UK broadband speeds up 22% in 2009

British surfing speeds have increased by a fifth over the past year, according to Broadband.co.uk.

The average UK Internet connection is 22% faster than it was the year before, to be precise.

The broadband comparison website has derived these figures from many thousands of speed tests conducted by its users.

While the average broadband connection ran at 3.7Mbps the previous year, in 2009 that figure had increased to 4.5Mbps.

The fastest provider was Virgin Media, which clocked up an average speed of 7.4Mbps by its users.

And the slowest? AOL, with barely a smidge over the 2Mbps mark.