It used to be that the vast majority of mobile networks didn’t cap your speeds on any of their plans, but now, with the likes of 5G Standalone making possible speeds even higher – and arguably higher than many people need – some networks are starting to roll out caps on certain plans.
These caps of course also allow them to charge more for plans with unrestricted speeds – a move which perhaps helps them fund their ongoing network upgrades.
But is there any need to shell out for uncapped speeds, or are the 100Mbps limits that some plans on the likes of EE and Three have fast enough?
How fast is 100Mbps?
100Mbps is a fairly high speed. It’s a lot faster than you’d typically get on even an uncapped 4G network, with 4G speeds tending to average around 35Mbps. It’s also faster than many part-fibre (also known as fibre to the cabinet or FTTC) home broadband plans.
In terms of what you can expect at 100Mbps, things like web browsing, social media, and email should feel completely smooth with no real wait for pages to load. You can also comfortably stream video in 4K, stream lossless audio, make video calls, and play games online.
Files will download fast too, with a 1Gbps one for example taking just 1 minute and 20 seconds.
How fast is 5G without speed restrictions?
If your 5G plan doesn’t have speed restrictions and you’re on a network that offers 5G Standalone, in an area with 5G Standalone coverage, then you could feasibly achieve download speeds of 1Gbps, or potentially even higher. So in other words around ten times faster than a 100Mbps cap.
But in most cases even without speed caps, you won’t be getting that. Your speeds will depend on your network, device, and location, along with other factors like how many other people in the area are trying to connect.
For the average, Opensignal found in January 2026 that Three’s average 5G download speed was 187.0Mbps, Vodafone’s was 130.9Mbps, EE’s was 92.2Mbps, and O2’s was 89.9Mbps. So only two of those averages are even higher than 100Mbps anyway.
Of course that’s the average and as detailed above, peak speeds could be much higher, but unless you live right by a mast you should expect something more in line with the average most of the time.
Is there any need for higher speeds than 100Mbps?
If you want to feel that you’re getting the absolute best that your mobile network and current technology are capable of, then of course it’s worth paying up for an uncapped plan.
As far as tangible benefits though, if you’re playing online games at a high level the extra speed might make a difference, or if you plan to frequently tether your phone to other devices, sharing the connection between them.
Unrestricted speeds could also make a difference if you plan to download a lot of very large files over mobile data, since this could be noticeably faster.
Though as noted in the section above, there are lots of other factors affecting your speed anyway, so even on an uncapped plan you might find your average speeds aren’t that much higher.
Verdict
For most people, 100Mbps is probably plenty, though it does feel an unfortunate restriction, particularly if you’re already paying a premium to be on a big-name network.
Still, there are networks that give you unrestricted speeds at no extra cost, so you might want to consider one of those.
But if you’re set on a network that does charge extra, then consider your use cases – if you’re mostly just using social media, music, and video streaming, then you should be fine on 100Mbps. It’s only really power users who’ll benefit much from more.
