According to research by price comparison site uSwitch UK broadband speeds are at their fastest in the early hours of the morning, with some regions almost tripling their average speeds.
uSwitch carried out more than 2.3 million speed tests between July 2012 and 20 January 2013 across 50 of the most densely populated UK cities. The findings showed average speeds to be at their fastest at 4am and at their slowest at 9pm.
In the evening speeds in urban areas were found to drop by over a quarter (28 per cent) from an average of 14.83Mbps to 10.72Mbps.
Birmingham and Middleborough reported the fastest evening speeds of 12.88Mbps and 12.87Mbps respectively. Residents of Stoke-on-Trent were found to enjoy the most consistent broadband speed and Aberdeen and Swansea recorded the slowest evening surfing speeds of 6.08Mbps and 6.99Mbps respectively.
uSwitch explained that streaming content be it films, games or music is making it harder for broadband providers to deliver consistent speeds.