Just 22 UK towns and cities have superfast broadband speeds
Average speeds in 42 towns and cities in the UK are less than 24Mbps, according to research carried out by uSwitch.
The study found that Hull had an average speed of just 12.4Mbps, the slowest of the UK cities. This compared unfavourably to London and Edinburgh, which have average speeds of 22.4Mbps and 21.0Mbps respectively.
However, rather than people not being able to access superfast speeds, the research suggests that people are simply slow to take up faster services. Recent government figures indicate that superfast broadband is now available to more than 90 per cent of UK homes and businesses, with additional funding already pledged to bring the such connections to 95 per cent of the country by 2017.
In Hull, three in 10 tests recorded speeds of less than 5Mbps, with just one in 10 registering speeds of 50Mbps or more. Uswitch's Ewan Taylor-Gibson, who carried out the tests, said of the results: “We should be asking what more can be done to encourage the adoption of superfast broadband now it's so widely available."
"The UK's towns and cities should be leading the charge when it comes to broadband speeds, yet just 22 cities have broadband users with average speeds of more than 24Mbps."
The top 10 cities that recorded superfast speeds included Middlesbrough, Belfast and Brighton, which each achieved speeds of over 33Mbps. This contrasted with places including Hull, Aberdeen and Milton Keynes where speeds less than 17.5Mbps were recorded.
Sebastien Lahtinen, the co-founder of Thinkbroadband, said of the findings: “Broadband speed tests are a great way to measure real world speeds experienced by users — but they also serve as a measure of take-up, not just availability.
"Whilst early adopters and digital natives are often craving for faster and faster services, not everyone wants to stream multiple HD streams live whilst playing online games.
"Those who just use the Internet for the occasional catch-up TV programme, email and Facebook, broadband speed is not really a priority, especially when the fastest services can cost considerably more."
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(Image: Kainet)
