More than 1m still have slow broadband

MOrE than a million homes and offices still struggle to get ‘decent’ broadband, a major report has found.

Britons in rural areas get the worst deal, with more than one in six countryside homes suffering from slow connections.

this is defined as less than ten megabits per second – the speed it would take to download a high definition film in 90 minutes.

By contrast, just 2 per cent of users in urban areas have to put up with broadband services this poor.

Some 1.1million homes and offices in Britain still have no access to decent broadband services, down from 1.6million last year.

Ofcom, which published the report, said that the so-called ‘digital divide’ between urban and rural Britain was improving – but there is still a lot of progress to be made.

the watchdog’s technology chief Steve unger said: ‘Broadband coverage is improving, but our findings show there’s still urgent work required before people and businesses get the services they need. Everyone should have good access to the internet.’

Earlier this month, it emerged that a ‘postcode lottery’ means that residents in one part of Britain put up with broadband services 260 times slower than in the fastest.

People who live in thorpe lane in Suffolk’s trimley St Martin have such slow internet, they have to wait more than 21 hours just to download a two-hour film from netflix – longer than a flight to australia.

their broadband averages just 0.68 megabits per second (mbps) – 53 times slower than for the typical British household.

the findings will heap pressure on the Government to ensure everyone has access to decent broadband.

Digital minister Matt hancock said yesterday: ‘We will have taken superfast broadband to 95 per cent of the uK by the end of the year but we are not complacent and there is more work to be done.’