UK internet speeds from past to present
2nd March, 2022 | Home / Blog / Broadband speed / UK internet speeds from past to presentReading time: 11 minutes
It can be easy to take our speedy internet connections for granted now we’re used to them, but it wasn’t always so quick and easy to access the big world wide web.
In fact, the internet today is a staggering 1000 times faster than it was back in 1998!
Back then, the main way of getting connected was through dial-up internet, which worked using the old copper telephone lines.
You might even remember the screeching sound of dial-up that signified you were soon to be surfing the online world at your fingertips – albeit painfully slowly, and, providing nobody was trying to use the phone line at the same time, that was!
It was pretty ground-breaking technology back then, but as dial up internet used the same cable as your phone line, it meant no phone calls could be made or received while using the internet. (You can imagine the endless amounts of aggro every time your connection was booted because of it!)
The best speeds you could dream of back then was a measly 56Kbps, which pales in comparison to the ultrafast speeds we can achieve today…
What is the average UK internet speed?
The average UK internet speed is 50.4Mbps. But it does depend on how you decide to measure it. You would think that if you took all the connections in the country and divided them equally, that would give you the most accurate answer, but this isn’t necessarily true.
The thing is, technology has advanced so far that only a minority may have astronomical speeds compared to the rest of the country, which may skew the results and not accurately reflect the experience of most UK consumers.
Another way to measure the average is to take the median, where you use a sample and order them from fastest to slowest and choose the number exactly in the middle.
In 2021, Ofcom began reporting the average UK internet speed using median averages (rather than mean averages) when analysing connection performance. So, it is important to take this into account when looking at historical data.
What was the average UK internet speed in 2022?
The median average internet speed in the UK is 50.4Mbps.
The mean average internet speed is 79.1Mbps.
Find out how this compares with the fastest internet in the world.
What has the average UK internet speed been?
The average internet speed in the UK has increased markedly in the last 5 year, according to Ofcom:
- 2021 = 50.4Mbps (9.8Mbps)
- 2020 = 50Mbps (9.8Mbps)
- 2019 = 42.1Mbps (9.1Mbps)
- 2018 = 37Mbps (6Mbps)
- 2017 = 36Mbps (5Mbps)
This growth is all thanks to the rollout of new broadband technology; full-fibre broadband, also known as fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP).
Fibre-to-the-premises technology delivers the fastest possible connection to your home, which is why Airband use it with all our fibre connections. Why do we use fibre? Fibre optic cables are much more efficient at carrying the connection across the line than copper.
In general terms, it means that no matter how far you are from the exchange, a fibre connection will be able to carry the signal all the way to your home without a reduction in speed.
With older broadband technology such as asymmetric-digital-subscriber-line (ADSL) and fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) connections, copper is used for the last leg of connection, which is okay if you live right next to the cabinet or exchange. But, the further away you are, the worse your internet speed will be.
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2017 = 36Mbps (5Mbps)
What was the average UK internet speed in 2017?
Median average: 36Mbps.
Mean average: 46.2Mbps.
The download speed delivered to UK homes increased by 28% in 2017 to 46.2Mbps
Over the same period, average upload speeds increased from 4.3Mbps to 6.2Mbps.
In 2017, more people were using superfast fibre broadband than ever before, and as a result the average internet speed across the UK soared by 28%. However, there was still a long way to go.
Superfast broadband is defined as anything above 30Mbps. While many people may have been paying for packages that claimed to be Superfast, during peak times, performance was often reduced drastically.
In 2017, only 54% of people were getting an average peak-time speed of 30Mbps or more.
Despite superfast broadband being available to 93% of UK premises, around 40% of UK broadband connections were still being delivered using outdated ADSL technology (copper telephone wires).
Differences in internet speed and performance between urban and rural areas were still significant in 2017
The actual download speeds of locations were generally lower than advertised speeds in 2017.
Only 3% of lines had an advertised speed of less than 10Mbps in November 2017. However, a shocking 21% of UK home broadband connections still had average download speed of less than 10Mbps, which is barely enough to cope with one person streaming Netflix in HD, let alone support a whole household’s broadband needs.
Why were people still seeing less than 10Mbps in 2017?
The main reason for the sub 10Mbps speeds is that customers were being let down by the technology used to deliver the last mile of connection, such as ADSL and fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC).
Find out what broadband speed you need here.
59% of connections in urban areas had a download speed of more than 30Mbps at peak times, whereas in rural areas of the UK it was only 23% of connections.
17% of urban connections had an average peak-time speed of under 10Mbps, while in rural areas, 53% of connections had an average peak-time speed of under 10Mbps.
Superfast broadband was available to 95% of urban premises in May 2017, compared to 66% in rural areas.
Why wasn’t superfast broadband available to rural areas in 2017?
The reason for this difference is because in 2017, the major rollout of FTTP hadn’t started. With homes being further apart, with longer drives than in urban areas, rural areas suffer more from the issues linked with copper lines.
As well as that, longer average copper line lengths in rural areas meant that the speed of ADSL and FTTC broadband tended to be lower in rural areas than in urban areas.
There are also differences in performance across the UK nations.
What were the average download average speeds in the UK nations in 2017?
- Wales: 33.4Mbps
- Northern Ireland: 39.2Mbps
- Scotland: 43.6Mbps
- England: 47.8Mbps
What’s the average internet speed in London?
The average internet speed in London is 118 Mbps, which is data from May 2023.
2018 = 37Mbps (6Mbps)
What was the average UK internet speed in 2018?
Median average: 37Mbps
Mean average: 54.2Mbps
Average home broadband connection speeds continued to improve in 2018, with average download speeds increasing by 18% to 54.2 Mbps and average upload speeds by 15% to 7.2 Mbps.
