2025 vs 2024 – UK Broadband and Mobile Speeds vs the World
ISPreview is today ending 2025 by taking our annual look back to see how the United Kingdom’s position, in terms of the top 50 fastest countries for fixed broadband and mobile speeds (4G, 5G), has changed since 2024. Overall, the UK’s global rank for mobile speed is now 59th (down from 53rd last year), while our ranking for fixed broadband is 44th (unchanged).
The following report was created by harnessing data from Ookla’s popular Speedtest.net database for benchmarking internet connections around the world, which admittedly does have its caveats. For example, the data can be impacted by other aspects of the connection (e.g. slow Wi-Fi, local network congestion, the performance of speedtest.net’s own servers and consumer package choice), but these issues are shared by all countries.
However, the main differentiator for speeds between countries tends to stem from the balance between network availability and the take-up of faster connection types. For example, countries with a high coverage of gigabit-capable broadband technologies (FTTP, DOCSIS 3.1+) or strong 5G mobile services (ideally with plenty of radio spectrum for them to harness) will naturally rank highest in the table.
Advertisement
In terms of the UK, we’ve seen a strong and continuous improvement in the availability of both faster fixed and mobile networks. For example, Ofcom recently revealed (here) that 1000Mbps (gigabit) capable fixed broadband ISP networks had reached 87% of premises (up from 84% last year), which falls to 78% when only looking at full fibre FTTP lines (up from 69%).
As for 5G mobile, it is now available from at least one MNO (operator) in the vicinity of around 94-97% of UK premises (up from 90-95% last year) or 64-89% when looking at outside areas with availability from all operators combined (up from 61-79%).
UK Broadband and Mobile Stats vs the World – 2025
The data below reveals that fixed line broadband and mobile speeds have continued to improve across the world. But despite some noted improvements in 5G coverage, other countries still seem able to improve their real-world mobile performance at a faster or similar pace. On the flip side, the UK has seen continued growth in the coverage and take-up of full fibre lines, despite a build slowdown among smaller alternative networks.
We’ve summarised some of the key changes below.
Advertisement
UK Fixed & Mobile Speeds vs The World (2025)
| Performance Categories | 2025 | 2024 |
| UK Country Rank for Fixed Line | 44th | 44th |
| Global Latency – Fixed Line | 9ms | 9ms |
| Global Upload – Fixed Line | 56.95Mbps | 50.26Mbps |
| Global Download – Fixed Line | 106.84Mbps | 94.52Mbps |
| UK Latency – Fixed Line | 12ms | 13ms |
| UK Upload – Fixed Line | 45.07Mbps | 30.28Mbps |
| UK Download – Fixed Line | 147.35Mbps | 117.49Mbps |
| UK Country Rank for Mobile | 59th | 53rd |
| Global Latency – Mobile | 25ms | 27ms |
| Global Upload – Mobile | 13.23Mbps | 11.33Mbps |
| Global Download – Mobile | 93.47Mbps | 59.15Mbps |
| UK Latency – Mobile | 32ms | 34ms |
| UK Upload – Mobile | 8.31Mbps | 7.64Mbps |
| UK Download – Mobile | 68.46Mbps | 56.34Mbps |
In addition, it’s worth noting that only two of the UK’s cities appear in Ookla’s list of the top fastest cities in the world. For example, for mobile connections, Manchester delivered the fastest average download speed of 113.67Mbps, but it was only ranked 72nd. After that comes London on 78th, which delivered speeds of 103.36Mbps.
In terms of fixed line connections, Manchester, which ranked 60th in this table, once again came top with a speed of 156.03Mbps and they were followed by London in 65th place and a speed of 144.82Mbps.
Otherwise, the following tables show how the countries compare, using only download speed as the key measure, across the top 50 countries. Sadly, Ookla doesn’t make it easy to do the same table for uploads or latency.
