Video games remain popular across the UK. Although the console is still considered king, online games are catching up.
More than 6 in 10 British gamers now play online, with many of them preferring to do so because online games are more affordable, come from a wide range of genres, and can be accessed on demand. If you like online gaming, however, a poor internet connection could be impacting your overall experience by unnecessarily prolonging download speeds and causing lags that hamper your response times.
Of course, there are a number of steps you can take to troubleshoot your internet issues, including playing closer to or repositioning your router, connecting your device with an ethernet cable rather than WiFi, or simply closing unnecessary websites and software programs running in the background.
If your issues persist, however, it’s worth considering a switch to full fibre broadband. These facilitate more modern internet connections that run straight to your property (rather than through a street cabinet), promising faster, stable, and more reliable internet connections.
However, full fibre can also be a pretty hefty investment, especially if your home currently doesn’t have the setup needed to accommodate it. That said, when do you know if it’s worth making the switch?
If your ISP keeps reporting service downtime
Internet service providers (ISPs) can experience service downtime if they’re still shifting from a partial to full fibre network. That’s because partial networks still leverage copper cables that are more prone to degradation, causing downtime. Notably, Sky had the most outages in 2024, with 92% of them being internet outages—and a help article on the ISP’s website explains that’s because it’s still in the process of switching to a full fibre network. Your ISP may also experience downtime due to heavy network traffic, especially during peak times like the release of a new game—which is what happened when Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III came out. Since downtime can completely sever your internet connection while you play, you may want to consider going full fibre if you feel your current ISP is similarly unreliable. EE Broadband is one ISP that solely leverages optic fibre cables, which are more durable than copper, to prevent downtime. Perhaps more importantly, it offers a dedicated Made for Gamers bundle that delivers download speeds of up to 1600Mbps, which is sufficient to ensure buttery-smooth online gameplay even during peak hours.
If you live outside a city
According to the broadband comparison site Uswitch, broadband speed slows significantly outside of the UK’s urban centres. On average, cities enjoy download speeds of up to 62.1Mbps, and that drops down to 39.4 Mbps in rural areas. That said, it’s generally harder to experience smooth, lag-free gaming experiences if you live outside a major urban hub. That’s especially true if you want to minimise latency, which refers to the time it takes for data to transfer between your device and the internet—and which is vital for maintaining response time in online multiplayer games like League of Legends. If you consistently experience high latency on your current plan, it’s worth checking if there’s a full fibre ISP that services your area. Zzoomm is one altnet ISP you can look to, as it specialises in expanding full fibre coverage to rural households. It currently operates in over 29 market towns and counting, with one in five properties in the communities of Hereford, Stokesley, Great Ayton and Thirsk now benefiting from packages that offer average download speeds of 200Mbps—which the ISP notes are suited for low-latency gaming experiences.
If you want to improve cybersecurity
Online gaming comes with cybersecurity risks beyond exposure to malware and viruses. Because personal information is required for creating online accounts, you’re more vulnerable to data breaches that can result in identity theft, account takeovers, and even swatting and doxxing at the hands of fellow players. Though it helps to follow best practices like using different passwords per account, only playing and downloading games from legitimate publishers and websites, and regularly updating your software, switching to full fibre can offer added protection. Beyond being durable, optic fibre cables use light rather than electric signals to transmit data, making that data less prone to data interception compared to the information transmitted by copper cables. Some ISPs also use fibre monitoring systems for real-time malicious tampering detection—while others go further with dedicated full fibre VPN packages for added value. Onestream is one ISP that does so. By bundling its broadband plans with free access to NordVPN, its users can create private internet connections that work with optic fibre cables to keep their data safe. Gamers can further benefit from these packages, as those private connections can also help them access geo-restricted games and prevent lagging caused by ISP throttling.
