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The Importance of Connectivity
UK broadband performance plays a crucial role in modern life, powering everything from remote work and online entertainment to critical infrastructure across regional and national levels. In an increasingly digital world, ensuring fast and reliable connectivity, especially in densely populated urban areas, is essential for a seamless user experience and maintaining national competitiveness.
As the global leader in internet testing and analysis, Ookla Speedtest offers valuable insights into these dynamics through its comprehensive reports and data platforms. By analyzing recent findings from Ookla and related sources, we gain a clear and detailed understanding of UK broadband performance in major cities, along with its broader implications for the country’s digital infrastructure and economic growth.
5G Performance in UK Cities
From New Year’s Eve 2023–24, a time of peak traffic use when major cities around the world were connected to the 5G mobile broadband spectrum, Ookla’s analysis showed the regional snapshot of performance measures like download speed, latency, and reliability. Although the publication was for Asia Pacific, Europe, and North America as a whole, it was derived from the thousands of speed tests that have been performed through the Ookla Speedtest, which measures real-time speed, server response time, network congestion, and geographic distribution.
The rigorous data collection is foundational to Ookla’s understanding of network capabilities during high-traffic events and applies to localised analyses, such as those focusing on UK cities. More recently, Ookla looked specifically at UK broadband performance for 5G mobile in major cities during New Year’s Eve 2023-24. They examined how different technical elements, like using mmWave or mid-band 5G, network density, and the core backend infrastructure, influenced performance during that peak time. This analysis was based on actual speed tests, network monitoring, and data analysis.
Indeed, an in-depth examination of the differences between London and other major cities across the UK in terms of their state and deployment of 5G is “Mind the Gap: London’s 5G Performance Lags Behind Other UK Cities,” an Ookla Speedtest Research article published in April 2025 and based on data from Q1 2025.
The gaping hole that divides performance in terms of 5G acknowledges that, on a daily task basis, including web browsing, London does very poorly in comparison with other UK cities. London was found to lag behind the UK’s largest cities across key 5G performance indicators, and the gap to top-performing Glasgow is widening.
In Q1 2025, London trailed in median download and upload speeds, as well as 5G network consistency, a metric reflecting the proportion of Speedtest samples meeting minimum speed thresholds (25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload). Mobile users in London and Belfast recorded the weakest outcomes among UK cities, with median 5G download speeds of approximately 115 Mbps, considerably behind Glasgow’s 185 Mbps. London’s underperformance is described as making the UK unique in Western European terms, as it is unusual for the capital city to be the primary laggard and for disparities between major cities to be wider.
The analysis highlights that UK broadband performance in London continues to face challenges, with residents spending more time in mobile signal not-spots—areas with little to no service—compared to other UK cities. These lingering connectivity gaps, especially indoors and along critical transport routes like the London Underground, underscore persistent infrastructure limitations.
While the proportion of Londoners experiencing no service dropped from 3.7% in Q1 2023 to 0.7% in Q1 2025—thanks to operator investments in small-cell network densification and extended Underground coverage—performance inconsistencies remain. London’s lower broadband consistency score and reduced speeds in the lower percentiles suggest that users still encounter poor UK broadband performance in demanding conditions, such as at network edges, during peak traffic hours, or in congested urban zones.
Mobile Infrastructure Challenges
Now, on the mobile side of things, mobile ‘not-spots’ are still an issue in UK cities, particularly in London. Getting reliable service in dense areas faces challenges from multiple angles: the higher frequencies often used for 5G don’t travel as far or penetrate buildings as well as older, lower frequencies. Modern buildings with certain insulating materials like low-E glass and metal cladding can block signals quite effectively. Plus, there have been ongoing difficulties getting access to sites for mobile equipment, especially rooftops, which are key in crowded cities like London.
Changes to the Electronic Communications Code were intended to streamline infrastructure deployment, but instead created legal uncertainties and disputes, ultimately affecting UK broadband performance, particularly in cities like London. The reduced rental income model discouraged landlords from hosting rooftop equipment, limiting the expansion of mobile infrastructure in key urban areas. Despite amendments in 2022 to ease these tensions, incentives for property owners remained low.
