Wildanet broadband review: Is it any good?

Dan Howdle | May 2nd, 2024

As altnet Full Fibre providers go, Wildanet knows its own business. Full Fibre broadband in Devon and Cornwall. That's it. That's all anyone really needs to know for the pub quiz. But there's a lot more fine detail in Wildanet's offering – some good, some not so good. Ultimately then, is it worth considering as your next broadband provider? Let's find out.

Key features

Here’s a quick look at what you can expect to find in a Wildanet broadband deal:

Our review of Wildanet broadband

Wildanet's offering is somewhat of a mixed bag. There's a lot of good stuff there, which we'll talk about first, butthere are also some things we would rather not see when compared against other altnets, or indeed some mainstream providers.

Very fast broadband, but not symmetrical

Wildanet's 'slowest' speed offering comes in at a whopping 200Mbps. The vast majority of households won't need anything faster, which is why it's the most competitively priced of the three packages on offer. The other two offer 500Mbps and 1Gbps respectively, but in our opinion are a bit too pricey compared to much of the market, especially when compared against other altnets. We're also a little disappointed that as a Full Fibre provider the speeds it offers aren't symmetrical (where upload speeds are the same as download speeds) as this is actually very common among altnets.

Fantastic router and mesh Wi-Fi

The Adtran 854v6 is an absolute powerhouse of a router – easily one of the best we've seen offered for free from a provider. We'll go into more details on the specs further down, so for no, know that it is very capable, and as much or more than anyone really needs. It's pretty future-proof too, which no doubt played a part in Wildanet's choice to offer it. If you need to extend its range, you can add Plume 'SuperPods' at checkout. These plug-socket-sized devices will relay your Wi-Fi signal to reach difficult parts of the house. You can add one SuperPod for an extra £5.99 per month, a second for an extra £2, with subsequent SuperPods an additional £3 per month each up to a maximum of six.

Excellent home phone packages in the form of Phoneline+

It's rare to see any provider put such effort into its landline packages in this day and age, what with so many of us foregoing home phones in favour of exclusively using our mobiles. Phoneline+ deserves plaudits. For £9.99 per month you can switch your number to Wildanet's digital line for far superior sound quality that's ready for the 2025 analogue switch-off. You can also send calls to your home phone to your mobile when you're not at home, and – the best part – you can make calls to Australia, New Zealand, the USA, Canada and Ireland for free! There's also a cordless version at £11.99 per month and a version where you can keep your current handset at £12.99 per month.

Faster packages are expensive

There's no way around it. Wildanet's entry-level package called 'Connected Home' (200Mbps) is competitively priced at £29 per month, but its faster packages, 'Modern Household' (500Mbps) at £49 per month and 'Super User' (1Gbps) at £69 per month are more expensive than competing packages. For example, Virgin Media's faster Gig1 package (1130Mbps), is nearly £30 per month cheaper than 'Super User' from Wildanet. And Plusnet's 500Mbps Full Fibre 500 is £16 per month cheaper than Wildanet's 'Modern Household' package. Wildanet does promise it won't hike it's price across the length of its two-year contract however.

Availability

Wildanet is exclusively available in Devon and Cornwall. If you don't live there you can't get it, if you do there's a good chance you can. Wildanet specialises in getting to places other providers in the region do not, so if you live somewhere quite rural in Devon or Cornwall, and your choices are quite limited, there's a chance Wildanet has you covered.

Broadly, Wildanet is available in:

Check availability

Broadband speeds

Wildanet has just three speed tiers. We like that – three is plenty. And since its slowest speed is already very fast, it's hard to go wrong.

Connected Home: At £29 per month, Wildanet's 'Connected Home' package offers 200Mbps download and 40Mbps upload. Wildanet tags its middle speed (500Mbps) as 'recommended' on its website, but we beg to differ. 200Mbps is extremely fast broadband, and only households that frequently download large videogames of have special business needs really need anything faster. Connected Home is also where the price point makes sense.

Modern Household: 500Mbps is going to attract heavy gamers and households that need that something extra. What we don't like however, is the price. At £49 per month it's significantly more expensive at this speed than many competitors. Then again, Wildanet may be the only Full Fibre service you can get and so you'll be stuck paying the price. Don't get us wrong, we rate Wildanet as an extremely good provider, but do yourself a favour and go for 'Connected Home' instead. Your wallet will thank you.

Super User: Again, this is too fast for most households. It's hards to find practical used for broadband this fast. Download your games faster? Sure. But with pre-loads a thing for new releases, it's hard to argue it's really worth it. Especially at a sticker-shock-inducing monthly price of £69. It's very hard to justify, both in terms of practicality and in terms of price.

Not sure which package to pick? Our guide to deciding what broadband speed you need has all the answers.

Upload speeds

Disappointingly, Wildanet does not offer symmetrical speeds to home broadband customers (where your upload speeds are the same as your download speeds). It's not a deal-breaker, but it's worth considering that most altnets do offer symmetrical speeds.

Like most mainstream providers, Wildanet instead offers much slower upload speeds than their download speeds. This is because a typical home internet connection tends to pull a lot of information into the home, while sending out very little. Of course, some people use upload as much as download, but that's rare, and will tend to require a specific type of job such as videographer or draughts-person, where uploading large files and documents is the norm.

Routers and installation

Wildanet supplies the very, very powerful Adtran 854v6 with its broadband packages, whose range you can extend with the also-excellent Plume SuperPods. The 'net' result (pun intended) is an incredibly robust, rangy, reliable and fast home wifi system.

For the nerds (like us), here are the specs of the Adtran 854v6:

Installation

Wildanet provides very little information on the exact ins and outs of its broadband installation process. However, Full Fibre installation is broadly similar among most altnets and involves the provider understanding the circumstances of your home and how to reach it with its cabling. Wildanet will be able to talk your through the process when you sign up, but provided you live somewhere you can get it, it's a simple process with minimal disruption.

Customer service

Broadband providers with less than 1.5% market share aren't included in Ofcom's annual customer service reporting. However, you can see how it's doing on Trustpilot.

Wildanet's 3.5 out of 5.0 rating on Trustpilot looks good on the face of it, but compared to other altnets that's actually very low. Looking through the common customer complaints, we see a repeated pattern of customers finding it frustrating to get Wildanet to take proper ownership of their problem and get back to them (returning calls), and some customers still awaiting connection months after they first signed up. Customers were generally full of praise for the installation team and process and seem broadly happy if they're set up and running without a hitch.

Our verdict: Good

We really want to love Wildanet, but we just can't. Its brilliant router, fast packages, outstanding home phone options and more show that it really has been trying to bring customers something special. But right now it is failing, both in terms of being competitively priced and in terms of the negative reviews it continues to receive from frustrated customers. Those who get set up and running without a hitch are very pleased with Wildanet, but there are just too many who don't and have cause to complain. And £69 per month for 1Gbps broadband is far too much. Why wouldn't you pay nearly £30 per month less to Virgin Media for an even faster connection if you can get it?

There is a lot of room for improvement here from Wildanet, and we look forward to the company getting a tighter hold of the reins in years to come. We will keep an eye on it.

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