SSE Fibre Broadband Reviews

SSE Fibre Broadband Review

SSE Fibre Broadband: Overall Rating

You might not consider an energy provider as the first port of call to provide your fibre broadband. However, as a large and established company, SSE are generally considered to provide a reliable service, with good speeds, reasonable customer service, and competitive prices.

Pros

• Reasonably competitive price, plus added discounts for existing energy customers
• No exit fee, and a sixty-day‘ happiness’ guarantee
• Free wireless router when you take out a contract

Cons

• No short-term contract options available
• Mixed customer service reviews
• Limited extras, no tv bundles etc.

SSE Fibre sell themselves as providing frustration-free broadband. The mixed reviews suggest that this isn’t the case for all customers, but the company does have some things going for it, that make it a worthwhile consideration if you are looking for a new provider.

SSE offer two types of fibre broadband package; unlimited fibre, and unlimited fibre plus. As you might guess from the name, both packages allow unlimited downloads. The main difference between the two packages is the speed of uploads and downloads.

Unlimited Fibre

The unlimited fibre package promises an average download speed of 35 Mbps. This is generally suitable for households to play games, stream TV or music on one or two devices at the same time. The price in November 2020 started at £23 a month, which includes the line rental cost.

The average upload speed is 9 Mbps, which is a reasonable industry standard, and should be sufficient for typical household usage.

Unlimited Fibre Plus

This package lists an average download speed of 63 Mbps – which may be better suited for households with a higher level of bandwidth usage, for example HD TV, regular online gaming, and multiple devices in use at the same time.

The average upload speed is more than double that of the standard fibre package, at 19 Mbps. In spite of the significant uplift in both upload and download speeds, this package isn’t significantly more expensive, with prices in November 2020 starting from £26 a month. Do bear in mind that you will need to sign up for a long-term package though, there are no 30-day contracts on offer.

What Router Is Provided & How Does Installation Work

One of the significant perks of an SSE contract is that the wireless router is included at no fee. If you cancel the contract you will be expected to return the router. The router supplied is a dual-band TG589 V2 Wi-Fi Technicolor router. It generally receives very positive reviews, and offers a good signal across significant distances, meaning that you’re unlikely to find a significant variance in signal quality across your home. The router offers four ethernet ports which can support up to 1,000Mbps.

SSE have a coverage checker built into their website, you can enter your postcode or landline, and find out whether you are within the area that will support SSE fibre broadband coverage.

If you are already an SSE energy customer, the installation fee is waived – otherwise this is a one up fee of £30. If an engineer needs to attend, SSE will arrange this in advance, as an adult will need to be at home at the time. If your phoneline is not compatible/ you need a new phone line installing there is a flat fee of £60, which is a standard fee imposed by Openreach, which is generally the same across all broadband providers.

Is SSE Customer Service Any Good?

As with many broadband providers, SSE’s customer service tends to get very mixed reviews. One of the most common complaints is that the company does not make it easy to cancel any contract. Options for contacting the company to cancel are limited – generally forcing customers to call their customer support line, rather than having any options to cancel via email or via the website.

Of course, there are some potential benefits to this; if you are leaving because you have found competitive quotes, it may be possible to negotiate – although you can’t rely on this. As part of their satisfaction guarantee, SSE do promise that there will be no price hikes during your 18-month contract, and generally the prices compare favourably to some of their major competitors. There are some low-cost add-ons to your package that you can choose, including anti-virus protection, and parental controls.

The SSE customer service telephone helpline is open between 8 am and 8 pm on weekdays, and from 8 am to 2 pm on the weekend – and they offer a UK based call centre. Customer reviews suggest that you can expect long wait times, but that the customer service assistants are generally well trained and helpful. You can also communicate with them via email.

Extra perks

Whilst some internet service providers offer a wide range of deals, the level of perks offered by SSE doesn’t always get a great write up, compared to other fibre broadband providers. However, there are some interesting options available at SSE venues, including The SSE Arena, Wembley, and The SSE Hydro in Glasgow.

Customers will have access to presale event tickets, which means that you can buy them 48 hours before general release. There are also regular competitions and upgrades to SSE lounges available at events.

However, unlike other suppliers like BT, there are very few choices in terms of bundles or packages; for example, the TV packages that you can enjoy from other providers. SSE provide what might best be described as a “no frills” deal – however, this isn’t necessarily a disadvantage. As long as you do your research and are comfortable with how it compares to more complicated packages available from competitors, then SSE offer a low cost and good quality service.