UK’s terrible broadband service is laid bare by report

Figures show millions of homes have speeds of under 10 Mbps and that half of house hunters would reject a propety with less than 100 Mbps.

A survey of over 250,000 homes in the UK has revealed the full horror of the nation’s poor national broadband service including thousands of streets where speeds are below one megabit per second (Mbps), on average.

The worst is in Bamforlong in Gloucester at 0.143 Mbps and the best street is in Birmingham where its average speed is 265.89 Mbps . The average speed in the UK is 46.3 Mbps , the research by uSwitch reveals.

The worst region is north of the Mersey in cities such as Manchester, South Yorkshire and Merseyside while the South West has some of the best speeds. But a quarter of all homes in the UK struggle to attain 10 Mbps or above and one in eight crawl along at less than 5 Mbps.

Purchasing decisions

The UK’s terrible broadband has recently begun affecting buyers’ purchasing decisions, separate research shows.

Data from trade website ISPreview found well over half of all house hunters would reject an ideal home if it offered broadband speeds of less than 100 Mbps , and a third would negotiate a lower price.

uSwitch also casts doubt on the ‘superfast’ claims of many broadband providers, revealing that seven of the 20 slowest streets in the UK have access to so-called superfast broadband.

“This research lays bare the extent of the UK’s digital divide,” says Dani Warner (left), uSwitch’s broadband expert.

“Streets that are relatively close geographically can be light years apart when it comes to the download speeds they are getting. For those who can’t yet obtain faster speeds – which the industry is directly aiming to address with the roll-out of full-fibre  – improvements really can’t come soon enough.”

 

 


What's your opinion?

Back to top button