The Top 2018 vs 2017 Fastest UK Mobile and Home Broadband ISPs

Next we’re going to take a quick look to see how some alternative network providers (i.e. those that have built their own physical networks to reach customers) compare with the mainstream national operators. Sadly most altnets only have comparatively niche network coverage and limited speedtest data, which means that at present we can only summarise a few.

Excluding KCOM, all of these fixed line altnets tend to exclusively build “full fibre” (FTTH/P) infrastructure, which is capable of offering Gigabit (1Gbps) class broadband speeds, although the performance below may be lower due to all the data caveats mentioned earlier (slow Wi-Fi, package choice etc.).

In order to save space we’ve adopted a slightly different format below by sticking the 2018 and 2017 results side-by-side in the same columns. NOTE: DL = Download, UP = Upload.

Altnets by Average Speed (2018 vs 2017)

We should point out that KCOM’s FTTP network is only present in the Hull (East Yorkshire) area and they’re aiming to achieve universal coverage of their network by March 2019, although their results are hobbled by the fact that many of their customers are still on ancient copper line ADSL2+ connections (these struggle to even hit 20Mbps).

Nevertheless nearly all of these altnets are delivering better speeds than the largest national providers above and it will probably stay that way until general FTTP availability improves. The government’s ambition is for the whole of the UK to be covered by 2033.

The Top Fastest Mobile Network Operators

The fastest Mobile Network Operator (MNO) is usually the one that has a combination of the best 4G coverage, the most radio spectrum and the most advanced technology (e.g. LTE-Advanced and multi-Carrier Aggregation for harnessing multiple spectrum bands).

Perhaps unsurprisingly EE tends to top this table and they’re currently the only operator to have pledged to achieve UK geographic (landmass) 4G coverage of 95% by the end of 2020. But more radio spectrum is now coming up for auction, while rivals are catching-up with their technology and the balance of power could thus swing in favour of a different operator once 5G arrives from 2019/20.

The current government has also told all operators to deliver 95% geographic mobile coverage by the end of 2022, although they didn’t specifically name drop 4G connectivity.

Average Mobile Download Speeds

Average Mobile Upload Speeds

Overall the average download speed of the four primary mobile operators was 21.4Mbps (up from 19.15Mbps at the end of 2017) and the average upload speed hit 4.85Mbps (down from 5Mbps).

As usual we must caveat that mobile services are subject to the daily movements and radically differing hardware choices (Smartphones etc.) of their end-users, as well as the different spectrum bands and network capacity available to any specific area or operator. All of this makes it painfully difficult to establish a reliable picture of performance.

Otherwise O2 appeared to suffer the weakest download performance and growth, although their roll-out of the new 2.3GHz band to 4G services is likely to change that in time for next year’s update (details). Meanwhile there seems to have been a sharp fall in upload performance (except on Vodafone) and at this stage it’s not entirely clear why that has occurred.

Overall we do not consider the above speedtest based data – either for mobile or fixed lines – to be a reliable barometer for individual users, but it can help to highlight general changes in the market. The ever expanding reach of faster networks and take-up means that we will continue to see a general upward curve as consumers upgrade to use ever faster services.