This is especially important if you have a slow computer or you're running the test on a tablet or mobile phone and tend to wait a long time for apps to load. If possible close all other apps, browser windows and tabs and try to run the speed test alone. If your virus checker is in the middle of a scan or you're busy copying files or converting a video, this is likely to slow down your computer and so affect how accurately the speed test can run. Make sure that nothing intensive is running on your computer. It can also include online radio, background downloads and updates to your virus checker or operating system. This includes other apps on your computer like your email client, instant messenger or browser tabs running Facebook or other constantly updating sites. Make sure that nothing else is using your Internet connection. Some providers 'throttle' their networks at peak times which can cause broadband connections to slow, but testing your connection regularly you can find out if your supplier is doing this to you.Īs well as testing your broadband speed, we'll also let you know how your speeds compare to those of other broadband customers and let you know if there are faster providers in your area. Without broadband speed test tools there would be no way of holding your supplier to account, you just wouldn't know if you were getting the service you are paying for. Your test results will help us compile our monthly speed test results which show the fastest and slowest broadband providers in the UK.To compare your speeds with those of your friends and neighbours.To see if there are faster providers and deals available in your area.To see if your broadband speeds vary at different times of day.To check that your broadband provider is giving you the speeds they should.Here are 5 great reasons to be testing your broadband speed: Why should I be testing my broadband speed? The last available report gave the UK's national average broadband speed as 28.9Mb in November 2015. These are recorded by a different method involving equipment installed in the home to record speeds during day-to-day usage. Ofcom have also published average broadband speeds recorded across the UK, including individual figures for the largest providers, different types of broadband and different types of neighbourhood. Mobile broadband providers and those that only serve business customers are not counted towards the national average figure. Broadband provider is detected by IP address rather than self selection. We record hundreds of thousands of test results every month.

Broadband test speed