Broadband Statistics 2026

Author: Alex Tofts

Last updated: 15 May 2026

Welcome to the ultimate page for broadband statistics in 2026. We’ve pulled together every stat related to broadband from around the world, so whether you’re writing about broadband, or simply curious about the web, we’ve got you covered!

Quick overview of broadband statistics in 2026

• Customers in the UK on average spend £30.84 on their broadband contract (source: Broadband Genie)
• The average download speed for a fixed line broadband connection in the UK is 162.77Mb (source: Ookla)
• Broadband customers can save £183.60 a year by switching broadband provider (source: Broadband Genie)
• Out of contract broadband customers on average pay £34.79 a month (source: Broadband Genie)
• Customers who regularly take out a new deal (every two years) pay £27.89 a month (source: Broadband Genie)

Broadband contract and 2026 switching statistics

• On average, switching broadband can save a customer £183.60 a year (source: Broadband Genie)
• On average, broadband customers can save £29 a year by renewing or haggling their current deal (source: Which?)
• On average, broadband customers pay £30.84 a month in the UK (source: Broadband Genie)
• Every day, 25,000 broadband customers come to the end of their contract (source: Ofcom)
• 8.8 million broadband customers out of contract and are free to switch (source: Ofcom)
• On average, a broadband customer will stay with their provider for 3 years and 5 months (source: Broadband Genie)

Table: Broadband providers by market share (source: Broadband Genie)

• 18% of UK households activity switch their broadband deal. Approximately 5,148,000 active broadband switchers  (source: Ofcom)

What are the main reasons people don’t switch broadband providers? (source: ISPreview)

• 43% were happy with their current service
• 37% didn’t want to lose their email address
• 32% feared the whole process would be “too much hassle“
• 20% say they haven’t found a better deal
• 14% are afraid they’ll suffer slower speeds
• 13% said they felt loyal to their current ISP

Broadband affordability statistics

• UK bill payers spend 1.42% of their salary on broadband (source: Broadband Genie)
• Worldwide, on average bill payers spend £38.38 on broadband a month (source: Broadband Genie)
• The cheapest broadband in the world is found in Iran, $2.61 a month (source: Broadband Genie)
• Wallis and Futuna has the most expensive broadband in the world, at $373.88 a month (source: Broadband Genie)
• Hong Kong has the most affordable broadband in the world. Residents pay 0.73% of their salary on broadband (source: Broadband Genie)
• Turkmenistan has the least affordable broadband in the world - on average, broadband contracts cost 93% of a salary (source: Broadband Genie)
• 9% of households struggle to afford their home broadband service (source: UK Parliament)
• Broadband social tariffs start at £12.50 for fibre broadband or £10 a month for 5G. (source: Broadband Genie)
• 29 broadband and mobile providers offer a social tariff (source: Ofcom)
• 532,000 customers are subscribed to a broadband social tariff - this represents 8.6% of eligible customers (source: Ofcom)
• 70% of benefit claimants aren’t aware of broadband social tariffs (source: Ofcom)
• One million people disconnected their broadband because they couldn’t afford it (source: Citizens Advice)
• 7% of UK households do not have internet access at home (source: UK Parliament)
• Social tariffs are available to eligible customers in 99% of the country (source: UK Parliament)
• 2.6 billion people worldwide don’t have access to the internet (source: International Telecommunication Union)

Alternative networks (altnets) statistics

• Alnets offer twice the internet speed (94% faster) for almost a third of the price (28% less) compared to mainstream providers (source: Broadband Genie)
• Alnet customers, on average, receive a broadband download speed of 440Mb for £28 a month (source: Broadband Genie)
• Customers can save £130 when switching to a local altnet (source: Broadband Genie)

Which countries pay the most for broadband?

Top 5 countries for the highest broadband cost (monthly cost of a broadband contract) (source: Broadband Genie, Global Broadband Price League):

1. Wallis and Futuna: $373.88
2. Equatorial Guinea: $286.24
3. Turks and Caicos Islands: $252.00
4. Saint Barthélemy: $207.26
5. Eswatini: $193.31

Which countries pay the least for broadband?

