London tops UK cities for broadband speeds

Londoners receive an average broadband speed of 7.54Mbit/s

Londoners enjoy the fastest average broadband speeds in the UK, ahead of those in cities such as Manchester and Birmingham, according to a report by broadband comparison site Top10.com.

People in London receive an average speed of 7.54Mbit/s, just beating Manchester with an average of 7.2Mbit/s. Birmingham came third with an average of 6.7Mbit/s.

However, the report also found that speeds fluctuate markedly during the day. The best speeds are available at 2am, averaging 7Mbit/s, and the worst at 8pm, hitting around 4.7Mbit/s.

Tim Johnson, chief analyst at Point Topic, is impressed that London managed 7.5Mbit/s, but warned that there is too much emphasis given to headline speeds.

"The average speed someone can get at any time of day is far more important than a headline number. The industry has got fixated on that, rather than ensuring a good level of service," he said.

"The government has got the right idea by specifying that the 2Mbit/s speed it wants by 2015 needs to be an average connection speed, not a top available speed."The figures show that urban areas of the UK receive speeds far above the 2Mbit/s average for all residents, and that the country has some way to go to becoming a leading broadband nation as outlined by culture secretary Jeremy Hunt last week.

Top10.com derived the figures by carrying out over 250,000 tests between April and June 2010 to calculate average speeds for UK postcodes.

A list of how other UK cities fared is as follows:

Glasgow (7.38Mbit/s)
Leeds (7.31Mbit/s)
Bristol (7.19Mbit/s)
Sunderland (7.01Mbit/s)
Portsmouth (6.24Mbit/s)
Nottingham (6.16Mbit/s)
Newcastle (6.03Mbit/s)
Southampton (5.76Mbit/s)
Edinburgh (5.6Mbit/sit/s)
Norwich (4.68Mbit/s)