

In comparison, Fibrus Full Fibre 150 is cheaper than equivalent full fibre plans from even budget Openreach resellers such as Shell Energy Broadband, Plusnet, Vodafone, and TalkTalk, as well as deals from Sky and BT.

Residents in much more rural areas, such as those on the A29 between Cookstown and Dungannon, or those living on the outskirts of Newry, will get the Full Fibre 100 plan instead. However, this also costs just £14.99 per month for 24 months under the current Black Friday offer, so, this too is cheaper than similar options from Vodafone, Plusnet, Sky, TalkTalk, and BT.

It's also worth remembering Fibrus include a WiFi 6 enabled Amazon eero 6+ router with these packages, while other providers only offer WiFi 5 routers - which includes Sky, Plusnet, Vodafone, and BT.

Customers looking at faster plans from Fibrus can compare their fastest-tier Full Fibre 1000 against equivalent gigabit-capable plans as well.

Fibrus are currently giving customers a £100 Amazon Gift Card with their fastest Full Fibre 1000 plan as part of Black Friday promotions, as well as a discounted price for the length of the minimum term.

This brings Full Fibre 1000 down to just £34.99 per month for 24 months, making it one of the cheapest gigabit deals available.

At the time of writing, Fibrus Full Fibre 1000 is cheaper than equivalent plans from Plusnet, Sky, TalkTalk, Vodafone, Virgin Media, and BT.

Overall, Fibrus offer competitive pricing for their full fibre deals, especially in more remote areas where customers may have little choice for decent broadband speeds.

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How fast is Fibrus broadband?

Summary: Fibrus offer full fibre to the home connections, with download speeds up to 946Mbps.

Fibrus operate their own independent network, and connect customers by installing fibre optic cables directly into their property. This results in much faster broadband speeds than we're used to seeing through copper and part-fibre connections, especially for those in rural areas who may be quite some distance from the nearest street cabinet or exchange.

Customers can choose from one of three broadband speeds, and at least 50% of Fibrus customers will receive the headline advertised speeds or faster:

Customers living in urban areas covered by Fibrus' network, will have the choice of Full Fibre 150 instead of the Full Fibre 100 plan:

Upload speeds on Fibrus broadband are faster than comparative connections from Openreach and Virgin Media, however, they're still asymmetrical, so they are slower than the download speed.

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Router

Summary: Fibrus broadband customers will be provided with a WiFi 6 enabled Amazon eero router.

Fibrus provide their broadband customers with either an Amazon eero 6+ or an eero Pro 6E router depending on the package they choose.

Customers opting for the Full Fibre 100 or Full Fibre 150 plans will receive one Amazon eero 6+ router, those opting for Full Fibre 300 will receive two eero 6+ routers, while those opting for the fastest Full Fibre 1000 plan will receive two eero Pro 6E routers.

Where customers are provided with two routers, these work together using intelligent mesh technology to seamless boost the wireless signal around a home, improving coverage across larger distances.

Here are the specifications of these Amazon eero routers provided by Fibrus:

While the Amazon eero Pro 6E is a market-leading device, with both the latest WiFi protocol and tri-band channels for the best coverage, the eero 6+ is still very good, with support for both WiFi 6 and WPA3 encryption.

As mentioned, those who take Full Fibre 300 or up will get two devices, however, all customers can add additional eero devices to their plan at a cost of £7.99 per month for the eero 6+, and £9.99 per month for the eero Pro 6E.

Customers living in very large homes therefore can add extra eero devices to ensure seamless coverage in all room and for all occupants.

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Availability

Summary: Fibrus offer good availability in Northern Ireland, but are only just starting to rollout in England and Scotland.

Fibrus have a footprint of around 40% in Northern Ireland, and they offer connections to households in both urban and rural areas.

As of the end of August 2023, they've so far passed over 300,000 homes throughout the country, with 273,000 of these being ready for service.

Fibrus plan to eventually reach a total of 350,000 homes in Northern Ireland, although they say this will now mostly be through filling in gaps in their existing network.

It's likely many households that can get broadband with Fibrus will be in rural areas with little choice for other full fibre connections. However, where people do live in more urban towns, availability of Openreach FTTP may also apply.

So, it's worth customers checking availability in their area to see the best prices for them.

In terms of future rollout plans, Fibrus aim to pass 500,000 homes by March 2024, which would mean adding around 150,000 homes in the North of England as well.

While they've already started connecting homes in Cumbria through Project Gigabit funding, they also plan to roll out to Northumberland and Durham. Beyond this, Fibrus say they've set their sights on helping Scotland achieve gigabit coverage too.

Ultimately, Fibrus seem set on their ambition to connect the most rural and remote premises across the UK.

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Customer service

Summary: Fibrus offer UK-based customer service with Great ratings on Trustpilot.

Fibrus aren't big enough to be featured in Ofcom's research into customer service, or the quarterly complaints figures. However, we can look at reviews on Trustpilot for some idea of how they're performing.

Most customers rate Fibrus as Excellent, with 62% giving them 5-stars on the platform. Although around 17% of reviewers have had a poorer experience.

A number of the bad reviews seem to stem from the router and getting this setup, rather than the broadband service itself. Some customers go on to report resolved issues after obtaining help on setting up the Amazon eero device from Fibrus.

Others are unhappy with the service provided, with issues seeming to focus around slow installations, however, many more customers rate the provider highly for the fast and high-quality installations, with the efficient work of the engineers being praised.

Overall, it can be tricky to gauge an accurate picture just from online reviews, especially where expectations may not have been met due to issues outside of a network's control.

Ultimately however, the majority of Fibrus' customers seem happy with their service, and the provider also boasts UK-based customer service, which will be reassuring to some.

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Verdict: Is Fibrus broadband any good?

Fibrus' objective to connect rural and remote homes will make the network an Internet lifeline to many who may have been struggling with slow speeds for many years.

It also means where they are available, households may not have many competitive alternatives available to them. However, despite this, Fibrus still offer highly competitive pricing with the latest router technology.

Where the packages are compared to Openreach FTTP resellers, Fibrus is generally cheaper, and the option to add additional eero routers should mean even the largest of homes shouldn't have a problem with wireless coverage.

Value for money is certainly added for Fibrus when considering customers opting for the Full Fibre 300 or Full Fibre 1000 plans get two eero routers included, something which costs around £8 to £10 with rivals.

It's also nice to see the option of a digital home phone line at reasonable prices, with inclusive calls to both UK landlines and UK mobiles at any time.

Overall, Fibrus seem to have noble ambitions with their desire to target the most remote and hard to reach areas, as these can be financially challenging from an investment point of view. Nevertheless, their pricing remains competitive, which means they should be an easy choice for the households they've passed.