To help us provide you with free impartial advice, we may earn a commission if you buy through links on our site. Learn more

Fastest broadband UK: Hyperoptic, Post Office and Zen all top Broadband Genie’s speed charts

Hyperoptic has been named the fastest broadband provider in the UK in the annual Broadband Genie home broadband awards

Broadband Genie has revealed the winners – and losers – in its annual home broadband awards and one broadband provider reigned supreme.

Analysis of 91,000 speed tests, carried out between 1 January to 3 December 2019, found Hyperoptic provides an average download speed of 211Mbits/sec and an average upload speed of 166Mbits/sec – faster than any other ISP tested.

In fact, Hyperoptic’s 211Mbits/sec was an impressive 42.6Mbit/sec faster than runner-up Vodafone, which isn’t that far off the total download speed of 76.5Mbits/sec offered by EE.

For the first time, the results were split into speed categories; Standard, Superfast and Ultrafast. The criteria for each category was:

Standard Broadband

  • Up to 24Mbit/sec download
  • Up to 1Mbit/sec upload

Superfast Broadband

  • Up to 80Mbit/sec download
  • Up to 20Mbit/sec upload

Ultrafast Broadband

  • Above 80Mbit/sec download
  • Above 20Mbit/sec upload

As a result, Hyperoptic wasn’t the only ISP to be recognised for its performance during 2019, though.

READ NEXT: Best broadband 2020

Zen Internet won the award for fastest downloads in the superfast and standard broadband categories, while Sky Broadband was awarded for having the quickest superfast broadband upload speed, and Post Office won an award for its standard broadband upload speed.
The full list of winner is as follows:

  • Fastest Ultrafast Broadband Provider (Downloading): Hyperoptic
  • Fastest Ultrafast Broadband Provider (Uploading): Hyperoptic
  • Fastest Superfast Broadband Provider (Downloading): Zen Internet
  • Fastest Superfast Broadband Provider (Uploading): Sky
  • Fastest Standard Broadband Provider (Downloading): Zen Internet
  • Fastest Standard Broadband Provider (Uploading): Post Office

 “Hyperoptic offers a future-proof service for anyone lucky enough to be able to receive Fibre To The Premises (FTTP),” said Alex Tofts, Broadband Expert at Broadband Genie. “But while these ultrafast speeds are impressive, FTTP coverage is limited so it’s also important to highlight the other winners in our speed awards.

READ NEXT: What is a good broadband speed?

“ADSL, Virgin Media, or Openreach FTTC broadband is capable of handling the needs of many households and is available to the majority of premises.”

Separating the speed results into categories has not only allowed Broadband Genie to highlight a wider range of providers, it also gives a more accurate representation of the state of broadband in 2020.

The test results and categories were defined in collaboration with BroadbandUK. The tables showing where the other ISPs appeared are below.

Standard broadband

DownloadingUploading
ProviderSpeed (Mbit/sec)ProviderSpeed (Mbit/sec)
Zen Internet8.3Post Office0.55
Sky7.7Zen Internet0.530
EE7.4Plusnet0.527
Plusnet7.1Sky0.523
BT6.7EE0.519
Post Office6.59TalkTalk0.50
TalkTalk6.58BT0.47
Origin3.9Origin0.39

Superfast broadband

DownloadingUploading
ProviderSpeed (Mbit/sec)ProviderSpeed (Mbit/sec)
Zen Internet38.5Sky11.9
BT34.7Zen Internet11.5
Virgin Media34.2Gigaclear11.2
Hyperoptic33.6BT10.9
Sky33.4TalkTalk10.0
Plusnet30.6Plusnet9.9
TalkTalk30.22EE9.7
EE30.17Vodafone9.1
Post Office28.8Post Office8.8
Origin26.9Origin8.4
Vodafone26.0Virgin Media7.7
Gigaclear15.3Hyperoptic5.6

Ultrafast broadband

DownloadingUploading
ProviderSpeed (Mbit/sec)ProviderSpeed(Mbit/sec)
Hyperoptic211.0Hyperoptic165.6
Vodafone168.4Gigaclear139.5
Virgin Media156.1Vodafone136.1
Gigaclear142.5Zen Internet105.1
TalkTalk140.3TalkTalk95.7
Zen Internet138.1BT37.9
BT102.7EE31.4
Sky96.1Sky27.6
EE76.5Virgin Media22.7

Read more

News