If you've been comparing broadband, you've probably noticed that a dozen different brands quote you almost identical speeds. That isn't a coincidence. Most of them are selling access to the same physical network, and that network belongs to Openreach.
This guide sets out which providers run on Openreach, which run their own network, and (the useful part) what that actually changes for you as a customer.
BT, EE, Plusnet, Sky, TalkTalk, Vodafone, Zen and most smaller independent providers, including Inspire Telecom, all deliver broadband over the Openreach network. Several of them, Sky, TalkTalk, Vodafone and Zen among them, also sell over alternative networks in areas those networks reach, so the brand alone doesn't always tell you the infrastructure. Virgin Media O2 runs its own cable and nexfibre network, and altnets such as CityFibre, Hyperoptic, Community Fibre, Gigaclear and toob have built their own fibre. Because Openreach-based providers share the same infrastructure, the real differences between them are price, contract terms, support quality and the router you're given.
What Openreach actually is
Openreach is the network arm that owns and maintains most of the UK's local access network: the copper phone lines, the green street cabinets, the ducts, the poles and, increasingly, the full fibre that replaces all of it. It grew out of BT and remains part of the BT Group, but it's run as a functionally separate business with its own board, its own staff and its own brand, under conditions agreed with Ofcom.
The separation matters because of what Openreach is for. It doesn't sell broadband to the public. It sells wholesale access to communications providers on equal terms, and those providers then build a retail service on top: pricing, packages, routers, billing, support and the brand on your bill. So BT Retail is a customer of Openreach in the same way that Sky or a small independent provider is.
That's why the answer to "which broadband uses Openreach" is, in short, most of it. Openreach's access network reaches most UK premises, and a provider that isn't running cable or its own fibre is in most cases buying wholesale access from it. You can read Openreach's own description of the arrangement on the Openreach website.
Which broadband companies use Openreach
These providers sell services delivered over the Openreach access network. The list isn't exhaustive, because there are hundreds of smaller providers reselling Openreach, but it covers the names you'll meet most often:
- BT. Same parent group as Openreach, but a retail customer of it, buying on the same regulated terms as everyone else.
- EE. Part of BT Group, sold as a separate consumer brand.
- Plusnet. Also part of BT Group, positioned as the value brand.
- Sky. Sells Openreach broadband alongside its own TV platform, and also retails over CityFibre in areas CityFibre has built, where its fastest tiers are sold.
- TalkTalk. A long-standing wholesale customer of Openreach, and also sells over CityFibre in a growing number of towns and cities.
- Vodafone. Genuinely multi-network: it sells over Openreach, and also over CityFibre and Community Fibre, so a Vodafone full fibre line can arrive on any of them depending on the address.
- Zen Internet. An independent provider with a strong service reputation. It started on Openreach and now sells over several networks, including CityFibre and other alternative builders.
- Inspire Telecom. An independent UK internet service provider delivering over Openreach, with residential tiers running from Inspire Ultra 80 (80 Mbps down, 20 Mbps up) up to Inspire Ultra 1000 (gigabit). Current pricing sits on the broadband page.
- Most smaller and independent providers. If a provider covers most of the country and didn't dig its own trenches, it's buying wholesale access, and in the large majority of cases that means Openreach.
Which providers do not use Openreach
A minority of providers own the cable in the ground themselves. These are the ones worth knowing about:
- Virgin Media O2. Runs its own network, historically a cable (coaxial) network, with newer full fibre builds delivered over the separate nexfibre network. A Virgin Media consumer broadband connection generally doesn't run over Openreach.
- Netomnia and YouFibre. Another of the larger alternative network builders, with YouFibre as the retail brand on Netomnia's fibre.
- CityFibre. A wholesale fibre builder rather than a consumer brand. It builds the network and other providers sell over it, so you buy from a retail partner rather than from CityFibre itself.
- Hyperoptic. Built its own fibre, historically focused on flats and apartment blocks in urban areas.
- Community Fibre. Its own fibre network, concentrated in London.
- Gigaclear. Its own fibre network, focused on rural and semi-rural areas Openreach was slower to reach.
- toob. Its own fibre network in parts of the south of England.
One important caveat: some providers use a mix. A brand may resell CityFibre in the streets CityFibre has built and Openreach everywhere else, choosing whichever network reaches the address. So the same provider name can arrive on different infrastructure depending on your postcode. If the network matters to you (for example because you want symmetric upload, or because you've had trouble with one network before), ask the provider which network your specific address would be served on rather than assuming from the brand.
