UK - Broadband speeds are now mapped, including identification of the blackspots

[daily mail] A digital divide in Britain means that those in the countryside are far more likely to have a poor broadband connection than those who live in urban areas, according to a new study.

The only city to feature on a list of download blackspots was Worcester while Farningham, Kent and the north Devon market town of Holsworthy were the only towns south of London to make the list.

Scotland was particularly badly served, with four of the top ten being north of the border.

But with an average download speed of just 1.3Mb, Farningham has the slowest broadband in the UK.

In Farningham, it would take 45 minutes to download just one music album and a dismal 12 hours to download a movie.

The second slowest location for broadband in Britain is the historic town of Duns in the Scottish Borders, with an average download speed of 1.43Mb.

In third place is the village of Harbury in Warwickshire with a measly 1.51Mb, according to new research conducted by broadband comparison website Top10.com.

Many of the 20 locations with the slowest broadband in the UK are rural villages or small market towns, showing a clear rural/urban divide. However, one city, Worcester, made it into the list of blackspots with an average download speed of just 2.01Mb.
Go slow: With an average download speed of just 1.30Mb, Farningham in Kent has the slowest broadband in the UK

Go slow: With an average download speed of just 1.3Mb, Farningham in Kent has the slowest broadband in the UK

Scotland has four of the slowest UK locations, with Stevenston (1.76Mb), Dunoon (1.9Mb) and Banchory (1.95Mb) featuring in the list alongside Duns.

At the county level, Lincolnshire fares the poorest with three villages and towns in the list of broadband blackspots: Brigg (1.71Mb), Ancaster (1.88Mb) and Grantham (1.97Mb).

Alex Buttle, director of broadband comparison website Top10.com, which carried out the study, said: 'Probably the biggest surprise is that a city, Worcester, made it into the top 20 list of broadband blackspots out of more than 2,000 towns, villages and cities surveyed.

'With a population of just under 100,000, that’s a lot of people and businesses reliant on sub-standard broadband speed.

'It’s a shame that in this day and age broadband blackspots continue to exist. The UK needs to offer top broadband speeds across the country regardless of geographic location, which is something the UK’s networks are failing to deliver.

'With Virgin, BT and other networks now making their super-fast fibre optic networks a priority, let’s hope this converts into improved broadband speed for people in every area of the UK, whether urban or rural — and however low the population

Over 98,000 speed tests were conducted with each town, village or city undergoing a minimum of 50 broadband speed tests

The average UK broadband download speed was 6.86Mb.

Users can discover the broadband speed in their area by visiting
http://top10.com/broadband/speedtest/streetstats/


Revealed: The broadband blackspot map of Britain