Broadband News

Average UK broadband speeds up 22% in a year

Thursday 2 February, 2012

By Anthony Hill

Almost half remain on “up to 10Mb” packages, though many could a get faster speed by switching broadband provider.

Britain’s home broadband users are now getting speeds 22% faster than they did 12 months ago, according to new research from Ofcom. In November, the average actual UK broadband speed was 7.6Mb, compared with 6.2Mb a year earlier and 6.8Mb in May 2011.

The increase comes mainly as a result of households moving onto higher speed packages. The study found that 58% of UK broadband connections now have an advertised “up to” speed above 10Mb - a considerable jump from 48% in May last year.

However, more than four in ten remain on packages with top speeds of 10Mb or less, even though many would be able to get a faster connection at little or no extra cost by switching package or broadband provider.

Ofcom chief executive Ed Richards said: “It is encouraging that speeds are increasing and that consumers have a real choice of broadband service. There is a real opportunity for consumers to look at the packages and deals in their area in order to receive the best value, speeds and performance available to them.

“We can look forward to further increases in UK broadband speeds over the next few years. Most households in the UK can now access 'superfast' broadband services, and these services are set to get faster still.”

In the year ahead, Virgin Media plans to double the speed of almost all its cable broadband packages and BT is aiming to boost its superfast BT Infinity from a top speed of 40Mb to 80Mb. Unsurprisingly, of the 13 broadband packages covered, Ofcom’s research found that superfast fibre and cable were usually much faster than copper wire connections that come from a telephone socket.

Virgin Media’s “up to 50Mb” had the highest average download speeds of approximately 49Mb, while BT Infinity 40Mb delivered a typical speed of 36Mb.