THE average UK fixed-line residential broadband speed has risen by 22% in the six months to May, and 64% in the year, according to Ofcom research.
The average residential speed reached 14.7 megabits per second (Mbit/s) in May, a figure that has more than quadrupled since the regulator first began publishing speeds data in November 2008.
Take-up of superfast services and providers automatically upgrading customers to faster packages continued to drive the increase in the national average speed, the study found.
The proportion of broadband connections classed as superfast - offering headline speeds of 30Mbit/s or more - increased to 19% of residential broadband connections by May, up from 14% in November last year and more than doubling from 8% over the course of the last year.
By May, 86% of UK fixed-line residential broadband users were on packages with advertised speeds 'up to' 10Mbit/s, up from 76% six months ago.
Ofcom said the move to higher speeds was partly down to Virgin Media's network upgrade to double the speeds of most of its cable broadband customers.
Ofcom's consumer group director Claudio Pollack said: "Consumers are demanding more than ever from their broadband service."
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