UK’s worst street for broadband is more than 5000 times slower than the fastest

Uswitch.com research crowns Queens Road in Weybridge, Surrey as slowest street for broadband

The slowest street for broadband has been revealed following research conducted by Uswitch.com.

Queens Road in Weybridge Surrey has an average download speed of just 0.12Mbps which is 5,330 times slower than Dale Lane in Appleton, Cheshire which boasts average speeds of 639.67Mbps.

Last year the worst street was only 830 times slower than the fastest street, suggesting a digital divide is developing with the rollout of full-fibre broadband.

It would take 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. This is in contrast to Dale Lane where it would take just one minute and 20 seconds to download the same film or 30 seconds for 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 tests is up 225 per cent on last year’s tally of 122,845 with the dramatic rise suggesting that consumers are paying closer attention to the performance of their home broadband during lockdown.

The number of broadband users enjoying faster speeds is growing. 54 per cent of users now get speeds of more than 30Mbps, up from under a quarter (22 per cent) five years ago.

This is despite the fact that superfast broadband is available to 95 per cent of the country. A Uswitch survey found that only 60 per cent believe they can access it in their local area.

Uswitch.com broadband expert Ernest Doku said: “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.

“One of the biggest obstacles stopping people from getting faster download speeds is the lack of awareness regarding superfast and ultrafast broadband.

“For example, some people on the UK’s fastest street, Dale Lane, enjoy speeds above 900Mbps, while others only get 5.5Mbps.

“And of the ten slowest streets, seven could have access to faster broadband, so we urge residents there — and anyone else unhappy with their broadband speeds — to do a quick check online to see what speeds they could be getting.”

Users can test their speeds at www.uswitch.com/broadband/speedtest.