Some providers 'throttle' their networks at peak times which can cause broadband connections to slow, but testing your connection regularly you can find out if your supplier is doing this to you.Īs well as testing your broadband speed, we'll also let you know how your speeds compare to those of other broadband customers and let you know if there are faster providers in your area. Without broadband speed test tools there would be no way of holding your supplier to account, you just wouldn't know if you were getting the service you are paying for.

Your test results will help us compile our monthly speed test results which show the fastest and slowest broadband providers in the UK.To compare your speeds with those of your friends and neighbours.To see if there are faster providers and deals available in your area.To see if your broadband speeds vary at different times of day.

To check that your broadband provider is giving you the speeds they should.Here are 5 great reasons to be testing your broadband speed: Why should I be testing my broadband speed? The last available report gave the UK's national average broadband speed as 28.9Mb in November 2015. These are recorded by a different method involving equipment installed in the home to record speeds during day-to-day usage. Ofcom have also published average broadband speeds recorded across the UK, including individual figures for the largest providers, different types of broadband and different types of neighbourhood. Mobile broadband providers and those that only serve business customers are not counted towards the national average figure. Broadband provider is detected by IP address rather than self selection. Pings of 100ms or below are average, while lower numbers in the 30s and below are exceptional, providing a smooth gaming experience.We record hundreds of thousands of test results every month. This is particularly important when playing video games. Ping: Also known as latency, this is your connection’s reaction time. The lower the jitter, the better these connections will be. If your connection has a lot of jitter you may find that your video call audio quality isn’t good or your calls often drop. Jitter: Your broadband’s time delay when sending data. Upload speeds of 3 Mbps and above are considered good, however, if you frequently video call or stream you will benefit from a higher upload speed.

Upload speed: How fast your internet connection can send information (for example, sending an email or video calling). The speed you require depends on your needs, for example, a large family with multiple devices would benefit from 400 Mbps or more. Your internet speed test result will tell you how well your internet is performing in these four key areas:ĭownload speed: The number of Mbps it takes to download data from a server (for example, images or videos).

Broadband download speed test