Top 5 countries for the lowest broadband cost (monthly cost of a broadband contract) (source: Broadband Genie, Global Broadband Price League):

1. Iran: $2.61
2. Ukraine: $5.35
3. Ethiopia: $6.46
4. Bangladesh: $7.38
5. Mongolia: $7.41

Broadband outage statistics 2026

• 22 million have broadband outages of more than three hours or more (source: The Register)
• 45% have experienced at least one broadband outage lasting over 48 hours (source: Broadband Genie)
• Utility Warehouse customers experienced the fewest broadband outages (source: Broadband Genie)
• Cuckoo customers experienced the most broadband outages (source: Broadband Genie)
• The East Midlands is the area with the fewest broadband outages (source: Broadband Genie)
• London is the area with the most broadband outages (source: Broadband Genie)
• Gloucester is the city with the fewest broadband outages (source: Broadband Genie)
• Belfast is the city with the most broadband outages (source: Broadband Genie) 
• 25% of broadband users have experienced outages of almost a week (source: The Register)
• Unreliable internet costs the UK economy a total of £11bn per year (source: easy Networks)
• 71% of business leaders say slow or unreliable broadband hurts operations (source: thinkbroadband)

Broadband speed statistics 2026

• The average fixed line broadband download speed in the UK is 110Mb (source: Broadband Genie)
• The average upload speed in the UK is 51.10Mb (source: Ookla)
• The average download speed in the world for a fixed line connection is 115.43Mb (source: Ookla)
• The slowest area for broadband is Canterbury is the UK’s slowest city for broadband, with an average download speed of 22Mb (source: Broadband Genie)
• Lichfield is the UK’s fastest city for broadband, with an average download speed of 359Mb. (source: Broadband Genie)
• The average mobile download speed in the UK is below the global average at 75.91Mb (source: Ookla)
• The average mobile upload speed in the UK below the global average 9.10Mb (source: Ookla)
• The average mobile download speed in the world is 109.29Mb (source: Ookla)
• The average mobile upload speed in the world is 15.03Mb (source: Ookla)
• The slowest street in the UK is Heol-Y-Fedw, Cymmer, Port Talbot (source: Broadband Genie)
• The fastest street in the UK is Inglewood Avenue, Derby (source: Broadband Genie)
• Singapore has the fastest broadband in the world, averaging a download speed of 425.46Mb (source: Ookla)
• Cuba has the slowest fixed line broadband in the world, averaging a download speed of 3.83Mb (source: Ookla)

Which countries have the fastest broadband?

Table: top 10 countries for broadband download speed (source: Ookla)

Which countries have the slowest broadband?

Table: bottom 10 countries for broadband download speed (source: Ookla)

Broadband provider statistics 2026

• Plusnet was voted the best broadband provider in the UK (source: Broadband Genie)
• Virgin Media is the UK's fastest widely available provider (source: Broadband Genie)
• Three is the UK's fastest wireless provider (source: Broadband Genie)
• Brillband is the UK’s fastest broadband provider, with an average download speed of 523Mb (source: Broadband Genie)
• Vodafone offers the best value for money (source: Broadband Genie)

Broadband providers in the UK average download speeds:

Table: popular broadband providers download speed (source: Broadband Genie)

Broadband usage statistics

• Worldwide, on average, a person spends 6.4 hours a day online (source: Statista)
• UK adults spend an average of four hours 30 minutes online a day (excludes work) (source: Ofcom)
• Young adults (18-24) spend the most time online (6 hours 20 minutes a day) (source: Ofcom)
• Women spend more time online than men across all adult age groups. The daily average for women
  was 4 hours 43 minutes (26 minutes more than men) (source: Ofcom)
• 51% of time online is spent on services owned by Alphabet or Meta (source: Ofcom)
• Children in the UK aged 8-14 spend an average of nearly 3 hours online each day (source: Ofcom)

