The UK town which loses 55% of its broadband speed in the evening
Key Points
- Wigan suffers UK's worst evening broadband slowdown, with average speeds falling 55% between 7pm and 11pm.
- New Broadband Genie study analysed 144,509 speed tests across UK towns, regions and providers over 12 months.
- Scotland and Wales were the only regions where speeds rose at peak hours, by 15% and 14% respectively.
- South West recorded the worst regional drop at 15%, ahead of Northern Ireland at 8% and the North West at 2%.
- Ofcom's voluntary speed code lets UK customers exit contracts early when peak-hour speeds fall below advertised levels.
Wigan loses 55% of its average broadband speed every evening, new Broadband Genie data shows.
The study, which analysed 144,509 speed tests recorded across the UK over the past 12 months, ranks the Greater Manchester town as the country’s worst congestion zone for home broadband.
Average download speeds in Wigan fall by 55% during peak hours, the evening window between 7pm and 11pm, when most households stream video, play online games, video call and use connected devices simultaneously.
The drop dwarfs typical evening slowdowns, which UK broadband troubleshooting guides put at 10% to 20%.
Broadband Genie collected the data through its own UK speed test tool. Locations needed at least 30 tests in both the off-peak window (11.01pm to 6.59pm) and the peak window (7pm to 11pm) to qualify for the rankings, which kept outliers and small samples from distorting the figures.
Broadband Genie applied the same methodology to its provider-level results, which sit alongside the town and regional rankings.
Not every part of the UK lost speed at peak times. Customers in Newport saw broadband speeds rise during the evening, and the picture at regional level is sharper still.
Scotland recorded the strongest peak-hour gain at 15%, with Wales close behind at 14%. The South West registered the worst regional drop at 15%, ahead of Northern Ireland at 8% and the North West of England at 2%.
UK regions ranked by peak-hour broadband performance
html| Rank | Region | Off-peak Mb | Peak Mb | Change | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Scotland | 108 | 124 | +15% | Largest peak-hour gain in UK |
| 2 | Wales | 101 | 116 | +14% | Second-largest gain; Newport leads |
| 3 | East of England | 108 | 118 | +9% | Speed rises in evening |
| 4 | East Midlands | 122 | 132 | +9% | Speed rises in evening |
| 5 | North East England | 117 | 125 | +7% | Speed rises in evening |
| 6 | West Midlands | 125 | 134 | +7% | Speed rises in evening |
| 7 | South East | 121 | 127 | +5% | Smallest gain |
| 8 | Yorkshire & Humber | 119 | 120 | 0% | Flat across both windows |
| 9 | London | 142 | 142 | 0% | Highest stable urban speed |
| 10 | North West England | 115 | 113 | -2% | Region containing Wigan |
| 11 | Northern Ireland | 176 | 163 | -8% | Fastest UK region even at peak |
| 12 | South West | 105 | 89 | -15% | Worst regional slowdown |
The pattern reflects two opposite forces in the UK broadband market.
Some providers over-provision capacity and use traffic prioritisation that protects evening speeds, while others run networks closer to the limit, where any spike in demand cuts throughput for everyone sharing the same exchange or street cabinet.
The same provider can deliver very different peak-hour performance from one postcode to the next, depending on how much headroom sits in the local infrastructure.
The evening slowdown matters because UK rules require broadband providers to advertise download speeds available to at least 50% of their customers during peak hours, which Ofcom defines as 8pm to 10pm.
Where actual peak-hour performance falls below the advertised speed, customers can use Ofcom’s voluntary code on broadband speeds to exit a contract early without penalty.
The 55% drop in Wigan would, on most packages, push speeds well below the floor that the code requires.
Households in the worst zones can expect buffered streams, lower-quality video calls and longer cloud uploads at exactly the time most people use the internet.
Faster connections in some regions do not insulate users from the issue.
London recorded no peak-hour drop, with average speeds steady at 142Mb, but Northern Ireland still posts a faster peak figure of 163Mb despite an 8% slowdown from its 176Mb off-peak baseline.
The findings land as the UK presses on with full-fibre rollout.
Carlisle-based ISP Grain has begun expanding its full-fibre network across Wigan and the wider Greater Manchester area, working alongside existing Openreach and Virgin Media nexfibre coverage, with new lines due to go live in the coming months.
Faster underlying connections will help, but the data suggests congestion is also a question of how providers manage their networks during the evening rush, not just how much fibre sits in the ground.
