Broadband rift divides Britain
Head North for life in fast lane
THE North is streets ahead of the South when it comes to broadband, analysis of 400,000 speed tests reveals.
Households in Dale Lane, in Appleton, Warrington, have the country’s fastest at an impressive 639Mbps (megabits per second).
In a reversal of the usual NorthSouth divide, they can download movies and music up to 5,330 times quicker than those in Queen’s Road, in Weybridge, Surrey.
Residents there face up to a two- day wait to download an HD Christmas film like Elf, at a snail ’s pace 0.12Mbps.
But those in Dale Lane would get the whole thing in 80 seconds.
Ernest Doku, broadband expert at Uswitch.com, said: “The digital divide has grown dramatically in the last year, with the fastest broadband 5,000 times quicker than the slowest.
“It’s interesting to see the North claims the fastest street, while the slowest is in the South East.”
More than half of users nationwide get “superfast” fibre optic connections providing over 30Mbps, up from a fifth in 2015.
But the study found huge variations, even within neighbouring areas, leaving some locked out of the homeworking revolution. Families in Woodcote Lane, Purley, Surrey, get a rapid 206.45Mbps compared to just 0.55Mpbs in Spencer Road, Caterham, a 17-minute drive away. Mr Doku said: “While it’s great more of us are enjoying ultrafast broadband, we don’t want large swathes of the country on shoddy connections that aren’t suitable for modern life.
“With millions of us working from home and watching more streaming TV, a good broadband connection is more important than ever.” @RukiSayid