Advertisement
Fastest 50 Countries for Fixed Broadband Speed (DL) in 2025
| Country (2025) | Mbps | Country (2024) | Mbps |
| Singapore | 400.68 | Singapore | 316.99 |
| Chile | 352.63 | United Arab Emirates | 300.54 |
| Hong Kong (SAR) | 338.81 | Hong Kong (SAR) | 296.97 |
| United Arab Emirates | 334.13 | Chile | 279.14 |
| France | 316.02 | United States | 253.34 |
| Macau (SAR) | 313.66 | France | 247.35 |
| United States | 289.44 | Thailand | 236.12 |
| Iceland | 271.99 | Denmark | 230.41 |
| Israel | 264.55 | Iceland | 224.58 |
| Thailand | 264.54 | Romania | 220.66 |
| Vietnam | 263.88 | Spain | 217.92 |
| Taiwan | 254.59 | Switzerland | 214.8 |
| Romania | 253.91 | Israel | 211.64 |
| Switzerland | 253.48 | Taiwan | 208.17 |
| Denmark | 246.44 | Canada | 201.32 |
| Spain | 246.24 | Macau (SAR) | 200.39 |
| Canada | 235.57 | Kuwait | 199.27 |
| South Korea | 234.41 | Japan | 196.27 |
| Kuwait | 230.95 | China | 194.79 |
| Peru | 226.36 | Netherlands | 191.86 |
| Hungary | 225.16 | Liechtenstein | 187.86 |
| Portugal | 222.81 | Qatar | 186.79 |
| Japan | 219.31 | Hungary | 185.94 |
| New Zealand | 217.7 | Peru | 185.54 |
| Netherlands | 213.16 | Portugal | 182.62 |
| Brazil | 210.56 | New Zealand | 180.75 |
| China | 205.92 | Brazil | 180 |
| Qatar | 205.59 | South Korea | 168.13 |
| Colombia | 196.6 | Poland | 167.46 |
| Poland | 195.15 | Jordan | 158.86 |
| Luxembourg | 194.25 | Uruguay | 158.83 |
| Panama | 190.24 | Panama | 158.18 |
| Liechtenstein | 189.09 | Colombia | 157.29 |
| Jordan | 188.44 | Sweden | 154.48 |
| Uruguay | 187.49 | Vietnam | 153.21 |
| Malta | 184.34 | Luxembourg | 152.84 |
| Ireland | 173.77 | Lithuania | 139.37 |
| Sweden | 171.92 | Ireland | 138.96 |
| Malaysia | 156.8 | Norway | 138.36 |
| Moldova | 154.35 | Malta | 129.24 |
| Norway | 153.87 | Moldova | 127.34 |
| Finland | 153.1 | Finland | 124.37 |
| Costa Rica | 150.33 | Malaysia | 120.8 |
| United Kingdom | 147.35 | United Kingdom | 117.49 |
| Bahrain | 143.25 | Trinidad and Tobago | 116.91 |
| Trinidad and Tobago | 140.79 | Saudi Arabia | 114.37 |
| Ecuador | 137.22 | Belgium | 105.21 |
| Saudi Arabia | 128.57 | Costa Rica | 98.16 |
| Cyprus | 128.35 | Ecuador | 94.74 |
| Guyana | 127.29 | Guyana | 94.61 |
Fastest 50 Countries for Mobile Speed (DL) in 2025
| Country (2025) | Mbps | Country (2024) | Mbps |
| United Arab Emirates | 624.87 | United Arab Emirates | 428.53 |
| Qatar | 508.49 | Qatar | 356.74 |
| Kuwait | 411.75 | Kuwait | 258.51 |
| Brazil | 243.62 | Denmark | 149.73 |
| Bulgaria | 229.49 | Bulgaria | 147.68 |
| Bahrain | 227.59 | South Korea | 146.42 |
| South Korea | 227.07 | Netherlands | 142.84 |
| Brunei | 194.18 | Norway | 139.37 |
| Saudi Arabia | 191.4 | Luxembourg | 127.57 |
| Denmark | 178.51 | Singapore | 123.73 |
| Singapore | 173.17 | Saudi Arabia | 121.94 |
| Netherlands | 163.72 | United States | 116.75 |
| Vietnam | 159.57 | Bahrain | 116.66 |
| United States | 158.49 | China | 115.89 |
| China | 156.66 | Finland | 109.01 |
| North Macedonia | 154.4 | North Macedonia | 106.37 |
| Norway | 151.75 | France | 105.75 |
| Georgia | 149.71 | Malaysia | 104.8 |
| Luxembourg | 142.78 | Australia | 103 |
| Estonia | 141.36 | Estonia | 102.86 |
| Oman | 141.07 | Sweden | 101.84 |
| Malaysia | 140.34 | Switzerland | 99.22 |
| Portugal | 138.17 | Lithuania | 97.76 |
| Slovenia | 136.02 | Mauritius | 97.31 |
| Latvia | 132.91 | Maldives | 95.79 |
| France | 131.62 | India | 95.67 |
| Thailand | 129.74 | Latvia | 94 |
| India | 129.65 | Taiwan | 92.58 |
| Lithuania | 127.46 | Oman | 89.35 |
| Switzerland | 126.8 | New Zealand | 88.39 |
| Malta | 125.8 | Belgium | 86.92 |
| Greece | 125.34 | Austria | 86.64 |
| Australia | 124.99 | Portugal | 85.12 |
| Finland | 124.27 | Croatia | 84.86 |
| New Zealand | 123.56 | Czechia | 83.4 |
| Austria | 122.1 | Cyprus | 82.28 |
| Sweden | 120.46 | Slovenia | 79.8 |
| Taiwan | 115.13 | Malta | 79.29 |
| Belgium | 110.53 | Canada | 79.17 |
| Cyprus | 108.48 | Brazil | 78.2 |
| Croatia | 104.45 | Greece | 77.36 |
| Slovakia | 100.97 | Georgia | 74.47 |
| Albania | 100.39 | Vietnam | 71.23 |
| Poland | 95.78 | Kosovo | 68.24 |
| Czechia | 94.89 | Hong Kong (SAR) | 65.09 |
| Kazakhstan | 94.05 | Romania | 63.44 |
| Hong Kong (SAR) | 86.94 | Poland | 61.66 |
| Canada | 86.77 | Slovakia | 59.85 |
| Chile | 86.02 | Montenegro | 58.33 |
| Italy | 85.68 | Serbia | 58.21 |
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 Linkedin.
