The UK's 10 best and worst broadband streets
News
by Rebecca Rutt
Mount Pleasant in West Sussex is the slowest street in the UK for broadband, according to research from uSwitch.
The average speed on the street is 53 times slower than the national average and a whopping 147 times slower than in the UK's fastest town – Leamington Spa.
The average speed in the street is 0.128Mb, which means it would take around 48 hours to download just one film from the internet.
Second on the list is Forestfield, also in West Sussex. With an average speed of 0.134Mb it takes a lengthy 90 minutes to download one music track. Meanwhile, third worst is Inchkeith Drive in Fife, which has an average speed of 0.169Mb.
North vs south
Geographically speeds in the south of England are much slower than the rest of the UK, with a quarter of the UK's slowest 20 streets located in West Sussex and Hampshire.
10 worst broadband streets
| RANK | STREET NAME | LOCATION | DOWNLOAD SPEED (MB/S) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mount Pleasant | Halesworth, Suffolk | 0.128 Mb/s |
| 2 | Forestfield | Horsham, West Sussex | 0.134 Mb/s |
| 3 | Inchkeith Drive | Dunfermline, Fife | 0.169 Mb/s |
| 4 | Faraday Avenue | Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire | 0.182 Mb/s |
| 5 | Baird Avenue | Kilwinning, Ayrshire | 0.225 Mb/s |
| 6 | Wheatears Drive | Romsey, Hampshire | 0.242 Mb/s |
| 7 | Furzy Park | Haverfordwest, Dyfed | 0.254 Mb/s |
| 8 | Calmore Drive | Totton, Hampshire | 0.267 Mb/s |
| 9 | Mowbray Grove | Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland | 0.274 Mb/s |
| 10 | Colledge Close | Brinklow, Warwickshire | 0.279 Mb/s |
On the other end of the scale is Stansfield Road in Tameside, with an average speed of 78.818 Mb. White Road in Oxford follows in second place at 66.705Mb, and Highfields Close in Bedfordshire is third with a speed of 63.579Mb.
The research is based on data from 1,500,000 speed tests conducted between March and August this year.
Ernest Doku, spokesperson for uSwitch, says: "While many areas of the country are already benefiting from the considerable investment into super-fast fibre optic networks, our research highlights the plight of households at the other end of the spectrum struggling with download speeds so poor that in some cases it can hardly be considered a broadband service at all.
"While broadband providers have been committed to upgrading broadband infrastructure as a priority, for some areas these improvements can't come soon enough. Being stuck in the slow lane is a frustrating situation, with many of us now considering broadband to be an essential service."
10 best broadband streets
| RANK | STREET NAME | LOCATION | DOWNLOAD SPEED (MB/S) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stansfield Road | Hyde, Tameside | 78.818 Mb/s |
| 2 | White Road | Oxford | 66.705 Mb/s |
| 3 | Highfields Close | Dunstable, Central Bedfordshire | 63.579 Mb/s |
| 4 | Heather Shaw | Trowbridge, Wiltshire | 59.797 Mb/s |
| 5 | Lynton Grove | Corby, Northamptonshire | 56.527 Mb/s |
| 6 | Maple Tree Lane | Halesowen, West Midlands | 53.690 Mb/s |
| 7 | Upper Belmont Road | Chesham, Buckinghamshire | 51.780 Mb/s |
| 8 | Bidhams Crescent | Tadworth, Surrey | 51.681 Mb/s |
| 9 | Darwin Way | Gosport, Hampshire | 50.695 Mb/s |
| 10 | Trinity Street | Gorseinon, Swansea | 48.157 Mb/s |
* figures could be untypically high (a typical fast home speed broadband would be around 20 Mb) due to provider trials.
If you're worried about the speed you're receiving, check out our guide on five ways to improve your broadband speed.
I Live at 15 The Cedars, Liverpool L12 0PH a large private housing estate called Croxeth Park or Alder Meadow(approx 3,000 houses), we have very slow broadband here and BT are unable to higher it or enabl eus to have additional services such as BT Vision. We cannot receive cable either. As all the properties are long leasehold I think this has been blocked by the freeholder. Is there anything we can do? Only other option is Sky or Virgin Media.
Broadband we can't even get BBC TV channels, and we live in the centre of Brighton!!
I am very happy with the speed of my broadband signals from Virgin Media - they nip along at or near to the speed of light! This, of course, is true of the broadband signals of all ISPs.
What varies from ISP to ISP and from customer to customer are the achieved Download Rates (the 'headline' figure.
With my nominal 10Mb/s service I normally get a Download Rate in the region of 9.7 Mb/s. My Upload rate is usually about 480 kb/s.
I live in Wolverley, Kidderminster and my broadband is abysmal. I have had a long running battle with BT since June and 10 visits by engineers later - the problem is still not solved. Very fed up - when are we going to get some technology which matches the price we pay??????!
I live in London and use Virginmedia cable, It's always fast and reliable ( and is only used for broadband, not for telephone)
B.T uses the same cabling for voice and data traffic, and the further you are from the exchange, the worse the speed. Also with B.T during heavy rain there is so much interference you can hardly hear the other person on the line!
My broadband speed from BT varies between 3 and 5 Mb/sec despite having been sold the package by BT for 10 Mb/sec. When challenged BT's stock response is: You are limited to a maximum of 5 Mb/sec! The restriction has to do with a delayed upgrading of copper to fibre optics. That I can understand, but what I resent is the fact that BT constantly advertise the package as providing 10 Mb/sec. Of course, they would be only too happy to have me pay extra for a 20 Mb/sec facility to get me to 10 Mb/sec level.
This tactic of BT is well known and they are confident in the knowledge that the relevant authorities still employed by the Government - despite being threatened with closure following their abysmal track record of protecting the public from profiteering telecommunication companies - will take no action, neither will the Office of Fair Trading for misrepresentation by BT. My location is Epsom, in Surrey.