Today we’re taking our usual biannual look back to see how the average UK broadband download and upload speeds have changed across the fastest nationally available fixed line ISPs, mobile operators and Starlink (satellite) since the end of 2023. Overall, fixed broadband speeds have continued to improve, while mobile remains variable.
As usual the results in this report stem from web-based speed testing by consumers and are thus inevitably impacted by a number of factors, such as the rising coverage of faster networks (e.g. full fibre and 5G) and the associated level of take-up by customers. Due to this, it helps to understand any key changes in network deployments and there have been a few small changes since the last report (Ofcom’s data).
Fixed Connection
Jan 2024 Coverage (Sept 2023)
% Under 10Mbps (USO)
c.1% (c. 1%)
Superfast (30Mbps+)
97% (97%)
Gigabit-capable
80% (78%)
Full Fibre (FTTP)
62% (57%)
The first thing to note is that the roll-out of Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) technology has taken a bit of a hit over the past year, with many networks reporting job losses and slowing their builds due to wider market pressures (rising costs, high interest rates, competition etc.). Some have weathered this better than others, although there are still many operators with active builds (Summary of Full Fibre Build Progress) and a few have managed to accelerate their deployments (e.g. Openreach, Netomnia, nexfibre / VMO2).
Most of the gigabit-capable coverage continues to be fuelled by commercial roll-outs in urban areas (already reaching 80% of the UK), while the Government’s £5bn Project Gigabit programme (focuses on the final c.20% of unviable / rural premises) aims to help this reach over 85% by 2025, followed by “at least” 99% by 2030. Ofcom predicts the UK will achieve around 90-94% coverage by May 2026 (here).
In terms of mobile networks, both 4G and 5G coverage hasn’t changed all that much. Commercial 5G deployments showed the biggest rise, while the industry-led £1bn Shared Rural Network (SRN) project has made a little progress on boosting geographic 4G coverage and aims to cover 95% of the UK – from at least one operator – by the end of 2025.
Mobile Coverage
Jan 2024 Coverage (Sept 2023)
4G Geographic
81-88% (80-87%)
5G Premises (Outdoor) from at least 1 operator
unchanged (85-93%)
Fastest Major Fixed Broadband ISPs (H1 2024 vs H2 2023)
The data in this report has been gathered from Thinkbroadband’s independent speedtest database (inc. ISPreview’s Broadband Speedtest). The table only includes the largest and most established independent ISPs with strong national availability, but there is a separate table for smaller alternative networks on page 2 – these are difficult to include because they aren’t yet available to the majority of premises and don’t produce much test data due to fewer users.
Naturally, there are caveats to consider with speedtest based studies like this, not least because the results tend to be more reflective of take-up than network availability. For example, some ISPs may have a much larger proportion of customers on slower copper-based (ADSL or FTTC) lines, which can weigh against anybody on faster FTTP packages with the same provider (i.e. pulling average speeds down). The opposite can also be true.
Average Download Speeds – Top 8
No.
Operator
H1 – 2024 (Top 10%)
H2 – 2023 (Top 10%)
Change %
1.
Virgin Media
280Mbps (675.4Mbps)
264.5Mbps (626.6Mbps)
5.86%
2.
Zen Internet
199.1Mbps (607.1Mbps)
165.4Mbps (506.3Mbps)
20.37%
3.
Vodafone
179.7Mbps (545.2Mbps)
134.8Mbps (430.3Mbps)
33.31%
4.
BT
116.8Mbps (313Mbps)
93.7Mbps (231.5Mbps)
24.65%
5.
Sky Broadband
74.3Mbps (142.6Mbps)
61Mbps (127.5Mbps)
21.8%
6.
Plusnet
71.5Mbps (147.7Mbps)
58.5Mbps (103.6Mbps)
22.22%
7.
EE
68.3Mbps (103.8Mbps)
72.1Mbps (108.5Mbps)
-5.27%
8.
TalkTalk
64Mbps (114.2Mbps)
64.8Mbps (107.8Mbps)
-1.23%
Average Upload Speeds – Top 8
No.
Operator
H1 – 2024
H2 – 2023
Change %
1.
Zen Internet
106.2Mbps
58.3Mbps
82.16%
2.
Vodafone
73.1Mbps
55.5Mbps
31.71%
3.
Virgin Media
39.2Mbps
34.4Mbps
13.95%
4.
BT
24Mbps
20.7Mbps
15.94%
5.
Sky Broadband
16.7Mbps
14.9Mbps
12.08%
6.
EE
16.4Mbps
19.5Mbps
-15.9%
7.
TalkTalk
15.7Mbps
17.6Mbps
-10.8%
8.
Plusnet
15.4Mbps
13.1Mbps
17.56%
Overall, the average download speed of the top national providers was 131.7Mbps (up from 114.35Mbps) and the average upload speed hit 38.3Mbps (up from 29.25Mbps). Vodafone delivered the biggest (33%) uplift in download performance over the first half of the year, while Zen Internet saw a massive (82%) increase in upload speed. But otherwise most of the changes were in positive territory and about what we’d normally expect.
The exceptions to the rule this time around were EE and TalkTalk, both of quick recorded an unexpected fall in download performance, which seemed to get even worse for uploads. At the time of writing we couldn’t point to any particular reason for why this occurred and it will be interesting to see if they recover for the end of this year.
Finally, Virgin Media launched their new 2Gbps plan earlier this year and a symmetric speed add-on, but we weren’t expecting much of an impact from those changes as they currently only impact people covered by the new nexfibre network (1 million premises).
Satellites
We’ve also been keeping track of the results for SpaceX’s satellite based Starlink broadband service. Sadly, not enough data exists to include other satellite platforms or providers, but that may change in the future. Otherwise, Starlink’s download performance appears to have declined during the first six months of 2024, while their upload speeds have increased.
H1 – 2024 (Top 10%)
H2 – 2023 (Top 10%)
Download
90.7Mbps (156.9Mbps)
105.2Mbps (171.3Mbps)
Upload
11.2Mbps (16.4Mbps)
8.8Mbps (13.3Mbps)
Now flick over to page 2 to see how the fastest full fibre alternative network (altnet) ISPs and mobile operators performed.