LLU Operators in the UK
Find out more about the broadband providers in the UK
Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) is the process of opening up a telephone exchange so that it can be used by a number of different broadband providers. These broadband providers are then able to use connections from the telephone exchange through to the customer's homes to deliver home broadband.
This section of SamKnows.com lists the major UK LLU operators.
Two of the most common questions we receive via email about this section are:
"Why is provider XYZ not listed on this site?" and
"I'm using provider XYZ, but your site says they're not available in my area! What's going on?"
The answer to both of these questions is not immediately obvious. SamKnows.com lists operators who run their own network and deliver entirely their own broadband services to end users (i.e. they are not simply reselling someone else's service). Whilst there are maybe 15-20 operators who fulfil this criteria, there are literally hundreds of other ISPs reselling their services. This is far too many to list and it would add no additional information; it would simply be repeating data shown elsewhere on the site. Even ISPs such as BT Yahoo!, which has well in excess of 1 million customers, is not listed on here directly because they simply resell BT Wholesale's products.
This page aims to tie up the wholesale broadband providers with many of the retail providers you may be more familiar with. Please bear in mind that new providers come and go all the time, and the broadband market is currently quite volatile, so this list should by no means be taken as authorative."