October 2011 saw average download speeds recorded by users of our Broadband Speed Test drop compared to September's result, falling by 0.51Mb down to 7.48Mb. Average upload speed remained stable with a 0.06Mb drop to 1.20Mb.
Despite the overall downward trend, Virgin Media's average download and upload speeds saw significant gains, rising to 15.18Mb and 2.47Mb respectively. This increase comes as Virgin Media issued a press release boasting the ability to now offer 100Mb broadband to a third of UK households.
Unfortunately almost all other ISPs saw their average speeds drop, perhaps due to the darker autumn evenings causing an increase in peak time congestion as more broadband users turn to their computers, on demand video systems and games consoles for entertainment.
The best performing non-fibre-based provider was again BE and O2 (who share a common infrastructure) who retained 4th place with 5.95Mb average download speed over its Local Loop Unbundled ADSL2+ service.
September 2011 saw average download speeds recorded by users of our Broadband Speed Test remain stable compared to August's result with a drop of only 0.06Mb down to 8Mb. Average upload speed also remained stable with a 0.05Mb gain to 1.26Mb.
Despite the stable overall result, individual ISPs saw significant changes. Virgin Media's average download speed again dropped after gains in July, now averaging 14.79Mb, but FttC providers BT Broadband and Eclipse saw gains in their average speeds, up to 7.84Mb and 7.3Mb respectively, presumably due to the continued rollout of Fibre to the Cabinet to new telephone exchanges allowing more customers to switch from up to 20Mb ADSL services to the faster BT Infinity and Eclipse Fibre services.
The best performing non-fibre-based provider was BE and O2 (who share a common infrastructure) who took 4th place with 6.69Mb average download speed over its Local Loop Unbundled ADSL2+ service.
August 2011 saw average download speeds recordered by users of our Broadband Speed Test drop from last month's results to 8.06Mb, with average upload speeds holding stable at 1.21Mb due to the higher upload speeds available from Virgin Media and Fibre to the Cabinet providers. This pattern is pretty consistent across most of the ISPs listed, with the notable exception of Eclipse. Their figures rose significantly, with average download speeds at 7.15Mb and average upload speads breaking the 1Mb barrier at 1.20Mb, likely due to a pick up in their FttC deals. Likewise, BT also saw an increase in average speeds over last month, though to a lesser extent than Eclipse, clocking in download speeds at 7Mb and upload speeds at 1.20Mb.
Virgin Media held steady with average upload speeds at 2.48Mb, though average download speeds dropped to 16.97Mb. However, with Virgin Media rolling out upgrades for their high-end 100Mb service across the country, these figures will likely increase significantly in future months.
July 2011 saw the average download and upload speeds recorded by users of our Broadband Speed Test rise to 8.31Mb download and 1.22Mb upload! These are significant rises over last month's 6.69Mb and 1.03Mb. The increase is mainly fueled by Virgin Media who saw its average download speed surge forward by 6Mbps, clocking in at 17.4Mb across all speed tests performed in July. The cable operator's average upload speed also rose to 2.49Mb across the same period.
Virgin Media has recently announced that more customers than ever are opting to take packages of 30Mb or higher download speed, with cheaper prices for mid-range speeds thanks to the recent introduction of the high end 100Mb service which continues to roll out across cable enabled areas. Existing customers are also being offered incentives to upgrade from the provider's entry level 10Mb service.
Virgin Media engineers are a good way through the process of rolling out faster upload speeds region-by-region, automatically upgrading all cable customers to an upload speed at 10% of their download speed. The speed upgrade, which is due to be completed next month, means that all customers should see their upload speed at least double 2010 levels, while those on faster packages will see an increase of more than three times.
Providers offering Fibre to the Cabinet services such as BT's Infinity product and recently FttC activated provider Plusnet also saw significant improvements to download speed, with BT's average across all products rising to 6.5Mb download and Plusnet's rising to 6Mb download. Of the FttC providers, BT saw its upload speed rise the most, clocking in at 1.2Mb in July. BT and Eclipse are the only consumer-focused FttC providers to offer deals supporting the technology's full up to 10Mb upload speed capabilty.
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