There's no escaping the fact that ADSL is the most affordable broadband choice, so if you want to keep costs low then it's a no brainer. Thankfully most reputable companies ensure that their devices are properly manufactured to include good shielding and components, which reduces the local levels of EMI. ADSL has a hard speed ceiling of around 50 Mbps due to the available bandwidth of the copper wires that form the basis of the connection. If you want to see what's available near you then have a look at our best fibre broadband deals page.

Internet cables are offered in a range of lengths with both bare and connector end versions available to suit both hard-wired installations and plug and play requirements. Clearly the end user has no control over the cabling from the exchange to the entry point of the premises as this is all provided by BT Openworld. In a straight cable, which is cheaper to make, the noise current just flows in the same direction and this makes it much more of a problem, especially if you happen to be running your connection over several metres of extension cable.

Similarly CAT6 cable has even more turns per meter and even thicker wire is used to account for gigabit Ethernet speeds. If you want to use multiple devices, stream in high definition and indulge in some online gaming, then ADSL won't be up to the task.

To reach the kind ofspeeds that would make ADSL a viable alternative to dial-up internet, clever signal processing was required, which in turnrequired specialized equipment. Cookies collect information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. But today we’re taking a look at interference in the home and not the national telecoms infrastructure as a whole. However, there's a lot that can affect the speed of an ADSL connection, and much of it is not in the hands of the consumer. Our recommendation is that if you are already installing CAT5 cable for networking and are able to hide it away then it there is no harm in using it for ADSL extension wiring at the same time as you probably have bought a drum of it and have some spare.

This figure is increasing each month and year on year (2021-2022) the growth has been quite a sizeable 24%. But tackling interference is a constant battle and over the years various methods have been invented to mitigate the problem, which leads to a cleaner transmission and thus better performance. Standard ADSL still has the monopoly on the best cheap broadband deals, plus you can still choose top providers like BT, Sky and EE and enjoy a selection of their services.