Right,
The Now Hub2 isnt that well known for wifi performance and speeds over wifi may not be as good.
Now Now offer the following broadband/internet deals:
Brilliant Broadband, current price £20/month - avg download 11mbps, ok for the basics, but may start to struggle with streaming ie netflix etc it might 'just' work but expect problems .
This is based on the now outdated ADSL system where your copper phone line connects to a device called a DSLAM in your local phone exchange and from there the internet, the longer the line the slower the speed , its capable of upto 18mbps but line length and quality can significantly reduce this - hence the average 11mbps speed quoted, as this is an average you could get more, you could get less.
I would personally only get this if the line is not suited for a VDSL product ( ie fibre to the cabinet) or is there is no suitable mobile broadband available such as three home broadband or no full fibre product is available.
Next up is
Fab Fibre, now sell this for £24/month this is a copper based product using a technology called VDSL with that your phone line connects to a cabinet in the street and from there its fibre optic back to the exchange , also known as FTTC - fibre to the cabinet - - this is good for streaming but may struggle with 4K ultra HD depending upon your actual speeds - averages are 36mbps down, but again line quality may affect this
Super fibre, now sell this for £24 a month and it has an average of 63mbps down, again its an average the product is capable of of a theoretical maximum of 80mbps however there are many things that can drop this down significantly such as all the other factors that affect the other products, this should be good for streaming and should be able to cope with 4K but line quality can affect this
Now Full Fibre, now sell this for £25/month , unlike all the other products, Nows Full fibre product doesnt include a voice service it only has a data ( internet ) service over the line, speeds are somewhat better at 100mbps and as this is full fibre, or to be more precise fibre to the premises (fttp) Nows full fibre product shouldnt suffer from things such as poor line quality.
To get this an open reach engineer will need to put a new full fibre line into the property and drill a small hole into the wall to run the fibre optic wire inside, this will then plug into a small white device called an optical network termination (ont) that needs to be placed near a power socket and from there an ethernet lead to the wifi router , this is the future of line based internet access in the UK as the old copper products are being phased out, if you are already on copper and happy with it then you dont need to do anything.
If you are just signing up then full fibre (fttp) is the way to go, Nows price for full fibre is £25/month, the copper services form Now have a minimum term of 12 months, full fibre form now is 18 months
To sum up:
Brilliant broadband -a copper based service - ok for the basics, and not much else may just about cope with streaming but dont expect to do much else at the same time if your lucky enough for streaming to work
Fab fibre, this is sold at the same price a Super fibre -both copper based but as super is the same price as fab fibre its a no brainer.
All copper services may be liable to issues with the old copper cable network and speeds may be slower than the average - they can also be higher in some cases ADSL will not be above 18mbps and will average at 11, FTTC/VDSL (fab) will top out at 40mbps but average at 35, Super will top out at 80 but average at 61.
In some cases VDSL can be slower than ADSL
Full fibre will be the best option in terms of streaming and everting else and be future proof - however Now do not offer a voice service on their FTTP product,which only has one speed 100mbps and an 18 month contract
https://www.nowtv.com/broadband#ib-section-section-3
