The number of suppliers to the UK Broadband Marketplace is much bigger than people generally think with over 300 different ISPs (Internet Service Providers). However the vast majority of the UK population would find it hard to name more than 10 different ISPs.
The ISPs providing internet access in the UK can be broadly segmented into 3 different groups.
1) Large nationally recognised brands with nationwide coverage. This includes BT Broadband, Virgin Broadband, Sky Broadband, Vodafone Broadband, TalkTalk Broadband, Now Broadband, John Lewis Broadband, etc.
2) Medium sized players with very good UK coverage. This includes Zen Internet, Shell Energy Broadband, John Lewis Broadband & others.
3) A large number of smaller mainly regional based ISPs who almost exclusively deal in providing FTTP (Fibre To The Premises) broadband service. These suppliers are sometimes called AltNets (Alternative Networks). Examples are Trooli, TrueSpeed, G.Network, etc. Hyperoptic and Gigaclear are examples that have a wider supply area than many other AltNets.
There is a further segmentation of the marketplace between business & consumer ISPs. Some ISPs exclusively service business customers, some only have consumer customers & some have both business & consumer customers. Some ISPs like BT, Virgin and TalkTalk have seperate consumer and business entities.