This was largely due to the growing availability and take-up of superfast and ultrafast fibre and cable broadband services, which accounted for almost two-thirds of home broadband connections in November 2018.
There were still huge differences in broadband performance between urban and rural areas, however rural areas saw a huge improvement compared to 2017. Overall, 58% of lines had an average peak-time speed of 30 Mbps or above.
In rural areas of the UK 44% had an average peak-time speed of 30 Mbps or above, while this was 61% in urban areas. At the same time 13% of urban lines had a peak-time speed of under 10 Mbps, with 33% in rural areas.
Full-fibre had started to be rolled out widely and was also able to provide connection speeds far above those available over FTTC.
Research found that consumers can often receive better performance by switching to a different technology or by upgrading to a service with a higher advertised speed.
However, the services provided by many internet service providers (ISPs), including BT, EE, Plusnet, Sky and TalkTalk, use the same wholesale inputs provided by Openreach, and there were few differences between providers using the same underlying Openreach service.
This means it is unlikely that users will experience a significant improvement in performance by switching from one FTTC or asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) package to another with the same, or a similar, advertised speed.
Not all customers are affected equally – the performance of copper-based broadband varies from customer-to-customer based on the length and quality of the copper line to their home and, for all technologies, congestion can be localised.
ADSL connections had the greatest variation in performance, followed by FTTC services, with much less variation in the performance of cable and full-fibre services.
2019 = 42.1Mbps (9.1Mbps)
What was the average UK internet speed in 2019?
Median average: 42.1Mbps.
Mean average: 64.0Mbps.
Average home broadband download speeds continued to increase in 2019.
The average speed of UK home broadband connections increased by 18% to 64.0 Mbps in 2019.
This was largely due to the growing availability and take-up of superfast and ultrafast full-fibre and cable services.
Take-up of faster broadband packages continued to increase. Around 75% of home broadband connections had superfast packages with advertised download speeds of 30 Mbps or higher, while 2% of UK lines are ultrafast packages with advertised download speeds of 300 Mbps or more.
Upload speeds have increased significantly due to people migrating onto superfast and ultrafast services.
Average (mean) upload speeds increased by 90% to 14.0 Mbps in 2019, while median speeds saw a more moderate (55%) increase.
The rapid increase in upload speeds is due to growing take-up of higher-tier fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) lines, upgrades to cable upload speeds and growth in take-up of full-fibre services offering very high upload speeds.
Increasing rural superfast take-up has contributed to a narrowing in the gap between urban and rural broadband performance.
But although the proportion of rural lines receiving a peak time speed of less than 10Mbps (22%) is falling, and the proportion receiving a speed of 30Mbps or higher (56%) is increasing, the average urban peak-time speed (74.6Mbps) was still almost double the rural average (38.5Mbps) in 2019.
2020 = 50Mbps (9.8Mbps)
What was the average UK internet speed in 2020?
Median average: 50Mbps.
Mean average: 80.2Mbps.
The average (mean) actual speed of UK residential fixed broadband services recorded over the 24-hour period increased by 25% to 80.2 Mbps in 2020. Only 8% of consumers now have average speeds of less than 10 Mbps.
Around 78% of connections are on superfast or ulrafast packages with average actual speeds of 30 Mbps or higher, and 5% of connections are ultrafast packages with average actual speeds of 300 Mbps or more.
ADSL had the lowest average speed at an average of 10.3 Mbps,
There has been a 54% increase in the mean average upload speed of the UK residential fixed broadband services compared to 2019.
Rapid increases in average upload speeds are due to growing take-up of services with very high upload speeds including full-fibre services.
2021 = 50.4Mbps (9.8Mbps)
What was the average UK internet speed in 2020?
Median average: 50.4Mbps.
Mean average: 79.1Mbps.
Average home broadband download speeds continued to increase in 2021.
In 2021 the median average download speed of UK home broadband connections was 50.4 Mbps, a 20% increase compared to November 2019 as people upgraded to superfast and ultrafast services. The mean average was 79.1Mbps.
Take-up of faster broadband packages continued during the pandemic.
The proportion of home broadband lines with an advertised download speed of 30 Mbps or higher was 85% in March 2021, and 5% of connections were ultrafast packages with advertised speeds of 300 Mbps or more.
The gap between urban and rural performance is narrowing.
During peak-times, 17% of rural lines had a median average speed under 10 Mbps in 2021, down 5% from 2020, while 65% had a median speed of 30 Mbps or more (up 9%).
However, urban median average peak-time speeds 55.1 Mbps were still a third higher than those in rural areas, who’s average was 41.3 Mbps.
Upload speeds have increased as people upgrade to faster packages.
Median average upload speeds increased by 5% to 9.8 Mbps in 2021.
What’s the average UK internet speed in 2022?
The average UK internet speed in 2022 was 50.4Mbps.
What is the average internet download speed UK?
The average internet download speed in the UK is 47.78Mbps, as of 2021.
How broadband has changed in the last 5 years
Over the last few years, we have come to recognise the importance of connectivity now more than ever. Broadband is now seen as an essential utility, rather than a luxury – and rightly so! This has been reflected in the improvements seen in the UK’s broadband infrastructure. Each year, the average broadband speed has grown substantially, with the majority of homes able to access superfast and ultrafast connections.
This is all thanks to the rollout of new fibre technology.
It is important not to forget the minority of people who are still being left behind, in rural areas where infrastructure is not good. That’s why Airband is building an ultrafast full-fibre broadband network that will be able to provide rural communities with connections that match up to those offered to people in the city. It’s our aim to close the gap on the digital divide, and ensure no community is left behind.
Let us know on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram what speed you currently have – we bet we can beat it!
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