O2's broadband the fastest, but still slower than advertised

O2 stays tops of the broadband speed table with a 4.95Mbps score, but it and others still fall well short of advertised 8Mb speeds, according to a quarterly speed test.

The test of 60,000 broadband connections by moneysupermarket.com has shown the average broadband speed across the country is 3.08Mbps.

In the league table, Sky followed O2's winning performance with 3.63Mbps, and Orange snuck in with 3Mbps, knocking Talk Talk out of the top three this quarter.

"With Orange also pushing its way into the top three, mobile networks are dominating the 8Mb market at the moment, although whether Orange can maintain consistency remains to be seen," said Rob Barnes, head of broadband at moneysupermarket.com.

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Barnes warned that the difference between advertised and actual speeds was a problem. "One thing the results do show is broadband in Britain is still way off the pace," he said.

He praised efforts to move the UK to super-fast broadband, but said misleading advertising remained a problem. "It's great news Ofcom has announced plans to bring super-fast broadband to the UK but the main priority now should be to look at tougher ways of clamping down on misleading advertised speeds," he said.

The website offers a broadband speed test here.