Fibrus broadband vs BT broadband

Fibrus and BT are both available across Northern Ireland, with Fibrus also expanding into parts of Cumbria - and between them, the two providers account for much of the region's near-total full fibre coverage.

Fibrus is generally cheaper at every speed tier, offers faster upload speeds, and includes newer WiFi 6 hardware as standard.

BT's advantages are narrower - a wider plan range, stronger minimum speed guarantees, TV bundling, and better free parental controls.

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Quick verdict

Fibrus is the better choice for most Northern Ireland households where urban pricing applies - cheaper at every tier, no mid-contract price rises, faster uploads, and WiFi 6 hardware included as standard. The inclusion of Republic of Ireland calls is a genuine differentiator for customers near the border.

BT is worth considering if you want to bundle TV, need stronger minimum speed guarantees, or require free parental controls without a paid subscription. For Full Fibre 150 customers who need whole-home WiFi coverage, BT Complete WiFi may also work out better value than adding extra eero devices.

Decision: for most households with access to both providers, the decision comes down to price and what's included - and on both counts, Fibrus wins.

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At a glance: Fibrus vs BT broadband

Top picks: BT and Fibrus broadband deals

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Price

Winner: Fibrus broadband is cheaper than BT, but only in urban and semi-urban areas of Northern Ireland where both providers are available.

Fibrus charges £23.99 per month for its entry-level Full Fibre 150 plan in areas where it competes directly with providers like BT. In rural parts of its network - where BT full fibre may not be available - Fibrus charges £34.99 per month for the same plan, reflecting the higher cost of reaching more remote properties. The comparisons below use urban Fibrus pricing, which is where customers are most likely to be weighing up both options.

At every speed tier, Fibrus comes in cheaper than BT - but the gap between them widens considerably once you factor in the extras. To see how that plays out in practice, here's how the mid-range 500Mb plans compare side by side.

Fibrus Full Fibre 500 costs £27.99 per month and includes two eero routers as standard, meaning most households won't need to spend anything extra on WiFi coverage. BT's equivalent plan is more expensive, and whole-home WiFi costs an additional £10 per month on top. For customers who want a home phone with anytime calls, Fibrus charges £9.99 per month; BT charges £18 per month for the same capability.

The other significant difference is what happens mid-contract. Fibrus fixes its price for the full 18-month term. BT applies a £4 per month increase on 31 March each year from 2027 - depending on when a customer signs up, that adds between £48 and £96 to the total cost of a 24-month contract, on top of whatever the headline monthly price is.

When the annual price rise and higher add-on costs are combined, the total cost of a BT package can end up significantly higher than the headline monthly price difference suggests.

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Broadband packages

Winner: Fibrus include more in their standard packages than BT, with whole-home WiFi and better router hardware included as standard on faster plans.

Fibrus offers three full fibre plans - Full Fibre 150, Full Fibre 500, and Full Fibre 1000 - all on 18-month contracts with no setup fee. BT offers a broader range including part-fibre options, but for customers comparing full fibre specifically, both providers cover three broadly equivalent speed tiers.

The key differences in what each provider includes:

• Routers: Fibrus includes WiFi 6 eero routers as standard across all plans, with two devices included on Full Fibre 500 and 1000 - the 1000 plan upgrades to WiFi 6E eero Pro units; BT includes a single WiFi 5 Smart Hub 2 on all plans
• Whole-home WiFi: Included with Fibrus Full Fibre 500 and 1000; costs £10 per month extra with BT Complete WiFi
• Home phone: Optional on both - £9.99 per month with Fibrus for anytime calls; £18 per month with BT for the equivalent
• TV: Available as an add-on with BT; not available from Fibrus
• Contract length: 18 months with Fibrus; 24 months with BT

Here's how the full fibre plans from both providers compare:

Fibrus is cheaper than BT at every tier at urban pricing (over the length of the contract) - £23.99, £27.99, and £34.99 per month for Full Fibre 150, 500, and 1000 respectively. Customers in rural parts of the Fibrus network pay more - £34.99, £39.99, and £44.99 per month - but get the same inclusions and contract terms.

