Slowest broadband streets in UK revealed

• Queens Road in Weybridge, Surrey, is crowned the UK’s slowest street for broadband — with average download speeds of 0.12Mbps
• This is 5,330 times slower than Dale Lane in Appleton, Cheshire, which boasts average speeds of 639.67Mbps
• Last year, the fastest street was only 830 times quicker than the slowest, suggesting the rise of ultrafast broadband is increasing the UK’s digital divide
• Seven of the ten slowest streets with speeds below 1Mbps could actually get broadband of at least 30Mbps if they upgraded their service
• Nearly 400,000 speed tests recorded — a 225% increase on last year — as locked-down households became ever more reliant on their home broadband
• Uswitch.com urges frustrated consumers to check what speeds they are getting and see if quicker broadband is available.

The slowest broadband in the UK, with an average download speed of 0.12Mbps, is found in Queens Road, Weybridge in Surrey, according to analysis of 398,973 consumer speed tests collated by Uswitch.com, the comparison and switching service. 

Sluggish-paced Queens Road is a staggering 5,330 times slower than the UK’s fastest street, Dale Lane in Appleton, Cheshire, where average speeds reached 639.67Mbps over the past year. 

Last year the worst street was only 830 times slower than the fastest street, suggesting that Britain’s digital divide is growing with the rollout of full-fibre broadband (FTTP) that is bringing ultrafast speeds to parts of the country.

It would take the unfortunate residents of Queens Road more than 119 hours to download a two-hour HD film and at least 44 hours to download a 45-minute HD TV show. By contrast, the people of Dale Lane would take just one minute and 20 seconds to download the same film or a mere 30 seconds to download the same show.

The slowest and fastest UK streets have been revealed by more than 398,973 ‘real world’ speed tests run by broadband users over the last year. The number of speed tests is up 225% on last year’s tally of 122,845, with the dramatic rise suggesting that consumers have been paying closer attention to the performance of their home broadband during lockdown.

The good news is that the number of broadband users enjoying faster speeds is growing. More than half of users (54%) now get speeds of more than 30Mbps, up from under a quarter (22%) five years ago. But despite the fact that superfast broadband (downloads speeds of 30Mbps or more) is available to 95% of the country, a recent Uswitch survey found that only six in ten (60%) believe they can access it in their local area.

Of the ten slowest streets, seven (70%) have access to a quicker service, suggesting that consumers are being deprived of better broadband simply because they aren’t checking. 

Table – UK’s ten slowest streets for broadband 

Source: Uswitch.com

Table – UK’s ten fastest streets for broadband

Source: Uswitch.com

Says Ernest Doku, broadband expert at Uswitch.com: 

“The digital divide that runs through Britain has grown dramatically in the last year, with the fastest street’s broadband more than 5,000 times quicker than the slowest’s.

“It’s interesting to see that the North claims the fastest street this year, while the slowest street is in the South East, showing that the speed of your connection has nothing to do with where you live. 

“It’s great that more of us are enjoying ultrafast broadband, but we don’t want to see large swathes of the country left behind on shoddy connections that aren’t suitable for modern life.

“With millions of us working from home and watching more streaming TV at the moment, a good broadband connection is more important than ever.”

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