Millions miss out as Britain's broadband divide reaches record levels How can it be fair that residents in rural areas received an average 9.9Mb per second whilst their urban counterparts enjoy speeds that are almost three times as fast. He added: "Households in non-fibre areas will need to make themselves heard if they are going to be included in the fibre revolution." Claudio Pollack, Ofcom's Consumer Group Director, admitted: "With the average household now owning more than three types of internet-connected devices, consumers are demanding more than ever from their broadband service. We are yet to see the full effect of Government measures to improve broadband availability in rural areas, which should also help to boost speeds. Ofcom said Virgin Media had driven the roll-out of superfast broadband in towns and cities as it looks to double the speeds of most of its cable broadband csutomers. The average broadband speed across the UK is now 14.7Mb per second, 22 per cent higher than six months ago. Some 86 per cent of residents are on packages with speeds above those advertised as "up to 10Mbps." But while overall average speeds were boosted by take-up of "superfast" services and providers" automatically upgrading customers on to faster broadband packages, fewer than one in five users overall has a superfast connection, offering speeds of 30Mbps or more. Of the 14 ISP packages included in the report, Virgin Media's "up to" 120Mbit/s service achieved the fastest download speeds, at an average of 112.6Mbps. Of the other superfast packages included in the research, BT's "up to" 76Mbps service delivered average speeds of 62.1Mbit/s, while Plusnet's "up to" 76Mbps achieved average speeds of 61.0Mbps.