Getting connected
How good is the broadband and mobile signal in your area?
Broadband speed/mobile signal
What broadband speeds are available to you?
A “good” broadband speed means Ultrafast (300 Mbps+ download speeds) or Superfast (100 Mbps+). But a “Standard” speed of 50 Mbps may meet your needs, depending on what you intend to use your connection for and the predicted number of users.
Avoid purchasing anything with a speed of less than 25Mbps. Less than 50Mbps is best suited to personal/home level internet use such as web browsing, streaming HD video and managing a small number of devices. Speeds of more than 50Mbps are more suitable for multi-user browsing and usage.
The Ofcom Broadband Checker can help you estimate whether your available provision is currently good or poor:
How strong is your mobile signal?
To get an estimate of what strength of mobile signal is available in your area, and from which providers, use the below Ofcom Mobile Checker.
A “good” mobile signal will return a green (or “Likely to have good coverage”) result on the map. Anything less than this is unlikely to provide viable options for connectivity, and is thus considered “poor”.
Once you’ve found out what's available in your area, you can find out about getting connected.
Is there a way of getting broadband without a postcode?
A common issue churches have with getting access to an internet connection is due to the church building not having a postcode. Many churches are not set up on the postal system to receive post from Royal Mail. This can create problems for internet and other utility suppliers, who typically use Royal Mail addresses to identify buildings.
UPRNs (Unique Property Reference Numbers) are identifier codes for each addressable location in Great Britain. They were created with the aim of resolving confusion where very similar addresses exist in the system (such as “Flat 2” and “Flat 2A” in the same building). Church buildings should have a UPRN, even though they aren’t set up with a postcode to receive post via the postal system.
We have UPRNs for nearly all of our church buildings. You can find your church building's UPRN by finding it on this map. We are aware of a small number of churches which do not currently have UPRNs, and are working to supply these as soon as we can.
UPRNs can be used by utility companies to supply utilities to buildings which do not exist on the postal system. For example, BT’s broadband availability checker (BT Broadband), allows you to search by UPRN to find whether or not a building can be supplied by BT (be aware that this website shares some very specific and technical information, which may appear daunting, but the important thing to take away from this is that their system can recognise your church without a postcode).