Data: London last among European capitals for mobile download speeds

London packs more jobs and people into its core than any other UK city, and its mobile networks have not kept pace with that demand, reports Ookla. An early start on 5G lifted London to seventh of 18 European capitals for median download speed in 2021, but traffic has since grown faster than capacity, and adding capacity in central London has become harder.

Using Speedtest Intelligence data from 2018 to Q3 2026, alongside background signal measurements and official statistics, Ookla compared London with Europe’s other capitals and the UK’s largest cities, show where its networks strain, and examine why new capacity is so hard to add.

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