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Top Fastest UK Mobile and Home Broadband ISPs for H1 2024

Monday, Jun 24th, 2024 (12:01 am) - Score 6,480
speed metre broadband and mobile UK

Next we’ll examine how some of the more established alternative networks (AltNets) – those building their own separate full fibre broadband networks – perform when compared with the main national players. Take note that Cityfibre doesn’t have a specific entry because they’re supplied via various ISPs (e.g. Vodafone, Zen, TalkTalk) and we can’t easily separate the data for them from other networks – the same is also true for a few of the other wholesale-only Altnets.

Otherwise, the following providers don’t suffer from the same performance woes as copper or hybrid fibre networks, thus we only focus our results on the top 10% (fastest) connections, which in most cases will reflect those consumers who take the fastest gigabit tier(s) available. The caveat is that these scores will still be heavily impacted by the same issues as mentioned earlier (slow Wi-Fi, local network congestion, take-up etc.).

The main changes this time around include the removal of Seethelight, BeFibre, Swish Fibre, Jurassic Fibre and Lila Connect due to a lack of test data (i.e. not enough samples for a credible result). In addition, Swish Fibre and Jurassic have been consolidated into a new wholesale network (All Points Fibre), which may make them difficult to re-add in the future; the same will also become true of Giganet in the near future.

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Speaking on consolidation, in future reports we may also have to combine Brsk and YouFibre, now that Brsk has agreed to merge into Netomnia. But this agreement has only just been reached and thus doesn’t yet impact the results below. Finally, we’ve had enough data to add GoFibre into the table for the first time, and Truespeed also made a return.

NOTE: Most altnets only have comparatively niche coverage and limited speedtest data, which limits how many we can examine. Only ISPs with gigabit packages are included below.

Full Fibre Altnets by Avg. Download (H1 2024 vs H2 2023)

ISP Top 10% – H1 2024 Top 10% – H2 2023
Zzoomm 1051.9Mbps 604.8Mbps
YouFibre (Netomnia) 929.6Mbps 920.6Mbps
toob 921Mbps 923.5Mbps
Community Fibre 885.1Mbps 912.4Mbps
Trooli 813.9Mbps 342.1Mbps
Hey! Broadband (F&W) 782.4Mbps 812.8Mbps
Giganet 768.2Mbps 686.6Mbps
Gigaclear 744.4Mbps 489.8Mbps
Brsk 721.2Mbps 775.2Mbps
Lit Fibre 701.3Mbps 514.3Mbps
Truespeed 610.9Mbps no data
Hyperoptic 519.4Mbps 660.7Mbps
GoFibre 466.5Mbps no data
Grain Connect 406.4Mbps 256.5Mbps
Ogi 405Mbps 207.8Mbps
Fibrus 382.4Mbps 269.8Mbps
Wessex Internet 377.8Mbps 371.3Mbps
KCOM 301.6Mbps 346.7Mbps

As before, it’s wise not to read too much into speed fluctuations above because the faster you go, the more obvious the caveats of web-based speed testing become. In addition, some provider’s, such as toob, only sell a 1Gbps package (i.e. the results aren’t impacted by users on slower tiers) or may have fewer customers (i.e. greater fluctuations in the data), which means true apples-to-apples comparisons are tricky to achieve.

We intend to keep expanding this table as AltNets grow, which will in turn result in more data, but most of these providers are clearly delivering excellent performance.

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The Fastest Mobile Operators

Mobile performance remains a difficult network technology to study because end-users are always moving through different areas (indoor, outdoor and underground), using different devices with different capabilities and the surrounding environment is ever changeable (weather, trees, buildings etc.). All of this can impact signal quality and that’s before we consider any differences in network (backhaul) capacity or spectrum between locations.

Suffice to say that studies of mobile broadband speed are inherently open to variation, but the top networks often tend to be those with a combination of the best 4G or 5G coverage, a good amount of radio spectrum and the most advanced technologies.

