The latest speedtest report (September) from the broadband comparison site, broadband.co.uk has placed the cable broadband provider, Virgin Media on top for its impressive 6.13Mbps average download speeds while O2 Telefonica ( Be and O2 broadband ISP) has managed to secure second spot with 5.12Mbps download speed. However, in terms of average upload speed, Be has topped the table with 0.807Mbps and Virgin Media has been placed in second position with 0.459Mbps.

As for the average download speeds of the internet service providers in the UK, the figure is around 3.6Mbps and there was not much substantial improvement in speeds during the last quarter. The average upload speed was measured at 0.379Mbps during the speedtests. This means, the top two providers are well ahead of the average speeds, both in upstream and downstream speed performance.

Both Sky broadband and Orange ISP provider came with slightly lower than average download speeds (3.163Mbps and 3.021Mbps respectively). It should be noted that Orange has recently shown much better performance both in terms of speeds and reliability thanks to the improvements made to its broadband networks.

Other providers who managed to find a place in the list of top ten fastest providers are as follows: Tiscali (2.71Mbps), TalkTalk (2.398Mbps), BT (2.388Mbps), PlusNet (2.230Mbps), AOL (2.009Mbps) and Eclipse (1.892Mbps).

Interestingly, Eclipse Internet, which has launched its 24Mb broadband products last month, has been placed in the last place for the dismal performance. As for the upload speeds, Orange, Sky, PlusNet, TalkTalk and Eclipse have managed to provide bandwidth ranging between 0.22Mbps and 0.4Mbps.