Broadband Not Fast Enough for Millions - Ofcom

Millions of households in the United Kingdom do not have fast enough broadband to cope with a typical family’s internet needs, claims report.

12:23 16 December 2018

Ofcom has confirmed that over 26per cent of UK’s households do not have access to at least 10Mbps. In Greenmeadows Park in Bamfurlong, Gloucestershire, the average broadband speed is just 0.14Mbps, which is not fast enough to use streaming services, such as Netflix, or download HD movies. Meanwhile, Abdon Avenue in Birmingham enjoys speeds of more than 265Mbps, which allows residents to download HD movies in under four minutes.

 

The report noted geographic trends. Nine of the streets with the slowest broadband were in North and South Yorkshire, Teeside, Manchester and across Scotland. Five of the streets with the fastest broadband were in south-west England.

 

“This research lays bare the extent of the UK’s digital divide,” said Dani Warner, a broadband expert at uSwitch. “Streets that are relatively close geographically can be light years apart when it comes to the download speeds they are getting.”

 

The report found that many of the households with slow internet connection have the option of getting superfast broadband but are either unaware that a better service is available or choose not to upgrade.

 

“Awareness continues to be the biggest hurdle to people getting faster download speeds,” said Warner. “On more than a third of the slowest streets people have no need to be crawling along on completely unusable internet services.”