Table: Average daily time spent online

Broadband coverage and connection statistics

• There are 29.7 million superfast fixed-line broadband connections in the UK (source: Ofcom)
• There are 1.56 broadband subscriptions worldwide (source: Point-Topic)
• Superfast broadband (30Mb+) is available to 98% of the UK (source: Ofcom)
• Gigabit broadband (1Gb+ or 1,000Mb+) is available to 89% of the UK (27.1 million homes) (source: Ofcom)
• Full fibre broadband is available to 82% of the UK (30.5 million homes) (source: Ofcom)
• Gigabit-capable broadband coverage has increased to over 87% of UK residential premises (source: Ofcom)
• Full fibre take up in the UK is 47% (12.4 million premises) (source: Ofcom)
• 0.21% can’t get a download speed above 2Mb (source: thinkbroadband)
• Full fibre broadband is available to 88% of England (source: Ofcom)
• Full fibre broadband take up where available in England is 41% (source: Ofcom)
• Full fibre broadband is available to 96% of Northern Ireland (source: Ofcom)
• Full fibre broadband take up where available in Northern Ireland is 62% (source: Ofcom)
• Full fibre broadband is available to 78% of premises in Wales (source: Ofcom)
• Full fibre broadband take up in where available in Wales where available is 49% (source: Ofcom)
• Full fibre broadband is available to 71% of premises in Scotland (source: Ofcom)
• Full fibre broadband take up in where available in Scotland where available is 43% (source: Ofcom)
• Starlink’s satellite broadband has 110,000 in the UK, 12,600 of these connections in locations without access to decent broadband from a fixed network (source: Ofcom)

UK full fibre broadband with respect to length of time it has been available

(source: Ofcom)

Global full fibre coverage statistics

Table: Full fibre and gigabit-capable broadband in advanced, high-income, and globally influential economies across Europe, Asia-Pacific, and North America (source: Ofcom)

Rural broadband statistics

• 750,000 houses in the UK do not have fibre broadband or Superfast broadband (source: thinkbroadband)
• Broadband users in rural areas receive an average download speed of 56Mb, 26% slower than those in urban areas (source: Ofcom)
• 39,000 (0.2%) of premises do not have access to a fixed line broadband connection of 10Mb (source: Ofcom)
• Because of lower priced satellite services, the number of homes without a decent broadband connection drops to 4,000 (Ofcom)
• 26,000 premises in England don't have access to a decent broadband service from either a fixed or Fixed Wireless Access network (source: Ofcom)
• 10,000 premises in Scotland don't have access to a decent broadband service from either a fixed or Fixed Wireless Access network (source: Ofcom)
• 6,000 premises in Wales don't have access to a decent broadband service from either a fixed or Fixed Wireless Access network (source: Ofcom)
• 1,800 premises in Northern Ireland don't have access to a decent broadband service from either a fixed or Fixed Wireless Access network (source: Ofcom)
• 89% of premises in rural areas have access to gigabit-capable broadband, compared to 93% in urban areas (source: Ofcom)
• Take up of full fibre broadband is higher in rural areas. 52% of homes in rural areas are signed up to full fibre broadband when available (source: Ofcom)

Internet access statistics

• There are approximately 6.04 billion internet users worldwide (73% of global popuulation) (source: Statista)
• There are approximately 5.66 billion social media users in the world (source: Statista)
• There are approximately 1.5 billion broadband connections in the world (source: Statista)
• 21% of users in the UK can only access the internet using a mobile device (source: Rural Services Network)
• 6% of homes in the UK don’t have access to the internet (source: Rural Services Network)
• 96% of the global population have used a mobile device to access the internet (source: Statista)
• 34% of the world's population does not have access to the internet (source: Statista)
• On average, people spend 6.5 hours on the internet each day (source: GlobalWebIndex)
• One in 20 people in the UK do not internet access at home (source: Ofcom)

Table: Internet users worldwide by age group (source: Statista)

