UK's fastest and slowest streets for broadband revealed
Research from price comparison site Uswitch has revealed the top 10 fastest and slowest streets for broadband ISP download speed in the UK. The slowest street has been named as Wistaston Road, Crewe in Cheshire, which has a speed of just 0.24Mbps. Meanwhile, Haul Fryn, Birchgrove in Swansea topped the fastest list with a speed of 882Mbps.
Uswitch says the difference in speeds would mean, hypothetically, that residents of Haul Fryn could download a two-hour film in 47 seconds, whereas it would take 48 hours for those in Wistaston Road to download the same film.
According to the report, the UK average broadband speed is 79.1Mbps. However, the top ten slowest streets - which included Llys Tripp, Gwaelod-y-Garth in Cardiff; Seymour Avenue in Morden, south London; South Park Crescent, Lewisham, in south-east London; Brant Road in Lincoln; and Berriedale in north-east Scotland - were all found to be slower than 0.40Mbps.
Billingbauk Drive in Leeds; Old Ballynahinch Road, Lisburn in Northern Ireland; Hall Road East in Liverpool; Valley Road, Newbury in Berkshire; and Dale Lane Approach in Warrington, Cheshire were on the fastest list and recorded average speeds of 699Mbps or higher.
The report, which used data from 276,083 consumer speed tests conducted over a 12-month period from 1st October 2020 to 30th September 2021 also stated that there is an increasing number of broadband users accessing faster speeds, with 43 per cent of people getting superfast speeds of at least 30Mbps, compared to 22 per cent six years ago.
However, reports have noted that consumer speed tests may not correctly reflect the actual availability of quicker networks, with homes often having access to superfast speeds but residents unable or unwilling to upgrade. Furthermore, such speed tests can also be influenced by factors such as poor home wiring.
However, Uswitch is urging people to check their local broadband speed availability as many may not realise that they could be eligible for an upgrade, with nine out of the ten slowest streets actually having access to a quicker service.
