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.

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.

UK Fixed & Mobile Speeds vs The World (2025)

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.

Fastest 50 Countries for Fixed Broadband Speed (DL) in 2025

Fastest 50 Countries for Mobile Speed (DL) in 2025