What technology can I get?

Sorry if this is a silly question. My daughter has just moved to a rented flat in London and has never had to get her own internet before. I don't live in the UK so can't really advise her about this. Her flat has what I think is a telephone outlet that has BT stamped on it. I have plugged her postcode into a few ISP's and for her address she is mostly offered really slow speeds (i.e. 10-11 Mbps) which I assume is ADSL technology. A couple of providers (e.g. BT) offer much higher speeds (i.e. 35Mbps) which are closer to the requirement but these are saying it's a fibre service. If that is the case, would that be Fibre to the curb (FTTC) technology? In which case she could get that and use the telephone outlet for delivery of the service into the flat?

BT is the main telephone and internet provider in UK but there are many others like Sky, Virgin, Talk Talk etc.They all compete to supply telephone and broadband across UK.Some companies also try to sell landline & broadband together with other bolt ons like mobile phones, TV service and even electricty supply. The basic minimum service is landline plus broadband is cheapest with rest being optional.
Given the flat is located in London I am pretty certain that fibre service will be available at least via FTTC ( fibre to the cabinet) and perhaps even FTTP ( fibre to the property ) . Easy way to check available ( target) broadband speed is to check on the BT website and you can find out what they offer .Normally BT and some other ISPs offer 2 types of fibre speeds eg BT offer Infinity 1 & Infinity 2 . Depends how much your daughter wants to shop around or investigate but if I were in your shoes I would suggest she contacts BT and sign up with them as that would be least hassle but beware most ISPs have minimum contract periods with penalty for early termination . If she is planning to move flats a lot look at using a mobile 4G mifi device from the mobile companies which can be on a pay as you go basis from 3, EE, Vodaphone etc.3 offers 24 month unlimited data mifi device at £22 /month

Postcode estimates are unreliable, especially in London. That explains those differences.

Use the Address option of this checker. Don�t give the full address, but (not) contradicting myself put just the postcode in that and submit. That gives you a drop down list of every property in that postcode. This is much more reliable.

Usually it goes to flat number level, so you can check several for comparisons.

The VDSL2 figures are FTTC, which in the UK means Fibre To The Cabinet, which means somewhere within 80 metres of the cabinet the phone comes from. The checker I suggest tells you the phone cabinet number on the line above the table. The VDSL2 service comes over the phone line from that second source.

Some posters here will be able to tell you the position of that cabinet, if you want to know.

Figures for FTTP mean fibre into the premises and to the flat within it. Maybe ethernet from the basement to the flat. Ignore FTTPoD. That is FTTP with an individual supply from an �aggregation point� which is in an underground chamber and the installation typically takes months and costs several thousand pounds, often well into 5 figures.

Edited by RobertoS (Sun 07-Apr-19 09:16:28)

Thanks very much for your help everyone. We were able to get a FTTC service offering around 57-72Mbps on a 12 month contract so that should suit her down to the ground.

All the best to her .