National Broadband Broadband Review

National Broadband's core products are 4G and 5G home broadband, both delivered over the mobile network rather than a fixed fibre or copper line. The 4G Internet plan starts from £29.99 a month with unlimited data, typically delivering 30 to 80 Mbps depending on local signal. The 5G plan starts from around £34.99 to £39.99 a month, typically delivering 40 to 80 Mbps, also with unlimited data.

Setup cost depends on the equipment needed: a basic plug-and-play router costs around £49 to £99 upfront, while a full professional installation with an external antenna, aimed at addresses with weaker signal, costs around £399. Which option is needed depends entirely on the mobile signal strength already reaching the property, so it is worth confirming before ordering rather than assuming the cheapest router option will always work.

Contracts run 12, 18 or 24 months. Unlike most fixed-line providers on this site, National Broadband states that prices do not rise mid-contract, so the monthly figure agreed at sign-up should hold for the length of the term.

This is not a like-for-like alternative to a fibre provider; it is a specific answer to a specific problem: an address that cannot get a usable fixed-line broadband speed and is not likely to for some time. National Broadband has specialised in rural and hard-to-reach UK connectivity for two decades, which is a genuinely different customer base from the fibre altnets covered elsewhere on this site.

Reviews consistently describe a similar starting point: a household with a poor or unreliable existing connection, often in a rural area still on ADSL or a weak part-fibre signal, switching to National Broadband and getting a meaningful, sometimes dramatic, speed and stability improvement. That is a different comparison to make than "is this faster than full fibre," which it usually is not.

Anyone who can already get a genuine full-fibre connection at a reasonable price will typically be better served by it than by a 5G alternative; National Broadband's real value is for addresses where that comparison is not available at all.

Speed on a fixed-wireless service is a function of local mobile signal strength, not a guaranteed line rate set by the provider, which is the single most important difference to understand versus a fibre or cable connection. National Broadband's stated 40 to 80 Mbps range for 5G, and 30 to 80 Mbps for 4G, describes what is typically achievable, not a fixed promise for every property.

The multi-network approach is the practical reason National Broadband can offer this at all in some areas: rather than being tied to one mobile operator's coverage map, National Broadband selects whichever of the four UK mobile networks gives the best signal at a specific address, which meaningfully improves the odds of a workable connection versus buying a single-network 5G router directly from a mobile operator.

Upload speed on mobile-based broadband is typically much lower than download, and is not usually headlined by any provider in this category; treat it as adequate for calls and light uploads rather than comparable to a full-fibre symmetrical connection.

Most customers start with a plug-and-play router, which needs no engineer visit and can typically be set up by the customer within minutes of delivery, a genuinely different experience from waiting for a fixed-line installation appointment.

Addresses with weaker mobile signal may need a professional installation with an external antenna, at a considerably higher one-off cost of around £399, to pull in a usable signal from further away or through thicker walls. National Broadband should be able to advise which option a specific address needs before committing to an order.

Because performance depends on the equipment matching the local signal conditions, it is worth being honest about the property's existing mobile signal quality when discussing options, rather than defaulting to the cheapest router and hoping for the best.

National Broadband offers a choice of 12, 18 or 24-month contracts, more flexibility on term length than most fixed-line altnets covered elsewhere on this site, which typically offer only a single 24-month option.

The company states that prices do not increase during the contract, a straightforward flat-rate structure similar to Zzoomm's, Community Fibre's and Zen Internet's no-rise policies, rather than the scheduled annual increases used by several national fixed-line providers.

A shorter 12-month term suits anyone treating this as a genuine stopgap while waiting for a fibre rollout to reach their address, without being locked into two years on a service that will likely be worth switching away from once full fibre actually arrives.

National Broadband's Trustpilot profile showed a rating in the region of 4.7 out of 5 from around 817 reviews at the point of this check, with feedback overwhelmingly positive. Reviewers consistently cite fast, friendly support by phone and email, and a straightforward, self-managed setup process as the strongest points.

The recurring theme in reviews is a dramatic improvement over a previous poor rural connection, rather than a comparison against full fibre, which is a useful signal: the customers leaving these reviews are largely people this service was actually designed for, not people comparing it unfavourably against a fibre option they could have chosen instead.

As with any review platform, this is customer sentiment, not an independently measured reliability figure, and coverage-dependent performance means one household's experience will not automatically match another's at a different address.

For the right address, an unreliable rural connection with no realistic full-fibre option in sight, National Broadband is a genuinely useful service: no engineer wait, a flat price for the contract term, unlimited data and a multi-network approach that improves the odds of a workable signal.

It is the wrong choice for anyone who already has, or could reasonably get, a full-fibre connection; fibre will almost always outperform a mobile-based service on both speed and consistency where it is genuinely available.

Our take: worth strong consideration specifically as a rural or hard-to-reach fallback, and worth checking the specific installation option, plug-and-play versus professional antenna install, against the property's actual mobile signal before ordering.