• In the UK, 34% of people aged 75 and over do not use the Internet and 10% of people aged 65–74 do not use the internet (source: AgeUK)
• China has 1.05 billion internet users, the most in the world (source: Exploding Topics)

Table: Top 10 countries for internet users (source: World Population Review)

Broadband infrastructure investment statistics

• The UK government has invested £1.3 billion into next-generation broadband (source: Gov.uk)
• UK operators invested a total of £9.2bn in network infrastructure in 2024 (source: Ofcom)

Table: UK telecoms network capital expenditure: 2020 to 2024

Business broadband statistics

• On average, a business broadband contract in the UK costs £40.43 a month (source: Broadband Genie)
• 71% of business leaders say slow or unreliable broadband harms operations (source: thinkbroadband)
• Business broadband providers in the UK have an average download speed of 152Mb (source: Broadband Genie)
• Business broadband providers in the UK have an average upload speed of 109Mb (source: Broadband Genie)
• The average worker loses 38 hours a year because of broadband disruptions (source: easy Networks)
• Broadband disruptions cost the UK economy £11bn a year (source: easy Networks)

4G and 5G statistics

• 4G coverage from at least one mobile network operator now reaches 96% of the UK landmass (source: Ofcom)
• UK 5G coverage outside of premises from at least one operator now ranging between 94% and 97% (source: Ofcom)
• 4G internet is available to 90% of the world's population (source: Ericsson)
• 5G internet is available to 45% of the world's population (source: Ericsson)
• Puerto Rico has the highest 5G coverage at 48.4% user coverage (source: Statista)
• 4G in the UK remains the dominant mobile technology, accounting for 72% (902 PB) of total monthly data traffic (source: Ofcom)

Which countries have the most 5G coverage?

Table: top 10 countries for households coverage (source: European Commission)

• 5G internet is up to 100 times faster than 4G internet (source: Ericsson)

Mobile data affordability statistics

• Worldwide, people on average spend $24.20 on a mobile contract (source: Broadband Genie)
• On average, the UK spends £12.19 a month on a mobile contract (source: Broadband Genie)
• Guinea has the most expensive mobile contracts in the world at $115.58 a month (source: Broadband Genie)
• Iran has the cheapest mobile contracts in the world, at $2.24 a month (source: Broadband Genie)
• North America spend the most on mobile contracts, on average spending $50.39 a month (source: Broadband Genie)
• Central America spend the least on mobile contracts, on average spending $23.15 a month (source: Broadband Genie)

Which countries pay the most for mobile contracts?

Table: top 5 countries for the highest mobile contract cost (monthly cost of a mobile contract): (source: Broadband Genie)

Which countries pay the least for mobile contracts?

Table: top 5 countries for the lowest mobile contract cost (monthly cost of a mobile contract): (source: Broadband Genie)

Mobile network statistics

• EE has the largest share of mobile customers at 26% (source: ringover)

Table: UK mobile provider market share (source: ringover)

• Three has the fastest mobile internet in the UK, averaging a download speed of 71Mb (source: Broadband Genie)

Table: Mobile internet speed by provider (source: Broadband Genie)

Broadband customer complaint statistics

• EE is the most complained about broadband provider (source: Ofcom)
• Plusnet is the least complained about broadband provider (source: Ofcom)

Table: Most common reasons for broadband complaints (source: Ofcom)

• Customer complaint call wait times for broadband and landline is average 2 minutes 1 second (source: Ofcom)
• 7% of calls to broadband and landline providers were abandoned (source: Ofcom)

Table: Average call waiting times by broadband and landline provider (source: Ofcom)

Landline customer complaint statistics

• EE is the most complained about landline provider (source: Ofcom)
• Utility Warehouse is the least complained about landline provider (source: Ofcom)

Table: Most common reasons for landline complaints (source: Ofcom)

Mobile customer complaint statistics

• Three is the most complained about mobile provider (source: Ofcom)
• Tesco Mobile, Vodafone and EE have the fewest number of complaints (source: Ofcom)

Table: Most common reasons for mobile complaints (source: Ofcom)

