Broadband Speedtest

⇆ Speedtest

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This test examines the latency (milliseconds), download and upload speed of your broadband connection in Megabits per second (estimated). Please try our Availability Checker to see which major networks are available in your area.

Categories

Speedtest
Results - UK Home Broadband ISPs
Results - UK Alternative Network ISPs
Results - UK Mobile Broadband Operators

Speedtest

Please take note that this test can cope with both current and next generation Gigabit broadband speeds (up to around 1,000Mbps), although the dynamic nature of Internet connectivity means that the results may not always be 100% accurate. Tests conducted via WiFi may also produce a slower result, especially if others are using your network.

Results - UK Home Broadband ISPs

These results only include independent ISPs with a wide national availability, which is primarily because smaller and often faster altnet providers (Gigaclear, B4RN, Hyperoptic etc.) aren't yet available to the majority of people and others didn't produce enough test data to be included.

NOTE: The top 10% result below represents the speeds experienced by the fastest 10% of customers at each ISP (usually those with the best connections / fastest packages).

Average Download Speeds (Mean)

No.	Operator	2021 H1 (Top 10%)	2020 H2 (Top 10%)	Change %
1.	Virgin Media	141Mbps (331.2Mbps)	118.3Mbps (236.9Mbps)	19.19%
2.	Zen Internet	89Mbps (234.4Mbps)	40.8Mbps (70.7Mbps)	118.14%
3.	iDNET	80.1Mbps (221.1Mbps)	42Mbps (71.5Mbps)	90.71%
4.	BT	58.4Mbps (95Mbps)	46.2Mbps (72.8Mbps)	26.41%
5.	AAISP	58.1Mbps (74.2Mbps)	53.6Mbps (99.8Mbps)	8.4%
6.	Vodafone	49.9Mbps (73Mbps)	45.1Mbps (71.6Mbps)	10.64%
7.	EE	37Mbps (68.9Mbps)	30.4Mbps (62.8Mbps)	21.71%
8.	TalkTalk	33.4Mbps (65.7Mbps)	28Mbps (56.6Mbps)	19.29%
9.	Sky Broadband	32.4Mbps (64.4Mbps)	27.7Mbps (58.5Mbps)	16.97%
10.	Plusnet	28Mbps (58.5Mbps)	25.6Mbps (53.2Mbps)	9.38%

Average Upload Speeds (Mean)

No.	Operator	2021 H1	2020 H2	Change %
1.	Zen Internet	23.5Mbps	14.3Mbps	64.34%
2.	iDNET	19.3Mbps	10.3Mbps	87.38%
3.	Virgin Media	17.1Mbps	14.9Mbps	14.77%
4.	Vodafone	15.8Mbps	13.3Mbps	18.8%
5.	AAISP	13.8Mbps	14Mbps	-1.43%
6.	BT	13.3Mbps	11Mbps	20.91%
7.	EE	9.3Mbps	7.3Mbps	27.4%
8.	Sky Broadband (tied)	8.3Mbps	7.1Mbps	16.9%
9.	TalkTalk (tied)	8.3Mbps	7Mbps	18.57%
10.	Plusnet	6.6Mbps	6.1Mbps	8.2%

Overall, the average download speed of the top national providers was 60.73Mbps (up from 45.77Mbps at the end of 2020) and the average upload speed hit 13.53Mbps (up from 10.53Mbps).

Results - UK Alternative Network ISPs

These results cover "full fibre" (FTTP) alternative network (AltNet) providers that have built their own physically separate networks. Most AltNets only have small UK coverage and limited speedtest data, which means that at present we can only summarise a few. The majority of these can deliver significantly faster speeds than the major national ISPs.

As FTTP providers don't suffer from the same performance pitfalls as copper or hybrid fibre ISPs then we've decided to focus our results on only the top 10% of fastest connections, which in most cases will reflect those consumers who take the fastest package tiers available from each provider.

Average Download Speeds of Top 10%

ISP	DL - Top 10% (2021 H1)	DL - Top 10% (2020 H2)
Vodafone Gigafast (FTTP)	565.8Mbps	427.8Mbps
Community Fibre (FTTP)	545Mbps	639.2Mbps
Hyperoptic (FTTP)	529.8Mbps	453.9Mbps
KCOM (FTTP)	415.8Mbps	194.7Mbps
Gigaclear (FTTP)	272.6Mbps	225.5Mbps
County Broadband (FTTP)	363.3Mbps	No data

Results - UK Mobile Broadband Operators

These results reflect the four primary Mobile Broadband (3G and 4G) operators. Mobile services are subject to the daily movements and radically different hardware choices (Smartphones etc.) of their end-users, which makes it difficult to establish a reliable picture of performance.

Average Download Speeds

No.	Operator	2021 H1 (Top 10%)	2020 H2 (Top 10%)	Change
1.	Three UK	40.8Mbps (113Mbps)	27.5Mbps (56.7Mbps)	48.36%
2.	EE	39.3Mbps (83.9Mbps)	39Mbps (80.1Mbps)	0.77%
3.	Vodafone	25.7Mbps (61.3Mbps)	27.1Mbps (59.8Mbps)	-5.17%
4.	O2	17.7Mbps (40.8Mbps)	17.4Mbps (44.2Mbps)	1.72%

Average Upload Speeds

No.	Operator	2021 H1 (Top 10%)	2020 H2 (Top 10%)	Change
1.	EE	9.2Mbps (20Mbps)	8.3Mbps (18.5Mbps)	10.84%
2.	Three UK	7.1Mbps (18.2Mbps)	6.1Mbps (16.1Mbps)	16.39%
3.	Vodafone	6.3Mbps (16.2Mbps)	6.3Mbps (16.3Mbps)	0%
4.	O2	4.6Mbps (12.8Mbps)	4.4Mbps (12.6Mbps)	4.55%

Overall, the average download speed of the four primary mobile operators was 30.87Mbps (up from 27.75Mbps at the end of 2020) and the average upload speed hit 6.8Mbps (up from 6.27Mbps).

Disclaimer: Please take average (mean) speeds with a big pinch of salt. Every home is different and performance can be affected by all sorts of issues, many of which are beyond the provider's ability to control (e.g. tests conducted via slower smartphone vs faster desktop computers, slow wifi, poor home wiring etc.), thus we do not consider the above data to be a reliable barometer for individual user connectivity, but it can help to highlight general changes in the market.

NOTE: Data for H1 (first half of the year) is collected during the end of May, while data for H2 (second half of the year) is collected during the end of November.