Dan Howdle | June 24th, 2022

Onestream broadband review 2022: Is it any good?

Onestream broadband launched in the summer of 2018, and it’s part of the Hampshire-based broadband specialist Onecom. Like most UK broadband providers, it uses the Openreach network.

Onestream broadband review

Onestream is one of a number of companies hoping to lure customers away from the big providers, such as BT, Sky, Virgin Media and TalkTalk. But is Onestream broadband any good?

Key features

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

Average download speed 16Mbps, 45Mbps & 67Mbps
Average upload speed 2Mbps, 10Mbps & 20Mbps
Broadband Fibre
Home Phone Yes
Contract length 12, 18 or 24 months
Prices from £18.95 per month

Broadband speed

Onestream offers three broadband speeds. The slowest package, called Onestream Fibre 20, offers an average download speed of 16Mbps. This is unusually slow for fibre, but faster than your average standard (ADSL) broadband speed. The next speed up is advertised as Onestream Fibre 55, which comes with an average download speed of 45Mbps, and the fastest package, Onestream Fibre 80, offers an average speed of 67Mbps.

When it comes to upload speeds, Onestream Fibre 20 comes with an average 1.5Mbps upload speed, Onestream Fibre 55 comes with 7.5Mbps, and Onestream Fibre 80 comes with the best upload speed, averaging 17.5Mbps. Generally speaking, upload speeds are of lesser importance to most people than download speed, but if you frequently use video calling, play multiplayer games online, engage in live streaming video or need to upload documents regularly, a good upload speed is useful.

Onestream offers its broadband packages on a selection of different contract lengths, the price of which can vary considerably, even for the same speed. Customers can choose 12 months, 18 months or 24 months. There is no option for a one-month contract however.

If you’re wondering which speed to choose, take a look at our guide to choosing a broadband speed which comes with some useful suggestions to help you find the right speed for your home.

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Installation and router

Onestream uses the same network as BT, Sky, TalkTalk and pretty much every other national provider in the UK except for Virgin Media. Because of this, if you sign up with Onestream you won’t have to inform your old provider that you’re switching broadband – Onestream will do this for you. Unless you’re currently with Virgin Media, in which case you will have to do it yourself.

Onestream doesn’t specify how long it will take to get your broadband up and running, but you can generally expect a new provider to have activated your service within a couple of weeks.

You’ll get step-by-step instructions to get things set up at home although you do have the option of getting an engineer to come out to do it for you – as long as you’re willing to pay extra.

Router

There’s the promise of a free ‘Superstream Router’ with all three of Onestream’s broadband plans. This takes the form of a Technicolor TG588v2 single-band router. It is supplied for both standard broadband and fibre packages and has four fast Ethernet ports you can use for wired connections. This is a very basic router that falls some way behind those provided by the likes of BT and Virgin Media, but it should do the job for most connections.

There is a £9.99 charge for ‘secure delivery’ of the router.

Reliability

Specific figures for Onestream are hard to come by as it is such a new provider, and it isn’t included in Ofcom’s research because its market share is too small. But there are figures available for Openreach, which is in charge of the network on which Onestream runs.

Openreach says it fixed an impressive 97.1% of faults within five working days in the third quarter of 2020/21. This compares to 95.6% within four days in 2018.

Onestream does not use traffic management on any of its packages, so you shouldn’t notice any sudden slowdown in your connection, and it also claims to be totally unlimited so you can stream and download to your heart’s content.

Compare Onestream broadband

Customer service

You can call Onestream’s UK-based customer service team on 0300 303 2184 or send an email to hello@onestream.co.uk if you have any problems. The provider also offers a live chat function during office hours. Onestream’s parent company Onecom has a good reputation in the business broadband market, but reports of customer service for Onestream consumer broadband are mixed. As of June 2022, Onestream had a 4.3/5 rating on Trustpilot, with 70% of 6,115 reviews rating them as ‘Excellent’ and 17% rating them as ‘Bad’.

Conclusion

Onestream is still something of an unknown quantity because it’s relatively new, but its parent company Onecom is well-respected as a business broadband provider so that’s something to take comfort in.

Onestream offers one of the cheapest fibre broadband deals going with its Onestream Fibre 55 (offering 45Mbps average speed), making it good value for money. It also offers a choice of contract length, with 12, 18 and 24-month options available for each speed. Unfortunately there is no one-month option however. Onestream is very much a budget provider, so don’t expect much in the way of extras; it’s a pretty bare bones affair.

To see what packages are available from other providers, head this way to check out the latest fibre broadband deals.

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