"Average download speeds UK wide peaked at 3.6Mbps in July 2008, since then the average has dropped every month and is now almost 10% lower at 3.3Mbps" Says Edd Dawson from broadband.co.uk.
The results were calculated from thousands of broadband speed tests taken on the broadband.co.uk site during October 2008 by ordinary broadband users UK wide.
"Not surprisingly we are seeing the biggest drops during the evening peak time slots where the average speed has now dropped below 3Mbps for the first time since March 2008. We suspect that the increased use of media streaming services such as BBC iPlayer are a significant factor in these results," adds Dawson.
With the amount of bandwidth now being consumed by the average user increasing on a monthly basis these figures show the need for increasing available bandwidth to cope with peak demand is still pressing.