Average UK broadband speed continues to rise
Ofcom's latest report into fixed-line residential broadband speeds shows that the average actual UK speed has risen by 22% (2.7Mbit/s) in the six months to May 2013, and 64% (5.7Mbit/s) in the year since May 2012.
The report also shows that the average broadband speed has more than quadrupled since Ofcom first began publishing speeds data in November 2008 - an increase of 309% (or 11.1Mbit/s).
Take-up of ‘superfast' services and providers' automatically upgrading customers on to faster broadband packages continued to drive the increase in the national average speed.
Superfast take-up and network upgrades driving speeds increase
The proportion of broadband connections classed as superfast - that is, offering headline speeds of 30Mbit/s or more - is increasing. By May 2013, 19% of residential broadband connections were superfast, up from 14% in November 2012 and more than doubling from 8% over the course of the last year.
By May 2013, 86% of UK fixed-line residential broadband users were on packages with advertised speeds above ‘up to' 10Mbit/s, up from 76% six months ago and 68% in May 2012.
The move to higher speeds is partly down to Virgin Media's network upgrade to double the speeds of most of its cable broadband customers. As a result, the average speed on cable has nearly doubled over the last year from 18.0Mbit/s to 34.9Mbit/s.
Consumers are also choosing to migrate to faster fibre packages. BT reported that it had 1.3 million fibre broadband connections at the end of March 2013, up from around 550,000 a year earlier. In May 2013, the average fibre-based connection speed was 43.6Mbit/s, up by over a third (38%) over the year.
Comparisons between ISPs' download and upload speeds
Today's report includes speeds measurements for three additional ISP packages - Virgin Media's ‘up to' 120Mbit/s cable service and Plusnet's ‘up to' 76Mbit/s and ‘up to' 38Mbit/s fibre-to-the-cabinet services. All average speeds are measured over a 24-hour period.
Of the 14 ISP packages included in the report, Virgin Media's ‘up to' 120Mbit/s service achieved the fastest download speeds, an average of 112.6Mbit/s. The average download speed on Virgin Media's ‘up to' 100Mbit/s was 88.8Mbit/s.
Of the other superfast packages included in the research, BT's ‘up to' 76Mbit/s service delivered average speeds of 62.1Mbit/s, while Plusnet's ‘up to' 76Mbit/s achieved average speeds of 61.0Mbit/s. Virgin Media's ‘up to' 60Mbit/s package generated average speeds of 57.5Mbit's.
Plusnet's ‘up to' 38Mbit/s package achieved average speeds of 33.7Mbit/s, compared with BT's ‘up to' 38Mbit/s service, which delivered 32.6Mbit/s on average. The average download speed on Virgin Media's ‘up to' 30Mbit/s service was 30.0Mbit/s.
The research reveals that the average download speed of all superfast connections included in the report continued to increase, reaching 45.3Mbit/s in the six months to May 2013 (an increase of 0.7Mbit/s, or 2%).
Ofcom's research also looks at upload speeds, which are particularly important to those consumers looking to share large files or use real-time video communications.
The research found that Plusnet's ‘up to' 76Mbit/s service delivered the highest upload speeds of all the packages measured, averaging 16.8Mbit/s.
Measuring speeds at peak times
The report contains analysis comparing average peak time speeds (weekdays from 8pm to 10pm) with maximum connection speeds (the maximum speed achieved by each connection during the month).
Download speeds often fall during peak busy periods when a large number of people are using their broadband connections at the same. This puts capacity constraints on ISPs' networks known as ‘contention'.
In May 2013, the UK average peak time download speed was 14.2Mbit/s, 88% of the average maximum speed. This compared to an average peak time speed of 11.8Mbit/s in November 2012, or 90% of the average maximum speed.
The most significant differences in speeds achieved at peak times occurred for superfast packages.
Urban and rural speed comparisons
Today's report outlines the differences between broadband speeds delivered in urban, suburban and rural areas.
Although the research shows average speeds in urban (26.4Mbit/s) and suburban areas (17.9Mbit/s) to be highest, speeds in rural areas are increasing at a faster rate than elsewhere (by 69% since May 2012 and 141% since May 2011).
The gap between average download speeds in urban and rural areas has nonetheless widened from 9.5Mbit/s in May 2011 to 16.5Mbit/s in May 2013. This is due to the lower availability of superfast broadband services in rural areas compared to urban areas, and because ADSL broadband speeds are also generally slower in rural areas because the average line between the home and the nearest telephone exchange needs to be longer. While the gap between average urban and rural speeds is likely to widen in the short term, Ofcom expects that it will begin to decline over time, as the availability of superfast broadband increases in rural areas.
The Government has committed funding to improve broadband in rural areas. This is to ensure that 95% of UK premises have access to superfast broadband by 2017 and that a minimum service of 2Mbit/s is available to all.
Claudio Pollack, Ofcom's Consumer Group Director, said: "With the average household now owning more than three types of internet-connected devices, consumers are demanding more than ever from their broadband service.
"Internet providers have responded by upgrading customers to higher speed services and launching new superfast packages. To help consumers make informed purchasing decisions, our report offers a useful insight into the actual speeds and level of reliability delivered by many of the broadband packages available on the market today.
"We are yet to see the full effect of Government measures to improve broadband availability in rural areas, which should also help to boost speeds. We also anticipate 4G mobile to have a positive effect on mobile broadband availability across the UK."