Survey Names Hyperoptic as Fastest UK Broadband ISP for 2020
Comparison site Broadband Genie has today revealed the winners of their broadband speed awards, which covers different categories across standard, superfast and ultrafast connections. Overall Hyperoptic, a full fibre (FTTP/B) ISP that serves apartment blocks, was named the fastest ISP for both downloading and uploading.
The awards appear to be based on an analysis of 91,000 consumer speed tests that were carried out during 2019. As usual we should caveat that by taking a general average speed in this way the results may be affected by a number of factors, such as slow home WiFi, local network congestion, leased lines and the balance of consumer package choices (e.g. ISPs with customers on slower plans will always drag the results down vs faster packages).
On top of that the data sample taken is generally too small to be able to include many smaller ISPs, beyond the larger and most established players, although they did manage to fit more in than other surveys. Nevertheless it’s no surprise to find Hyperoptic scooping the top spot as their affordable full fibre network, which has generally whacked out some impressive scores in other reports too.
Winners – 2020 Fastest Broadband ISPs
Fastest Ultrafast Provider (Downloading): Hyperoptic
Fastest Ultrafast Provider (Uploading): Hyperoptic
Fastest Superfast Provider (Downloading): Zen Internet
Fastest Superfast Provider (Uploading): Sky Broadband
Fastest Standard Provider (Downloading): Zen Internet
Fastest Standard Provider (Uploading): Post Office
The raw speedtest results are as follows and there are a few.. curious scores (e.g. Zen and TalkTalk’s upload under “ultrafast” seems likely to have been skewed by leased lines).
Standard Broadband
| Downloading | Uploading | ||
| Provider | Speed (Mbps) | Provider | Speed (Mbps) |
| Zen Internet | 8.3 | Post Office | 0.55 |
| Sky | 7.7 | Zen Internet | 0.53 |
| EE | 7.4 | Plusnet | 0.527 |
| Plusnet | 7.1 | Sky | 0.523 |
| BT | 6.7 | EE | 0.519 |
| Post Office | 6.59 | TalkTalk | 0.5 |
| TalkTalk | 6.58 | BT | 0.47 |
| Origin | 3.9 | Origin | 0.39 |
Superfast Broadband
| Downloading | Uploading | ||
| Provider | Speed (Mbps) | Provider | Speed (Mbps) |
| Zen Internet | 38.5 | Sky | 11.9 |
| BT | 34.7 | Zen Internet | 11.5 |
| Virgin Media | 34.2 | Gigaclear | 11.2 |
| Hyperoptic | 33.6 | BT | 10.9 |
| Sky | 33.4 | TalkTalk | 10 |
| Plusnet | 30.6 | Plusnet | 9.9 |
| TalkTalk | 30.22 | EE | 9.7 |
| EE | 30.17 | Vodafone | 9.1 |
| Post Office | 28.8 | Post Office | 8.8 |
| Origin | 26.9 | Origin | 8.4 |
| Vodafone | 26 | Virgin Media | 7.7 |
| Gigaclear | 15.3 | Hyperoptic | 5.6 |
Ultrafast Broadband
| Downloading | Uploading | ||
| Provider | Speed (Mbps) | Provider | Speed (Mbps) |
| Hyperoptic | 211 | Hyperoptic | 165.6 |
| Vodafone | 168.4 | Gigaclear | 139.5 |
| Virgin Media | 156.1 | Vodafone | 136.1 |
| Gigaclear | 142.5 | Zen Internet | 105.1 |
| TalkTalk | 140.3 | TalkTalk | 95.7 |
| Zen Internet | 138.1 | BT | 37.9 |
| BT | 102.7 | EE | 31.4 |
| Sky | 96.1 | Sky | 27.6 |
| EE | 76.5 | Virgin Media | 22.7 |
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook and Linkedin.
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Yeah, the ultrafast category is a bit skewed towards Hyperoptic there – plenty of FTTH altnets that do deliver faster average speeds than that, but due to the small sample size and testing methodology, they don’t get a look in or even a mention…
There are lies damned lies and statistics. This is a classic case.
Hyperoptic is Superfast Category not that great because they only have one product that is limited to less than 50Mb so anyone getting Openreach FTTC at 70Mb will report faster speeds.
Likewise the speeds at Ultrafast for Hyperoptic either say that many buy their lower speed packages or those buying 1Gb packages are getting nowhere near the speeds they are paying for. Plus the fact that the Hyperoptic routers are pretty basic the WiFi will limit speeds.
Look at Zen for instance. They are generally known as a more expensive ISP so probably most of their customers buy the higher end packages hence their speed results are higher.
If you really want to do a survey measure speed tests against the packages people have been sold. I suspect you will get some very different numbers.
This survey is so mis-leading.
Of course watch Hyperoptic market the hell out of this. But the headline won’t be Hyperoptic fastest ISP with download speeds averaging 211Mb but simply Hyperoptic Fastest ISP. As 211Mb looks slow for an ISP that sells itself as Hyperoptic.
Hyperoptic do have lower tiers than 1G/1G.
A lot of people want more upload but don’t want to pay for 1G and for most domestic use 1G is OTT ATM.
They used to have 300/300 and I do t know if anyone is still on that.
We have an office with a 500/500 connection that delivers a steady 490/490.
Surprised Community Fibre don’t feature here as they have a decent footprint and are full fibre.
What? How did Zen get 105Mbps upload result? What consumer package do they offer that has upload that high?
…and TalkTalk with their 95Mbps upload, for that matter?
Leased lines?
@A-Builder, its the only logical explanation. To be fair Mark caveated with potential of leased lines being in the mix, but broadband genie sells/advisors regular consumers, and have even titled this survey as “Home Broadband”. It’s in accurate, and misinformation.
Maybe I’m just a bit bitter because Hyperoptic came top, and as a hyperoptic customer, I dont feel they deserve it until they actually deliver the speeds they sell and deal with their capacity issues.
I suspect the talktalk figures have been skewed by FTTH here in York.
@A_Builder if so can they put Giganet in? I have a leased line with them and I am sure even some of their consumer packages deserve to be in this list.
It sounds as always like whoever pays the most…
Statistics are nearly always wrong. Hyperoptic and the other full fibre ISPs would score higher if folk tested on ethernet instead of wifi. (as Mark said) All the comparison sites are pretty poor when it comes to running tests. Then they publish misinformation. hey ho. Such is life in superfarce digitialbritain.
Strange comment.
You can only publish the data you have. This is not a scientific performance test. Most people on even Hyperoptic aren’t purchasing the top tier, much as most on every product aren’t purchasing the top tier.
As far as testing over Ethernet only goes are everyone’s devices all hard wired all the time? I would welcome your guidance on how I am to get a cable from my full fibre connection to everywhere in my home given the plaster isn’t even dry in the walls yet.
Speed test output is always going to be across a variety of devices as that’s how people use their connections.
For definitive performance you need the Samknows / Ofcom performance panel. That’s the data that actually matters in ‘superfarce digital Britain’ and is the stuff used in advertising.
This is just marketing stuff. I’m not sure most people actually care about it.
Good rant though. Would read again.
Note: by ‘advertising’ I am referring to the ‘average’ speeds used in advertising, not marketing like this.
This is a glorified survey.
Comparison / marketing site in marketing exercise shock.
And yet your company isn’t on their Chris – feeling salty are we?
My Virgin in Salford Manchester is amost a constant 387mb/s – can’t complain.
These things are only a bit of fun. However there is some statistical relevance and sampling involved.
Whereas, for example “The UK Best Home Broadband ISP Options for 2020 by ISPreview” is based on no sample sizes, reviews or statistical data whatsoever.