Comparison site Broadband.co.uk has released its latest anecdotal monthly broadband ISP consumer speed testing results for the past month of December 2010, which saw the average UK internet download speed climb yet again from 5.555Mbps in November 2010 to 5.685Mbps now.

By contrast the average broadband download speed recorded last December 2009 was 4.478Mbps, meaning that overall performance has increased by roughly one quarter (approximately +1.2Mbps) over the past 12 months. Much of that has been down to the adoption of faster Cable Modem based connections and ADSL2+ (20-24Mbps) packages with other ISPs.

Cable operator Virgin Media UK remains the fastest broadband provider for download speeds, albeit growing only slightly from 10.812Mbps in November 2010 to 10.913Mbps now. Sadly the old 2nd place holder, O2 ( Be Broadband ), declined yet again over the same period from 5.400Mbps to 5.258Mbps and has now been replaced by Eclipse Internet on 5.528Mbps.

Top ISPs for Download Speed
1. Virgin Media – 10.913Mbps
2. Eclipse Internet – 5.528Mbps
3. O2 ( Be Broadband ) – 5.258Mbps
4. BT – 4.778Mbps
5. Sky Broadband – 3.974Mbps
6. TalkTalk (Tiscali) – 3.953Mbps
7. Orange – 3.290Mbps
8. PlusNet – 3.012Mbps
9. AOL – 2.441Mbps

Top ISPs for Upload Speed
1. Virgin Media - 0.994Mbps
2. O2 ( Be Broadband ) - 0.767Mbps
3. BT - 0.722Mbps
4. Eclipse Internet - 0.545Mbps
5. Sky Broadband - 0.525Mbps
6. TalkTalk ( Tiscali ) - 0.501Mbps
7. Orange - 0.399Mbps
8. AOL - 0.366Mbps
9. PlusNet - 0.338Mbps

It's interesting to note that both BT and Eclipse Internet appear to be climbing the charts and are beginning to push O2 ( Be Broadband ) down. Elsewhere the average broadband upload speed now stands at 0.673Mbps, which is a sizeable jump from the performance of 0.467Mbps recorded 12 months ago.

UPDATE 10:56am

Corrected a small mistake in the chart.