If you're not sure which pricing applies to your address, use our free postcode checker to find out. BT's plans sit above urban Fibrus pricing at every tier, on longer 24-month contracts, and with annual price rises from March 2027.

The value gap is most visible on the 500Mb tier, which is where most households land. Fibrus Full Fibre 500 at £27.99 per month includes two WiFi 6 eero routers and a whole-home WiFi guarantee as standard. To match that with BT, customers would need to add Complete WiFi at £10 per month on top of an already higher headline price.

For customers who want a home phone, Fibrus offers a single straightforward option - Fibrus Talk at £9.99 per month, with anytime calls to UK and Republic of Ireland landlines and mobiles included. That cross-border inclusion is a practical advantage for many Northern Ireland households. BT offers a cheaper line rental at £5 per month, but anytime calls cost £18 per month and cover UK numbers only. BT also offers TV packages as an add-on, which Fibrus does not.

Overall, Fibrus offers better value at every full fibre tier - more included as standard, a shorter contract, and no mid-contract price rises. BT's main advantages are a wider range of plans and the option to bundle TV.

Read more in our dedicated review of BT broadband and Fibrus broadband.

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Broadband speed

Winner: Fibrus offer faster upload speeds than BT at every full fibre tier, and the included hardware means real-world wireless performance is likely to be stronger too.

Fibrus and BT both run their own full fibre networks in Northern Ireland, but their underlying architecture differs. Openreach - the network BT uses - is predominantly built on GPON technology, a point-to-multipoint system where bandwidth is shared between multiple premises via passive splitters, with capacity of around 2.5Gbps per trunk. Fibrus is upgrading parts of its network to XGS-PON, a newer standard that increases shared capacity to 10Gbps per trunk and supports symmetric speeds - particularly in newer build areas including Project Gigabit connections in Cumbria. However, earlier parts of the Fibrus network still run on GPON, which is why current consumer plans offer faster uploads than Openreach-based providers but not symmetric speeds. Openreach is also rolling out XGS-PON upgrades across its own network, but the transition will take some time to complete.

BT also offers a wider range of plans including part-fibre options, which use copper wiring for the final stretch to a property and are more susceptible to slowdowns based on distance from the cabinet. All Fibrus plans are full fibre to the premises, delivering more consistent speeds regardless of where a property sits on the network.

Here's how BT's full range of plans compares on speed:

And Fibrus:

The standout difference is upload speed. Fibrus Full Fibre 1000 averages 310Mb upload - nearly three times the 110Mb average on BT's equivalent Full Fibre 900 plan. The gap is consistent across all tiers; Fibrus Full Fibre 500 averages 104Mb upload against 73Mb from BT Full Fibre 500. As parts of the Fibrus network continue to transition to XGS-PON, uploads are significantly faster than equivalent Openreach-based plans, but not symmetric. For households working from home, video calling, or backing up to the cloud, the faster uploads still make a tangible difference to day-to-day use.

Beyond line speed, the hardware Fibrus includes adds another layer of real-world performance advantage. WiFi 6 eero routers handle more devices more efficiently than the WiFi 5 Smart Hub 2 BT supplies, and the second router included on Full Fibre 500 and 1000 plans means faster wireless speeds are more consistently delivered across the whole home - not just near the router.

Minimum speed guarantees

Both providers publish minimum speed figures, but the protections they offer customers differ. The table below shows how Fibrus and BT compare on minimum guaranteed speeds at equivalent tiers:

BT's minimum guaranteed download speeds are considerably higher than Fibrus's at every tier - 425Mb versus 250Mb on the 500 plans, and 700Mb versus 500Mb at gigabit level. BT has signed up to Ofcom's voluntary code of practice on broadband speeds, which requires providers to give customers a personalised speed estimate at sign-up and a contractual right to exit if the minimum guaranteed download speed isn't delivered. Ofcom's code covers download speeds only; Fibrus goes further by also publishing minimum upload figures, which BT does not. Fibrus calculates its minimum speeds using Ofcom testing principles and includes them in the customer contract summary, with remedies potentially available under consumer law if speeds aren't met - but without the same contractual exit right that Ofcom's voluntary code provides. For most customers on a full fibre connection this is unlikely to matter in practice, but it is worth knowing before signing up.

