The latest anecdotal monthly consumer broadband ISP speed testing results from Broadband.co.uk, which covers the past month of October 2011, have revealed that the average UK internet download speed declined yet again to reach 7.484Mbps; sharply down from 7.998Mbps in September and a record high of 8.313Mbps in July 2011.

The average upload speed once again remained fairly stable over the period and stood at a respectable 1.197Mbps. Cable operator Virgin Media remains the fastest overall ISP with an impressive average download rate of 15.180Mbps and 2.474Mbps for uploads.

Top UK ISPs for Download Speed
1. Virgin Media – 15.180Mbps
2. Eclipse Internet – 9.266Mbps
3. BT – 6.981Mbps
4. O2 ( Be Broadband ) – 5.945Mbps
5. TalkTalk (Tiscali) – 4.888Mbps
6. Sky Broadband – 4.571Mbps
7. AOL – 3.919Mbps
8. Orange – 3.321Mbps
9. PlusNet – 3.122Mbps

Top UK ISPs for Upload Speed
1. Virgin Media - 2.474Mbps
2. Eclipse Internet - 1.415Mbps
3. BT - 1.325Mbps
4. O2 ( Be Broadband ) - 0.871Mbps
5. TalkTalk (Tiscali) - 0.601Mbps
6. Orange - 0.598Mbps
7. Sky Broadband - 0.573Mbps
8. AOL - 0.433Mbps
9. PlusNet - 0.394Mbps

Both Virgin Media and Eclipse Internet have posted impressive gains this month, although the same can't be said for everybody else; last month's gains have been replaced by broad declines. PlusNet in particular fell from 7th last month (3.890Mbps) to 9th (3.122Mbps) today. By contrast upload speeds were largely unchanged over September.