What this actually means for you as a customer
Here's the honest point, and it's the one most comparison pages skate over. If two providers both deliver over Openreach, the cable in the ground is the same cable. The exchange equipment is the same. The engineer who repairs the line is the same. So the technology isn't what separates them.
What separates them is everything wrapped around the line:
- Price, and whether it stays put. Headline price is the easy bit to compare. Whether it holds for the length of your contract is the bit that decides what you actually spend.
- Contract terms. Length, early exit charges, setup fees and what happens when the initial term ends and the price moves to a standard rate.
- Support quality. Who answers, how quickly, whether they're UK-based, and whether the person you reach can resolve the fault at first contact.
- The router. Two Openreach lines with different routers behave very differently over Wi-Fi, and the router is usually the real bottleneck in a busy house.
The in-contract price increase is the sharpest of these. Many large UK providers apply an annual increase part-way through the contract term, set out in their own contract terms. Since 17th January 2025, Ofcom rules mean any such rise in a new contract must be shown in pounds and pence at the point of sale rather than linked to inflation, though contracts signed before then can still carry the older percentage-based terms. Ofcom publishes guidance on price rises and your rights if you want to check where you stand. It's legitimate and disclosed, but it means the figure that won your business isn't the figure you keep paying. Our guide to mid-contract price rises in the UK walks through how those clauses work and how to read them before you sign.
Inspire Telecom doesn't raise prices mid-contract. The monthly price you sign at is the price for the full term, with no annual review and no inflation-linked clause. On a network everyone shares, that's one of the few things a provider can genuinely differentiate on. Standard support is Mon-Fri 9-5 and Sat 9-2, from a UK team, and Inspire is rated 4.9 out of 5 on Trustpilot from more than 600 reviews, which is what earns the description of the UK's #1 Internet Provider on Trustpilot.
Broadband through the phone line, and what replaced it
"Broadband through the phone line" describes how UK broadband worked for two decades. ADSL and then FTTC (fibre to the cabinet) both rode on the copper pair that carried your phone calls, which is why your router plugged into the phone socket and why speed depended on how far you lived from the green cabinet.
Full fibre changed that. On FTTP (fibre to the premises), glass runs all the way to a small box on your wall and no copper is involved, so distance from the cabinet stops mattering. Our full fibre vs FTTC comparison covers the practical differences in speed, upload and reliability, and what is full fibre explains how the technology works end to end.
Both technologies are Openreach products, which is part of why the network question and the speed question get tangled together. When someone says a provider is "slower", the cause is usually which Openreach product their address can get, not which brand is on the bill.
How to find out which network your address is on
Three checks, quickest first.
- Look at how the line enters the house. If your router plugs into the same socket as an old phone line, you're on Openreach copper (FTTC or ADSL). If there's a separate small white box on the wall with a fibre cable into it, you have full fibre, which could be Openreach or an altnet.
- Run an address check. Enter your postcode with a provider that sells Openreach services and it will list which Openreach products your line supports. If Openreach products come back, Openreach reaches you. Try it on the Inspire broadband page.
- Check who built the street. If an altnet has dug your road recently, or you live in a block with a single fibre provider, you may have a second network available alongside Openreach. Openreach and the altnets both publish their own coverage checkers.
Worth knowing: many addresses now have more than one network available, so "which network am I on" and "which networks could I have" are two different questions.
Who fixes a fault, and why an Openreach engineer might turn up
This surprises people, so it's worth being plain about. If you buy from an Openreach-based provider and your line develops a fault, your provider handles the diagnosis and owns the relationship with you, but the physical repair work on the network is done by Openreach. So an Openreach engineer may attend your property regardless of which provider you pay.
That's normal, and it isn't a sign anything has gone wrong with your provider. You still report the fault to your provider, chase your provider, and it's your provider who is accountable for keeping you informed. The practical implication is that a provider's value in a fault sits in how well it manages the process: how quickly it raises the job, whether it keeps you updated, and whether you can reach someone who understands the case. On a shared network, fault handling is one of the clearest ways providers differ.
Which broadband providers offer VoIP?
Increasingly, all of them, because they don't have a choice. The analogue phone network (the PSTN) is being retired, with the deadline set for 31st January 2027. After that, voice calls no longer run over a copper analogue line. They run digitally over your broadband, which is what VoIP means.
Providers brand it differently: digital voice, digital phone, home phone over fibre. The underlying technology is the same. Your phone plugs into the router rather than a wall socket, or you use a small adapter, and the number you have had for years usually comes with you. Our PSTN switch-off guide covers the timeline and what to check before the deadline, and the business version deals with phone systems, alarms and lifts.
