The Opensignal Fixed broadband experience study analysing real-world fixed broadband experiences of users across the UK has revealed overall success for Virgin Media O2 (VMO2), which was named best network overall, gaining leadership in categories including consistent quality, download speed, upload speed, video experience and reliability experience.
Opensignal investigated the real-world fixed broadband experience of users across the UK and then separately across 12 of its regions. The five key categories are said to reflect the varying ways in which fixed broadband is used, with reliability experience debuting in the study for 2024. This metric is designed to measure the ability of a household to connect to the internet and to successfully complete “uninterrupted” tasks across multiple devices, encompassing work and recreational activities.
While reliability experience incorporates and expands upon elements akin to consistent quality, it uniquely includes assessments of initial connectivity and continuous completion of tasks to make it more comprehensive in scenarios involving multiple simultaneous connections.
Opensignal also noted that in the study, the mix of plans and speed tiers selected by users for any given ISP will influence its scores. This is said to highlight the extent to which they have been able to migrate their users away from legacy technologies and offer high-speed plans at compelling prices.
In gaining its national awards, VMO2 beat rivals including Three UK, BT, EE, Plusnet, Sky, TalkTalk and Vodafone. Virgin users were found to have the best available experience when streaming video, the fastest average download and upload speeds, and the most reliable and consistent fixed broadband experience.
Diving deeper into the tests, broadband consistent quality measured how often a network, from the perspective of a single device once connectivity is established, meets the requirements for common applications. It used six key performance indicators: download and upload speeds, latency, jitter, packet loss, and time to first byte, setting thresholds appropriate for individual rather than multiple device usage. In this category, Virgin was followed by Vodafone, Plusnet, BT and EE into the top five providers.
In download speed, representing the typical everyday network experiences, Virgin’s 157.4 Mbps was just over double that of nearest competitor Vodafone. BT, Three and Sky made up the rest of the top five with 62.Mbps, 54.8Mbps and 52.5Mbps respectively. The performance gap was much narrower for upload, with Virgin registering 32.2Mbps on average, followed by Vodafone on 29.2Mbps. BT clocked in with 22.7Mbps.
Looking regionally, 100% full-fibre broadband provider Community Fibre won four out of five awards outright in the UK capital. In addition, it and Hyperoptic were joint winners for video experience. The latter was also the outright winner of upload speed in Scotland, with a score more than 100Mbps faster than runners-up Zen and Vodafone. It was also the sole winner for video experience in Scotland, with a lead of over two points over second-placed Virgin Media.
In Wales, Virgin Media won four out of five awards outright, while also sharing the video experience award with EE and Sky. In Northern Ireland, it won the download speed awards outright, while also being a joint winner in the other three categories.
In Northern Ireland, Virgin Media shared the consistent quality and reliability experience awards with Plusnet, and the video experience award with Plusnet and local ISP Fibrus.
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