November speed test results have found Virgin extending its lead as the UK's fastest broadband provider, with Orange falling way behind due to heavy peak-time traffic.
The results, which were calculated from thousands of broadband speed tests taken during last month by ordinary broadband users nationwide on the broadband.co.uk website, found Virgin had an average download speed of 6.31MB per second (Mbps).
But, where the average download speed among the top 10 biggest UK broadband providers was 3.22Mbps, Orange returned a steep drop-off, from an average of 2.76Mbps in October, to only 1.15Mbps.
Edd Dawson of broadband.co.uk said November had been a month of contrasts, with Virgin on the one hand extending its lead in the download speed stakes with Orange on the other recording "the worst set of speed test results we've ever recorded for a broadband provider."
IT PRO contacted Orange for comment on the test results, but it had not responded at the time of writing.
Dawson added: "Orange are clearly seeing network congestion at peak times, as at off peak times they compare favourably with other suppliers. It is at the peak evening times that their speeds collapse to an average of only 0.675Mbps."
The results split by time of day only reinforced Virgin's dominance as, for the third month running, it took the number one slot with increased average speeds in all three time periods used to measure download speeds at different times of day.
But, despite the progress made by some suppliers such as Virgin in increasing broadband speeds, the comparison site found the majority of providers had seen their average speeds drop, especially at peak times.
The combined results from all suppliers showed the fourth consecutive monthly drop in average download speeds since July 2008's average of 3.609Mbps.
The top 10 providers, in order of the average slowest speed first, were AOL, Be and O2 (who share a common infrastructure), BT, Eclipse, Orange, Plusnet, Sky, TalkTalk, Tiscali and Virgin Media.
The full details including speed test results for individual suppliers can be downloaded in pdf format here.
