Rural Yorkshire district lags near bottom of broadband speed table
A RURAL district in Yorkshire has been named among the worst locations for broadband speeds in the UK.
A report published today has revealed the best and worst broadband speeds, with the bottom three areas all in Scotland.
The research, conducted by the consumer organisation Which?, found that the Orkney Islands, Shetland Islands and Highland local authorities all averaged the lowest speeds.
Ryedale in North Yorkshire and Purbeck in Dorset made up the bottom five.
The fastest area was Tamworth, in the West Midlands, followed by Reading, Adur in West Sussex, Enfield and Dundee City.
Alex Neill, Which?’s managing director of home services, said: “Far too many households across the UK are suffering from slow broadband speeds, which can stop you being able to carry out essential daily tasks.
“We are encouraging everyone with broadband to use our speed checker so people can see if they are getting the speeds that they’ve been promised by their provider and find out how to complain if their speed is too slow.
“This will also help to further highlight where problem areas are across the UK, putting pressure on Government and providers to help everyone get a good broadband connection.”
The minimum download speed proposed under the Government’s Universal Service Obligation is 10Mbps, but the study found the average test in 12 local authority areas did not reach this speed.
And despite the majority of slow download speeds coming from rural areas, many local authority areas in big cities racked up rates below the national average.
The London boroughs of Southwark, Westminster, Lambeth, Hackney and the City of London were all found to be lagging behind the UK average, which was identified as 17Mbps in the report.
The locations with the best broadband speeds were Tamworth, Reading, Adur, Enfield, Dundee City, Luton, North-East Lincolnshire, Merton, Elmbridge and Broxbourne.
In comparison, the worst places were the Orkney Islands, the Shetland Islands, the Highlands, Ryedale, Purbeck, Na h-Eileanan Siar, Powys, West Devon, Eden, Rother and Stirling.