Inspire Telecom offers a phone service alongside broadband. If you want to bring an existing number across, the keep my home phone page covers how that works, and the phone page sets out what's included. For businesses weighing up hosted VoIP against SIP or Microsoft Teams Phone, our business phone comparison maps the three options.
One thing to check before the switch, whoever you buy from: anything else plugged into your old phone line. Care pendants, monitored alarms, older fax or card machines and some lift phones were built for the analogue network. Test them or replace them ahead of the move rather than discovering the problem afterwards.
Switching between two Openreach providers
When you move between two providers on the same network, the change is mostly administrative. The line stays where it is, the equipment in the exchange stays where it is, and the wholesale records move from one provider to the other. That usually means no engineer visit and little or no interruption, though you may need a new router because providers configure their own.
Crossing networks is a bigger job. Moving from Openreach to Virgin Media O2, or to an altnet, generally means a fresh installation, possibly some drilling, and a period where you're paying for two services while the old one winds down. Neither is difficult, but it's worth knowing which kind of move you're making before you pick a start date.
Since 12th September 2024, Ofcom's One Touch Switch process (see Ofcom's switching guidance) has been the process for switching, whether you're moving between two Openreach providers or across to a different network entirely. Under it you contact only the new provider, it arranges the cancellation with your old one, and the process requires you to be given a summary of what you're leaving behind, including any exit charges, before you commit. If you're being asked for a switching code, our guide to finding your switching details shows where to look, and how to switch broadband in the UK walks the whole process end to end.
The short version
Openreach carries most UK broadband, and most providers you've heard of are reselling it. Virgin Media O2 and the altnets are the exceptions, and some providers mix networks by area. Once you know that, comparing Openreach-based providers gets simpler, because you can stop comparing the network and start comparing the things that genuinely differ: what you pay across the whole contract rather than in month one, what the contract lets the provider change, who picks up when something breaks, and how good the router is.
Frequently asked questions
Which broadband providers use Openreach?
Most of them. BT, EE, Plusnet, Sky, TalkTalk, Vodafone, Zen and the large majority of smaller independent providers, including Inspire Telecom, all sell services delivered over the Openreach access network. Several of the larger names also sell over alternative networks where those reach, so the brand doesn't always tell you which infrastructure you'll get. Openreach doesn't sell broadband to the public itself. It sells wholesale access to providers, who then package it, price it and support it under their own brand.
Do all broadband providers use Openreach?
No. Virgin Media O2 runs its own cable network, with newer full fibre builds delivered over the nexfibre network. A group of alternative network builders (usually called altnets) have also laid their own fibre, including CityFibre, Hyperoptic, Community Fibre, Gigaclear and toob. Some providers use a mix, reselling one network in areas where it reaches and Openreach elsewhere, so the same brand can arrive on different infrastructure depending on your postcode.
Which broadband uses Openreach at my address?
Run an address check with a provider that sells Openreach services and it will tell you which Openreach products your line supports, such as FTTC or full fibre. If your existing broadband arrives through the same socket as your old phone line, it's almost certainly Openreach. A separate white ONT box on the wall means full fibre, which could be Openreach or an altnet, so the provider name on the original order is the reliable clue.
If the network is the same, why do prices differ so much?
Because the network is only one part of what you buy. Providers on Openreach pay similar wholesale costs, then compete on retail price, contract length, router quality, in-contract price increases and the standard of support. Many large providers apply an annual in-contract increase, set out in their own contract terms, so the price you start on may not be the price you finish on. Since 17th January 2025 Ofcom has banned inflation-linked and percentage-based mid-contract rise terms in new contracts, and any rise written into a new contract has to be stated in pounds and pence at the point of sale. Contracts signed before that date can still carry the older inflation-linked terms. Inspire Telecom doesn't raise prices mid-contract at all.
Which broadband providers offer VoIP?
Most now do, because the analogue phone network is being retired at the PSTN switch-off deadline of 31st January 2027. After that, home and business voice runs digitally over your broadband instead of a copper phone line. Providers describe it differently (digital voice, digital phone, VoIP), but the underlying technology is the same. Inspire Telecom offers a phone service alongside broadband.
Is it easier to switch between two Openreach providers?
Usually, yes. When both providers use the same network, the change is largely a records update at the wholesale level, so there's often no engineer visit and little or no downtime. Moving between different networks (Openreach to Virgin Media O2, or to an altnet) tends to mean a new installation and a period where you're running two services. One Touch Switch covers both cases: you contact only the new provider and it arranges the rest.
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Same network. Very different experience.
Inspire Telecom delivers over Openreach with a price that doesn't move mid-contract, UK-based support, and a 4.9 Trustpilot rating from 600+ reviews. Check what your address can get in under a minute.