Broadband in Aberdeen

Broadband in Aberdeen

The historic city of Aberdeen has an economy that has long been driven by its location; it looks out east over the North Sea, and this means the industries of fishing, shipbuilding and oil have been prevalent.

Investment and the Digital Scotland Broadband initiative

The discovery of oil played a major part in the city’s economic boom over recent decades, and the city has also seen technological developments.  This has allowed more businesses to set up in the city, and in turn better broadband has become increasingly available.

In 2014, thousands of homes and businesses in Aberdeen were greeted with the news that they would be able to receive high-speed broadband. This was as a result of a multi-million pound investment , with premises in the Bielside, Kingswells, West and Lochnager exchange areas seeing the benefit.

It was part of a drive to bring fibre broadband to more locations in Scotland, with BT engineers installing the technology.  Under the Digital Scotland Broadband initiative, 95% of premises should see faster broadband by the end of 2017, with investment from the Scottish Government and a number of partners, including BT.

Speeds and availability

Fibre broadband availability throughout the city of Aberdeen is impressive, with services from different providers offered, alongside packages of up to 38Mb and 76Mb.  These are maximum broadband speeds, and you may not achieve the absolute maximum, but it will still be significantly faster than ADSL, allowing for superfast download speeds throughout the day.

Central postcodes, like AB25, as well as AB22 to the city’s north and AB16 to the north-west, have good availability of fibre.  Averages can be around 20Mb, but this takes into account people using ADSL, and they would be seeing speeds of around 10Mb or below.  For fibre alone the average would be higher, especially with the top superfast packages.

Broadband providers

Our research has shown that Virgin Media has packages available in some locations, with up to 50Mb, up to 100Mb and up to 152Mb available, but it will depend on your street.  Our research has shown a lot of coverage for other major fibre providers, such as Sky, TalkTalk, BT and Plusnet.  Their packages work a little differently, offering up to 38Mb and 76Mb.

Other providers with customers in the city include Fuel Broadband, EE, Direct Save and Hyperoptic.  If you cannot, or prefer not to, get a fibre service, then most of these providers will offer ADSL broadband.

Most, if not all, o f the fibre packages from these providers include unlimited downloads as well, giving you uncapped usage throughout the month.

Summary

Aberdeen is extremely well connected for broadband, with plenty of options for fibre broadband, as well as the expected ADSL coverage.  An abundance of providers operate throughout the city, so residents and business customers have plenty of packages to choose from, and should be able to find good value for money on a fast, reliable service.