The first results of our annual home broadband survey are in, and it’s good news for Zen, Hyperoptic, Sky, and Post Office as they all came away with awards for speed.
Fibre provider Hyperoptic had the fastest results overall with an impressive 211Mbps average download speed and 165.6Mbps upload speed.
But not everyone is lucky enough to be able to get a full-fibre connection as coverage remains limited compared to ADSL, Openreach and Virgin Media fibre. When it comes to broadband for the majority of us, Zen Internet - available to most premises around the country - had the fastest download speeds for both standard and superfast broadband, while Sky and Post Office had wins for upload speed in the superfast and standard categories respectively.
Read on to see the full results of the broadband speed awards 2020...
Standard broadband (up to 24Mbps down/1Mbps up)
Provider | Download average | Provider | Upload average |
Zen Internet | 8.3Mbps | Post Office | 0.55Mbps |
Sky | 7.7Mbps | Zen Internet | 0.53Mbps |
EE | 7.4Mbps | Plusnet | 0.527Mbps |
Plusnet | 7.1Mbps | Sky | 0.523Mbps |
BT | 6.7Mbps | EE | 0.519Mbps |
Post Office | 6.59Mbps | TalkTalk | 0.50Mbps |
TalkTalk | 6.58Mbps | BT | 0.47Mbps |
Origin | 3.9Mbps | Origin | 0.39Mbps |
Superfast broadband (up to 80Mbps down/20Mbps up)
Provider | Download average | Provider | Upload average |
Zen Internet | 38.5Mbps | Sky | 11.9Mbps |
BT | 34.7Mbps | Zen Internet | 11.5Mbps |
Virgin Media | 34.2Mbps | Gigaclear | 11.2Mbps |
Hyperoptic | 33.6Mbps | BT | 10.9Mbps |
Sky | 33.4Mbps | TalkTalk | 10Mbps |
Plusnet | 30.6Mbps | Plusnet | 9.9Mbps |
TalkTalk | 30.2Mbps | EE | 9.7Mbps |
EE | 30.1Mbps | Vodafone | 9.1Mbps |
Post Office | 28.8Mbps | Post Office | 8.8Mbps |
Origin | 26.9Mbps | Origin | 8.4Mbps |
Vodafone | 26Mbps | Virgin Media | 7.7Mbps |
Gigaclear | 15.3Mbps | Hyperoptic | 5.6Mbps |
Ultrafast broadband (above 80Mbps down/20Mbps up)
Provider | Download average | Provider | Upload average |
Hyperoptic | 211Mbps | Hyperoptic | 165.6Mbps |
Vodafone | 168.4Mbps | Gigaclear | 139.5Mbps |
Virgin Media | 156.1Mbps | Vodafone | 136.1Mbps |
Gigaclear | 142.5Mbps | Zen Internet | 105.1Mbps |
TalkTalk | 140.3Mbps | TalkTalk | 95.7Mbps |
Zen Internet | 138.1Mbps | BT | 37.9Mbps |
BT | 102.7Mbps | EE | 31.4Mbps |
Sky | 96.1Mbps | Sky | 27.6Mbps |
EE | 76.5Mbps | Virgin Media | 22.7Mbps |
The overall average download and upload speed was 41Mbps/11.4Mbps.
For the 2020 awards, we took a different approach to the speed tests and sorted the results into several categories. The standard broadband category covers speeds up to 24Mbps download and 1Mbps upload. Superfast broadband is a download speed up to 80Mbps and upload speed up to 20Mbps. And connection speeds in excess of 80Mbps down/20Mbps up were classed as ultrafast broadband, which includes very fast Fibre To The Premises (FTTP) services.
Charles Davies, Managing Director, at Hyperoptic, said: “We love the fact that Broadband Genie has independently tested our network to its limits and found Hyperoptic to be the best on the market ultrafast for both upload and download speeds. The beauty of our full fibre broadband is that we can offer symmetrical speeds, with unmatched reliability and customer service. With the advent of 4K media services, gaming and the dramatic proliferation of multiple connected devices in the home, the customer need for high upload and download speed has never been greater. Our goal is both bold and simple – to pioneer the shift to full fibre.”
Georgina Lord, Managing Director, at Zen Retail, said: “Having access to a fast and reliable internet service has become more important than ever but UK consumers are still being let down by slow speeds or poor reliability. This is such a fast paced industry it is essential we are always at the top of our game and awards such as these from Broadband Genie help to demonstrate just that. Our superfast broadband makes everything from uploading and downloading photos to watching movies, gaming or listening to music a seamless experience. We work hard to keep our customers happy and believe that putting their needs first is the best way to attract and retain customers.”
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