Comparison site Broadband.co.uk has released its latest anecdotal monthly broadband speed testing results for April 2010. It shows that the average UK download speed for the largest nine ISPs has risen sharply from 4.527Mbps in March to 4.958Mbps now, nearly tipping the 5Mbps barrier for the first time.

The upwards jolt appears to have been largely influenced by front runners Virgin Media and O2 ( Be Broadband ), which both saw their speeds being given a significant boost. Virgin's performance jumped from 8.192Mbps in March to 9.373Mbps now, while O2 climbed from 5.355Mbps to 5.654Mbps over the same period. VM is suddenly very close to breaking the 10Mbps barrier.

Top 10 ISPs for Download Speed
1. Virgin Media – 9.373Mbps
2. O2 ( Be Broadband ) – 5.654Mbps
3. Sky Broadband – 3.734Mbps
4. Orange – 3.682Mbps
5. BT – 3.582Mbps
6. TalkTalk ( Tiscali ) – 3.511Mbps
7. Eclipse Internet – 3.455Mbps
8. PlusNet – 2.811Mbps
9. AOL – 2.251Mbps

Top 10 ISPs for Upload Speed
1. O2 ( Be Broadband ) - 0.729Mbps
2. Virgin Media - 0.594Mbps
3. Sky Broadband - 0.475Mbps
4. Orange - 0.448Mbps
5. BT - 0.401Mbps
6. Eclipse Internet - 0.396Mbps
7. TalkTalk ( Tiscali ) - 0.348Mbps
8. PlusNet - 0.337Mbps
9. AOL - 0.319Mbps

The overall average UK upload speed performance once again managed to change very little and recorded a result of 0.482Mbps, with O2 ( Be Broadband ) dominating the top spot.