« 100 Government Funded 4G Mobile Mast Upgrades Now Live Across UK
Advertisement
Leave a Reply
Privacy Notice: Please note that news comments are anonymous, which means that we do NOT require you to enter any real personal details to post a message and display names can be almost anything you like (provided they do not contain offensive language or impersonate a real person's legal name). By clicking to submit a post you agree to storing your entries for comment content, display name, IP and email in our database, for as long as the post remains live.
Only the submitted name and comment will be displayed in public, while the rest will be kept private (we will never share this outside of ISPreview, regardless of whether the data is real or fake). This comment system uses submitted IP, email and website address data to spot abuse and spammers. All data is transferred via an encrypted (https secure) session.
The UK is getting worse.
I wonder why.
Don’t have to guess too hard.
Take your pick.
Easy really.
I haven’t got a clue why so perhaps you’d like to give us the benefit of your wisdom.
Every metric shows improvement…
I do wonder if the number of ‘AltNets’ is actually having a negative affect on the performance of the UK’s data throughput. Every AltNet system has to have a connection with every other AltNet system either direct or through an intermediate.
We need to be doing better. We’re around the 6th largest economy in the world, but rank 44th for fixed and have slid to 59th on mobile. And whilst the UK has it’s physical challenges, comparatively we have a high population density.
More people need to get FTTP and do speed tests.
Certainly regards to fixed line broadband we have the capability now. Perhaps it’s affordability that is now holding us back if league tables are relevant
Availability of gigabit broadband is the only metric that matters really. As far as I can tell you can’t even buy full fibre with speeds less than 1 Gbit/s in France. Openreach could itself put the UK near the top of these charts by stop selling anything below 500 Mbit/s, say.
@The real Witcher, Affordability? FTTP is cheaper than FTTC these days for those that can get it, providers are making sure of that.
One of the problems are the price rises when in contract, the other thing is, there are some people who don’t need fixed internet access.
Speed is better in many places, but this country has taken so long compared to others to get it, but this is the U.K. for you, behind and expensive.
Just like our train services
@john_r, yes, BT can force people onto higher speeds and then charge one expensive price., Good idea.
@ad47uk I wasn’t suggesting they do that just that they could, as it seems France do, and this league table would look better. Although I don’t think it would affect the price much as there’s not much marginal cost for higher speeds it’s all profit.
@AD47uk, you miss the point. Higher speed FTTP packages typically cost more than FTTC . Would need to be taking 500Mbps+ service to climb the rankings , and for what? Prestige?
Wrong chart. Singapore has 10gbps connection for home users also many other other european countries have FTTP almost in every street with minimum 1gig connection. Poland have more than 60mbps for sure 2,5gbps in many places available. Maybe learn some stuff before posting nonsense.
There’s a difference between what some providers advertise and what they can actually deliver in other countries, especially when you consider the caveats of slow WiFi, hardware limits, remote server limits, data capacity etc. Not all countries also have the same advertising rules around broadband speed as the UK.
Average UK data use for an FTTP connection is around 769 Gigabytes per month which equates to around 2.5 megabits per second average. A better picture would probably be obtained by getting the average data consumption per country per connection than headline speed.
Pointless list, show the median speed that people have, not the median only of those that have Internet. Our ranking is low because we have universal affordable broadband, while most other countries don’t.
Or better yet, show the 90 percentile of avaliable connections that are affordable. Most countries would be 0.