One in four U.K. residential fixed broadband connections...

5 percent in November 2011 to 25 percent last November. The average superfast connection was 47 Mbps in November, an increase of more than 15 Mbps since May 2010, the regulator said. Although this is good news for consumers, the national picture is “uneven,” it said. Many households, particularly in rural areas, experience much lower speeds, it said. The study said: (1) The average urban download speed in November was around 32 Mbps, up 21 percent from May 2013. (2) The average suburban download speed in November was 21.8 Mbps, up 22 percent since last May. (3) Average speeds in rural areas rose from nearly 10 Mbps to 11.3 Mbps from May-November 2013. Speeds are slower in rural areas because of the limited availability of superfast broadband services and because speeds over ADSL, which uses the copper network, are subject to longer distances the signal must travel to the phone exchange, it said. Virgin Media was the ISP with the fastest speed, with download speeds averaging 114.9 Mbps (advertised as “up to” 120 Mbps) over 24 hours, delivered over cable, Ofcom said. But Virgin’s speed also had the most variation between peak-time download speeds and maximum speeds, it said. The research examined packages offered by the country’s seven largest ISPs by subscriber numbers, Ofcom said. There were 735 million separate test results recorded in 2,391 homes in November, it said.