• The average call wait time length by mobile provider is 1 minute 52 seconds (source: Ofcom)

Table: Customer call wait times by provider (source: Ofcom)

Pay-TV customer complaint statistics

• EE is the most complained about pay-TV provider (source: Ofcom)
• Plusnet has the fewest pay-TV complaints (source: Ofcom)

Most common reasons for pay-TV complaints: (source: Ofcom)

• Complaints handling: 38%
• Billing, pricing and charges: 24%
• Faults, service and provisioning: 21%

Broadband and working statistics

• London (68%) and Belfast (61%) have the highest percentage of people working from home (source: Broadband Genie)
• Norwich (25%) and Birmingham (34%) have the lowest percentage of people working from home (source: Broadband Genie)
• 16% of workers haven’t been able to do their job because of broadband issues (source: ISPreview)
• 8% of workers miss out on jobs or promotions due to unreliable broadband (source: ISPreview)
• 10% of workers are more likely to go into the office due to problems with their home internet connectivity (source: ISPreview)
• 10% of workers face questions or comments regarding the quality of their broadband connection (source: finder)
• 36% regularly switch to mobile broadband to stay online (source: finder)
• 47% of home workers experienced increased stress due to internet connection issues in their home (source: finder)
• 28% of home workers consider switching to mobile data for important calls (source: finder)
• 67% of home workers say access to decent mobile broadband is an important factor when deciding where to live (source: ISPreview)
• Zoom is the most used video conferencing platform in the UK (source: Email Tool Tester)

Table: Most used video conferencing platforms used in the UK (source: Email Tool Tester)

Broadband education statistics

• 67% (1.3 billion) of the world's school-age children (3-17) do not have an internet connection in their homes (source: Unicef)
• 9% of children (1.78 million) don’t have access to a laptop, desktop or tablet (source: iNews)
• 51% of low-income households (earning between £6,000 and £10,000) don’t have internet access (source: iNews)
• 7% of children only have access to a mobile broadband connection (source: iNews)
• 5% of pupils in the poorest schools do not have adequate access to a device (source: Statista)

Streaming statistics

• The average UK household subscribes to 2.4 streaming services (source: The Guardian)
• 70% of people in the UK have a streaming subscription (source: finder)
• Streaming services accounted for 18% of total TV viewing (source: Ofcom)
• A person streams an average of 58 minutes of viewing per day (source: Ofcom)

Table: Percentage of households subscribed to a streaming service (source: Ofcom)

Table: Most popular streaming services in the UK (source: Finder)

• On average, UK customers spend £500 per annum on streaming services (source: Independent)
• UK viewers waste £312 a year on unused streaming subscriptions and services (source: Independent)

Broadband requirements for streaming (source: Broadband Genie)

• The UK spends £4.915 billion on streaming services (source: Independent)
• The UK spends £1.87 billion on streaming music (source: Advanced Television)

Online gaming statistics

• 53% of UK adults play video games (source: Ofcom)
• Mobile phones were the most popular gaming device (34%) (source: Ofcom)
• 60% of children (aged 3–15) in the UK play video games online (source: Ofcom)

Mobile and communication statistics

• On average, people spend 3 hours and 15 minutes on their phone each day (source: Exploding Topics)
• Individuals check their phone on average 58 times per day (source: Exploding Topics)

Table: Time on smartphone by country (source: Exploading Topics)

Table: Most common activity on a mobile device (source: Cybercrew)

• Methodology

  We collected every stat related to broadband with the most recent authoritative and trustworthy source. The sources of research can be found in the body copy.

  The savings by switching broadband providers is calculated by taking the average monthly subscription cost of an out-of-contract customer and the difference over a 12-month period compared to the cheapest equally fast deal on the market.

  If you see an incorrect source, or outdated piece of information or would like a statistic added to this page, please contact [email protected] or [email protected]

  More information about frequently used terms such as ‘Mb’, ‘superfast broadband’ or ‘full fibre’ can be found in our Broadband Glossary