Average Mobile Download Speeds – H1 2024 vs H2 2023

No. Operator  H1 2024 (Top 10%)  H2 2023 (Top 10%) Change
1. Three UK 87.4Mbps (220.1Mbps) 68.8Mbps (160.6Mbps) 27.03%
2. Vodafone 53.1Mbps (161.3Mbps) 30.1Mbps (80.6Mbps) 76.41%
3. EE 48.6Mbps (99.4Mbps) 55Mbps (106.7Mbps) -11.64%
4. O2 33.2Mbps (71.1Mbps) 22.3Mbps (57.6Mbps) 48.88%

Average Mobile Upload Speeds – H1 2024 vs H2 2023

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No. Operator H1 2024 (Top 10%) H2 2023 (Top 10%) Change
1. EE 15.1Mbps (22.5Mbps) 19.5Mbps (34.1Mbps) -22.56%
2. Three UK 13.4Mbps (35.5Mbps) 11.1Mbps (30.4Mbps) 20.72%
3. Vodafone 10.4Mbps (21.7Mbps) 7.2Mbps (18.6Mbps) 44.44%
4. O2 7.5Mbps (15.5Mbps) 4.8Mbps (12.4Mbps) 56.25%

Overall, the average download speed of the four primary mobile operators was 55.57Mbps (up from 44.05Mbps in H2 2023) and the average upload speed hit 11.6Mbps (up from 10.65Mbps). Most of the operators delivered a strong improvement this time around, with Vodafone rocketing their download performance by over 76% and thus leapfrogging EE to take 2nd place.

By comparison, EE suffered an uncharacteristic fall in both download and upload performance (the only operator to suffer such a decline), although they still managed to hold on to the top spot for upload performance. Time will tell whether this is just a temporary anomaly or the start of a trend, but for now we suspect it may only be temporary.

We should point out that most existing 5G networks remain hobbled by issues of limited coverage and legacy 4G services, although the gradual introduction of Standalone 5G (SA) networks is starting to change that. In addition, Ofcom’s plan to auction off more 5G spectrum in the mmW bands – 26GHz and 40GHz – is another event to keep an eye on later this year, but it’s impacts may be primarily limited to urban areas.

Finally, the proposed merger between Vodafone and Three UK may be impacting their 5G roll-out plans (it’s not uncommon for big deployment plans to be put on a ‘go slow’ during such periods), which could change once the deal is either approved or rejected by regulators. Approval would, we’re told, mean a wider and generally more significant roll-out of 5G SA technology by the merged entity.

UPDATE 10:57am

We’ve added Truespeed into the altnet list after accidentally missing its inclusion in the latest data this morning.

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Mark-Jackson
By Mark Jackson
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, BlueSky, Threads.net and .
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12 Responses

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  1. Avatar photo Big Dave says:

    Not surprised to see Zen at the top. Their customer base tends towards the techie type who is going to want the fastest speeds available. No wonder Richard was so keen on the Openreach Equinox 2 program, he knows he will have a lot easier time than the likes of Sky and Talk Talk getting customers to switch to FTTP.

    1. Avatar photo JimB says:

      Me neither, I found that Zen speeds were pretty much the practical maximum what ever time of the day. Possibly helped by the fact that most of my neighbors were elderly Luddites.

  2. Avatar photo DaveZ says:

    EE are going backwards! Come on BT. If you expect people to move to EE you are going to have to do better than this.

  3. Avatar photo Just a thought says:

    If a customer of say TalkTalk as mentioned was on their fastest speed and moved away to an altnet then the average speed based on remaining FTTC and ADSL lines locked in contract, would start to dominate. It seems that the survey possibly relates more to the customer base costs and expectations than to the ability of an ISP to deliver a speed. (Given they are often OR based)

  4. Avatar photo andrew mcleod says:

    Trooli should be at the top ad they have a 2gb symmetrical service with 2gb down and 2gb up and that’s full fibre. Also no price increase for 2 Yr contract.

    1. Avatar photo Andrew Atkinson says:

      Youfibre do that for the same price but you get fantasic kit with youfibre. The Trooli kit looked terrible and its not included in the 49.99

  5. Avatar photo Madgamer says:

    Trooli do a 2gb down and 2gb up service and it’s brilliant it’s full fibre but best of all it’s symmetrical. Theres not many at moment doing symmetrical service.

    1. Avatar photo Andrew Atkinson says:

      Theres more and more every day but there is only one that do 8gig up and down. Youfibre

  6. Avatar photo Richard nuth says:

    you forgot youfibre ,,, 950meg down and 950 meg up with dedicated ip for £31 a month

    1. Mark-Jackson Mark Jackson says:

      YouFibre is covered on page 2 in the altnets table.

  7. Avatar photo Julian Calverley says:

    It’s a real pity that you don’t include the high-quality ISPs, such as the likes of AAISP and IDNet any more?

  8. Avatar photo Matt DC says:

    Anyone know why Wildanet who have £100m of public funds to provide fibre in the south west and then sell access to other ISPs for fair value do not seem to have sold any yet? They’ve been laying plenty of fibre but the only customer offering is their own – they’re known for poor customer service and personally I wouldn’t trust them to stay in business for the length of a 24 month contract. Is this common with any other altnets handed funds as part of Project Gigabyte?

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