One Third Of The UK Has Slower Than 5Mbps Broadband

One third of UK postcodes have average broadband speeds of less than 5Mbps according to a new report.

Many areas of the UK are being left out of the government’s plans to deliver UK-wide superfast broadband by 2015, according to research from uSwitch, based on more than 1.68 million broadband speed tests carried out by home and business users over the last six months.

UK Notspots

According to the report, 49 percent of UK postcodes have slower download speeds than the national average of 6.742Mbps, with 34 percent suffering speeds of less than 5Mbps and 23 percent subjected to speeds of less than 4Mbps.

Hereford has the dubious honour of the slowest download speeds of any UK town with a population of 40,000 or more, with its average speed of 3.196 Mbps bettered only slightly by second-placed Kilmarnock with 3.218Mbps and third-placed Carlisle with 3.240Mbps.

The slowest broadband in the UK of any place in the UK which was tested more than 100 times was Winchelsea, a small village in East Sussex, whose inhabitants have speeds of just 1.111Mbps [Once a thriving port until the 16th century when the harbour silted up, Winchelsea still has a mayor and prefers to be called a town – Editor]. It is closely followed by Menstrie, near Stirling in Scotland with 1.235Mbps. Most of the top blackspots are located in Wales, Scotland and northern England, although villages in Somerset and Surrey are also in the top ten.

“Britain might be riding the wave of a super-fast broadband revolution, but for the 49 percent who get less than the national average broadband speed, the wave isn’t causing so much a splash as a ripple,” said Julia Stent, director of Telecoms at uSwitch. “What’s really surprising is the number of cities and towns such as Hereford and Carlisle that are suffering from slow broadband speeds, dispelling the view that it’s just rural areas and small towns that have issues with their broadband.”

Falling behind

“Too many people do not appear to be enjoying super-fast speeds because faster services are not available in their area yet. It’s also likely that many aren’t aware of what services and packages they can get or simply can’t get have it because the prices are out of reach,” she added. “It is important to remember that the fastest headline speeds are not guaranteed and home broadband users should run online broadband speed tests to check they’re getting the best possible performance.

Last September, the culture secretary Jeremy Hunt warned that the UK is in danger of falling behind the rest of Europe in the deployment of superfast broadband, while the government’s plan of providing funding for local councils to address rural ‘notspots’ has also been criticised.

Many say that the £530 million that has been pledged by the government to rollout superfast broadband to rural areas is not enough, especially when compared to BT’s £2.5 billion investment.

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