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Router

Winner: Fibrus supply all customers with at least one WiFi 6 Amazon eero router as standard, while BT's Smart Hub 2 is a WiFi 5 device first launched in 2018.

The router supplied with a broadband package matters more than most customers realise - it determines the wireless speeds devices actually receive, how well signal reaches across the home, and how securely the network is protected. Fibrus and BT take noticeably different approaches here.

Fibrus partners with Amazon to supply eero routers across all plans. Full Fibre 150 customers receive a single eero 6+, while Full Fibre 500 and 1000 customers receive two devices as standard - the 500 plan includes two eero 6+ units, and the 1000 plan upgrades to two eero Pro 6E routers. The eero 6+ supports WiFi 6, and the Pro 6E goes further with WiFi 6E, adding access to the less congested 6GHz band for faster speeds on compatible devices in close range.

BT supplies the Smart Hub 2 on all plans. It performs well and has strong signal strength, but it supports only WiFi 5 - an older standard that is less efficient at handling multiple connected devices simultaneously. Customers who want whole-home coverage need to pay £10 per month extra for BT Complete WiFi.

Here's how the routers compare:

The eero devices have fewer ethernet LAN ports than the Smart Hub 2 - and with one port used for the broadband connection itself, customers connecting wired devices may need a separate network switch. The Smart Hub 2's four ethernet ports are a practical advantage for homes with wired TVs, consoles, or PCs. Both routers support intelligent mesh networking, though BT charges extra to use it while Fibrus includes additional devices on faster plans.

The eero also has a security advantage - WPA3 encryption versus WPA2 on the Smart Hub 2. WPA3 is more resistant to password attacks and offers better protection on shared networks. As an Amazon device, the eero includes a built-in Zigbee smart home hub and Alexa voice control, which is useful for households already in the Amazon ecosystem.

BT's Smart Hub 2 is a capable router, but it is now over six years old. Fibrus's partnership with Amazon gives it a clear hardware advantage - newer wireless standards, better security, and whole-home coverage included on faster plans without an extra monthly fee.

Parental controls

BT Parental Controls are free for all customers and cover every device on the home connection without any additional setup. Parents can choose from three preset filter levels - light, moderate, or strict - or build a custom filter, and can set time-based restrictions such as blocking distracting sites during homework hours. It's managed through the My BT account or app.

Fibrus relies on the eero app for parental controls. Basic internet scheduling - setting when specific devices can go online - is free. Content filtering, category blocking, and activity reporting all require eero Plus, a paid subscription at £9.99 per month or £99.99 per year. That's a meaningful extra cost on top of the monthly broadband bill, and worth factoring in for families with children.

For most parents, BT's approach is simpler and cheaper. Fibrus's eero controls are more granular and app-based, but the useful features come at a price.

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WiFi guarantee

Winner: Fibrus include two eero routers and a whole-home WiFi guarantee on their faster plans as standard, while BT customers pay £10 per month extra for equivalent coverage.

Both providers offer whole-home WiFi coverage, but what's included, what it costs, and what each provider actually promises are quite different.

BT offers Complete WiFi as a paid add-on at £10 per month, supplying up to three WiFi discs and a 24-month minimum term. The guarantee is straightforward - if every room in the home doesn't show a 'Strong' signal reading on the MyBT app, BT will credit £100 to the account. It's a clear commitment, but it comes at a price and can't be cancelled mid-term even if the guarantee isn't met. For more on how WiFi guarantees work, see our guide to whole-home WiFi.

Fibrus handles this differently - and for customers on faster plans, more generously. Full Fibre 500 and 1000 plans include two eero routers as standard with no extra charge, along with a Total Home WiFi guarantee: if any room fails to reach 10Mbps download over WiFi, the customer can leave their contract without penalty. For most households, two eero units will be more than enough to cover the whole home, making the guarantee largely academic in practice.