Additionally, network providers had to divert time and resources to replacing equipment from certain non-European vendors, rather than focusing on expanding coverage. These factors have contributed to London’s lag in 5G rollout, which in turn impacts overall UK broadband performance. Frequent drops to older networks like 2G in coverage gaps result in unreliable service, affecting even basic tasks like calls or texts and accelerating battery drain for users.
Another report, the RootMetrics UK State of Mobile Union report for the second half of 2024, gives us more details on mobile performance across the UK. This report highlighted that the major mobile operators have continued to improve their 5G availability. In their testing during 2H 2024, EE, Three, and Virgin Media O2 all achieved over 61% 5G availability nationwide, while Vodafone was at 48.3%. It’s a notable step up, considering none of them had reached 60% just a year before.
Fixed Broadband Infrastructure and Historical Trends
One big part of this picture is access to Next Generation Access (NGA) networks. Back in 2013, about 73% of places in the UK had access to these, which was an improvement from 2012. NGA covers things like Fibre to the Cabinet, but it’s worth keeping in mind that just having NGA access doesn’t always mean you’re hitting ‘superfast’ speeds, defined by Ofcom as 30Mbps.
There was quite a gap in NGA access between urban and rural areas back then – 88% in urban spots compared to only 25% in rural ones in 2013. A major goal has also been making sure everyone can get at least ‘standard’ broadband (at least 2Mbps downstream), and the sources show progress here, with fewer connections dropping below 2Mbps over time. Still, there’s a noticeable difference between local areas in terms of NGA availability and the proportion of those with slower connections.
Looking at historical UK broadband performance, data from 2013 shows that approximately 72% of UK premises had access to fixed broadband, with only about 22% connected to superfast lines. However, this level of broadband adoption varied significantly across different nations and regions within the UK. The data also highlights a key distinction: the availability of fixed broadband doesn’t always translate to active usage.
Some households may rely solely on mobile internet, while business setups may differ entirely. Across various local authorities, UK broadband performance—especially in terms of superfast line penetration—showed a wide disparity, underscoring regional inequalities in broadband infrastructure and access.
Broadband Speed Measurement and Business Use
When it comes to measuring average broadband speed, it gets a bit complex because different methods give you different answers. You’ve got the Ofcom/SamKnows tests, which use specific hardware inside homes, Akamai’s data based on website requests, and Ookla’s numbers from user-run speed tests on Speedtest.net. Since they’re looking at slightly different things, their ‘average speed’ figures won’t match up perfectly.
The Ofcom/SamKnows data for residential connections from late 2008 to May 2013 showed average download speeds climbing from 3.6Mbps to 14.7Mbps, with upload speeds improving too. This data also pretty clearly showed faster averages in urban areas compared to rural ones. Ookla’s data is useful for comparing the UK’s speeds internationally and tracking changes over time.
Shifting focus to businesses, UK broadband performance in 2012 showed strong adoption rates, with approximately 90% of micro-businesses, 97% of small businesses, and 98% of medium-sized firms having internet access, though with some regional variation. ONS data, which tracks the maximum speeds subscribed to by businesses with 10 or more employees, indicates a trend toward higher-speed contracts over the years, reflecting growing digital demands. However, while contracted speeds have improved, there remains a lack of publicly available data on the actual average UK broadband performance experienced by businesses, leaving a gap in understanding the true quality of connectivity across the commercial sector.
Digital Divide and Regional Disparities
An interesting concept that comes up is the ‘digital divide’. A study in 2023 specifically looked at councils in Great Britain, scoring them out of 10 based on broadband access, the local economy, and employment factors – a higher score means a bigger gap. It pinpointed Argyll and Bute as having the biggest digital divide, scoring 9.79 out of 10. This was largely because of low full fibre access (only 5.8%) and a small percentage of people working from home (18.8%).
On the other end of the spectrum, Lambeth had the smallest digital divide, scoring 0.66, benefiting from robust superfast connectivity (98.9%), decent median speeds, and a much higher rate of employees working from home (53.8%). Other London boroughs like Hackney and Wandsworth also scored well. The study suggests that areas in northern England and other parts of Britain are disproportionately affected by this divide compared to the south.
This article first appeared on Techgenyz
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