BT is the UK's best performing broadband provider, according to a survey from network speed testing firm Epitiro.

BT came out on top overall and also provides the fastest service as a percentage of its theoretical maximum. Virgin was in second place followed by Demon, AOL and Orange.

Virgin, BT and AOL were fastest to connect to the internet. Pipex, Orange and BT delivered email four times faster than the industry average.

The survey found 12,503 connection failures during 948,411 attempts - a failure rate of 1.93 per cent.

Epititro's ADSL Broadband Service Level Report tests download, upload and connection times. It uses 250 monitoring agents at ten locations. Tests were carried out between April and June 2006 from Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Hook, Kingston north, two places in London, Manchester, Swansea and Teeside.

This is the first time the survey results have been made public. The survey only looked at ADSL providers - NTL-Telewest and other cable providers were not included.

There's some more information on Epitiro's website here. ®