Here's how the options compare:

Where Fibrus is less strong is on the entry-level plan. Full Fibre 150 customers receive a single eero with no WiFi guarantee; additional eero 6+ devices can be added for £7.99 per month, or eero Pro 6E units for £9.99 per month on the Full Fibre 1000 plan. For a larger home on Full Fibre 150, BT Complete WiFi at £10 per month - with up to three discs and a formal guarantee - could actually represent better value.

For most customers though, particularly those on Full Fibre 500 or above, Fibrus's whole-home WiFi is simply included. Two routers, a guarantee, no monthly add-on, and no separate 24-month commitment.

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Call plans

Winner: Fibrus Talk includes anytime calls to UK and Republic of Ireland numbers for £9.99 per month - cheaper than BT's equivalent, and with broader coverage that matters for Northern Ireland customers.

Both providers offer a digital home phone line as an optional add-on, replacing the traditional copper landline with a VoIP service that runs over the broadband connection. For Northern Ireland customers, there's an important distinction worth highlighting upfront: Fibrus Talk includes anytime calls to both UK and Republic of Ireland landlines and mobiles, while BT's call plans cover UK numbers only. For households that regularly call across the border, that difference alone could justify the choice.

Fibrus keeps it simple with a single option - Fibrus Talk at £9.99 per month. There's no tiered pricing or separate line rental to navigate; it's one price, one plan.

BT offers more flexibility but at a higher cost. A basic digital line with pay-as-you-go calls costs £5 per month, but inclusive calls require the Unlimited Minutes plan at £18 per month - nearly double the Fibrus equivalent, and limited to UK numbers only.

Here's how the plans compare:

For customers who want a home phone, Fibrus is the better value option in almost every case. The lower price, simpler structure, and inclusion of Republic of Ireland calls make it the more practical choice for Northern Ireland households in particular.

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Verdict: Fibrus or BT broadband?

Overall winner: Fibrus offer cheaper full fibre broadband than BT at every speed tier, with better router hardware, faster upload speeds, and a more competitive home phone option - but only where urban pricing applies.

Fibrus and BT both offer full fibre broadband across Northern Ireland, but for most customers with a genuine choice between the two, Fibrus is the stronger option on price, hardware, and contract terms.

At urban pricing, Fibrus undercuts BT at every full fibre tier, offers faster upload speeds, includes WiFi 6 hardware as standard, and fixes its price for the full 18-month contract term. Customers in Northern Ireland who want a home phone also get a better deal - anytime calls to UK and Republic of Ireland numbers for £9.99 per month, compared to £18 per month with BT for UK calls only.

BT's advantages are real but narrower. It offers a wider range of plans including part-fibre options, the ability to bundle BT TV, and stronger minimum speed guarantees through Ofcom's voluntary code of practice. For Full Fibre 150 customers who need whole-home WiFi coverage, BT Complete WiFi at £10 per month with up to three discs may also work out better value than adding extra eero devices individually.

For customers in rural areas where Fibrus pricing is higher and BT full fibre may not be available, the comparison changes - but so does the decision, since there may be no meaningful choice to make.

Where both providers are available and urban Fibrus pricing applies, Fibrus is the better deal for the majority of households.

Choose Fibrus if:

• You're in an urban or semi-urban area of Northern Ireland where urban pricing applies
• You want the cheapest full fibre deal without annual price rises
• Upload speed matters - working from home, video calls, or cloud backups
• You want WiFi 6 hardware and whole-home coverage included on faster plans
• You regularly call Republic of Ireland numbers and want them included in your call plan

Choose BT if:

• You want to bundle broadband with BT TV
• Minimum speed guarantees and Ofcom code protection are a priority
• You're on a Full Fibre 150 plan and need whole-home WiFi coverage across multiple rooms
• You want part-fibre options at lower speeds
• You're in a rural area where Fibrus charges higher prices