The best and worst
for broadband
At 0.54Mbps,Williamson Road’s average
download speed is 135 times slower than the
UK’s fastest street, Sandy Lane in Cannock,
Staffordshire, where average speeds over the
last six months were 72.86Mbps – and 42 times
slower than the average speed for the UK as a
whole (22.8Mbps).
OnWilliamson Road, it takes 19 hours to
download a two-hour HD film and 49 minutes to
download a 20-song music album, compared to 8
minutes and 22 seconds respectively on Sandy Lane.
According to research based on more than
one million speed tests run by broadband users
over a six month period, a third (34%) of the UK
still struggles with sub-5Mbps speeds, while an
unlucky 23% make do with sluggish speeds of
less than 3Mbps.
On a positive note, the number of people
enjoying super-fast speeds is growing. More than
a fifth (22%) of broadband users now get average
speeds of 30+Mbps, up from 15% a year ago.
Commenting on the findings, Ewan Taylor-
Gibson, broadband expert at uSwitch.com, said:
“On the UK’s slowest street, broadband speeds
are so sluggish you could fly to the Bahamas and
back again in the time it takes to download a film.
Likely causes include the user’s distance from the
nearest exchange or issues within the properties
themselves.Wireless connections can be affected
by the thickness of walls, for example, but your
broadband provider can usually offer a solution if
that’s the case.”
He also pointed out that consumers were
often enduring slow speeds unnecessarily.
“Superfast broadband is now available to more
than three quarters of the UK, but nearly a third
(31%) don’t realise they can get it.We looked
at which of the 30 slowest streets had superfast
availability and, interestingly, 37% of them do, but
residents have obviously chosen not to take up
superfast services,” he said.
He added: “More needs to be done to increase
awareness of fibre availability and its benefits.
Superfast broadband isn’t as expensive as some
users might think, with prices averaging an extra
£9 a month on top of standard broadband costs.”
To test your broadband speed, go to
.
With an average download speed of 0.54Mbps,Williamson Road
in Romney Marsh, Kent has the slowest broadband in the UK,
according to price comparison and switching service uSwitch.com.
Broadband
magazine
01732 759725
31
Rank Street name & location
Average
download
speed (Mbps)
1 Williamson Road, Lydd-on-Sea,
Romney Marsh, Kent
0.535
2 Great Fen Road, Soham, Ely,
Cambridgeshire
0.547
3 Styles Close, Luton, Bedfordshire
0.800
4 Mardu Lane, Clun, Craven Arms,
Shropshire
0.884
5 Weston Beggard Lane,Weston
Beggard, Hereford, Herefordshire
0.914
6 Cheadle Road, Alton,
Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire
0.916
7 Mill Lane, Horndon on the Hill,
Stanford-le-Hope, Essex
0.928
8 Llansadwrn, Menai Bridge,
Isle of Anglesey
0.948
9 Solway Road, Moresby Parks,
Whitehaven, Cumbria
0.963
10 Shorthorn Road, Stratton
Strawless, Norwich, Norfolk
0.964
Street name & location
Average
download
speed (Mbps)
Sandy Lane, Hatherton, Cannock,
Staffordshire
72.86
Stockfield Road, Yardley,
Birmingham,West Midlands
71.37
Aigburth Drive, Liverpool
71.20
Southhouse Broadway,
Edinburgh, City of Edinburgh
68.53
Winchcombe Close, Swindon,
Wiltshire
68.41
Alexandra Court, East Lindsey,
Skegness, Lincolnshire
68.19
The Close, Conway Avenue,
Thornton-Cleveleys, Blackpool
65.29
University Terrace, Pittenweem,
Anstruther, Fife
64.62
Bulwer Gardens, Barnet,
Greater London
64.56
New Church Road, Hove,
The City of Brighton & Hove
61.03
The 10 slowest streets
Broadband in the UK
(Source: uSwitch.com Broadband Speed Tracker)
The 10 fastest streets
Call from your mobile even
when there’s no signal
Smartphone users who can’t get a
mobile signal in some rooms – up to
four million in the UK, apparently – can
overcome the problem with a newWiFi
Calling service launched by EE.
The service, which is available on
certain smartphones including the
Lumia 640 and Samsung Galaxy S6 and
S6 Edge, makes mobile calls and texts
available wherever there is WiFi coverage
in a building.
EE says that unlike some similar
services,WiFi Calling from EE uses the
phone’s normal dialler and contacts
book to make calls, and the normal text
button to send text messages. There is no
need for an app and friends don’t need
to use the same closed
user group to talk to or
message each other.
By summer 2015,
EE hopes more than five
million EE pay monthly
consumer and small
business customers will
have access toWiFi
Calling.
Death to theWi-Fi
dead spot
BT is addressing
the problem of Wi-Fi
dead spots in homes
and small offices with
the introduction
of solutions that
extendWi-Fi coverage
throughout a building and even into
the garden. These include the Mini Wi-
Fi Home Hotspot 500 Kit, a powerline
extender that enables users to get a
WiFi signal in any room that has a
power socket, and the 11ac Dual-Band
Wi-Fi Extender 1200, which extends
coverage by boosting theWiFi signal
via a single plug placed at the edge
of an existing wireless router’s range.
Later in the year BT plans to introduce
a 1000Mbps powerline wired
broadband extender that doubles the
speed of existing solutions.
