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A third of all UK homes are failing to get broadband speeds that reach the national average, according to data that compiles the results of around 1.7m speed tests conducted by frustrated men.
While over half of the country gets above the national average connection speed of 6.7Mbps, there are some terribly slow crunch spots. Winchelsea, in East Sussex, manages a woeful average broadband speed of 1.1mps, while the data also shows terrible connections in many other seemingly urban areas.
Those who live in the city of Hereford are staring at speed tests showing they receive an average connection of 3.1Mbps, for example.
Of course, there are still many rural places where people are struggling with dial-up or laggy satellite connections and don’t have a broadband connection at all, so bear that in mind before furiously petitioning your MP for a fibre link. [BBC]
Image credit: Broadband from Shutterstock
“…over half of the country gets above the national average…”
Is it just me, or is the above statement a little pointless?! Unless my maths GCSE is letting me down (not for the first time admittedly)
/agree
Over half of the country are above the national average.
lets says the national average is worked out like all averages.
100 People perform a speed test, over 50 of them get 8MB, 30 get 1MB the rest get 4MB.
(50 *
+ (30 * 1) + (20 * 4) / 100 = 5.1MB
Those with the 8MB are obviously pretty happy about it according to your calculation.
Oh thank god someone was all over that one
Correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t the whole point of an average that some portion of the population (the exact proportion being dependant on whether you’re using mean, median or mode) will be below the average! isn’t that how averages work?
Really? One third? That’s surprising. One would expect about half of all postcodes to have broadband speeds below average. If speeds are distributed normally, then about half will above average and half below average.
The fact that it is only one third suggests that broadband speeds are pretty constant across the UK. In other words, your report shows just the opposite of what you take it to show.
Doesn’t it show that the gap between the fastest and slowest speeds are getting larger. You’d hope it would be around 50 / 50 if upgrades were happening in the correct locations.
I only get half meg through bt where I am, but through Virgin I can get 100mb. What figure would they have taken for this survey?
It’s a disgrace! the government should ensure that everyone gets above the national average.
“Winchelsea, in East Sussex, manages a woeful average broadband speed of 1.1mps”
Lucky them, where I live our street gets an average of 0.9Mbps. ADSL only round these parts.
Thanks to Sky my broadband speeds are nothing but total shite! ‘Sky: Believe in Better’… I wish!
You here they are upgrading soon all the time but it never happens. If you live in the city you can expect good speeds but the towns and villages most people actually live in no luck.
At the moment we are paying Sky for 24Mb and supposedly the line supports 6Mb and in reality only get 4.5Mb. The only saving grace is that its cheap and unlimited and they are otherwise helpful unlike when we were with BT who were unhelpful, called all the time to try to sell more services and charged much more for limited bandwidth.
You see adverts for high speed broadband at 50Mb and over but I would be far more impressed if they could provide speeds of around 20mb to most what is part of one of the largest towns in Scotland. Part of the problem is the exchange needs an upgrade they also need more exchanges but I doubt they will.
I have virgin media fiber optic and it does run at 10MB for 3GB of downtime (downloads/streaming) during the day but is then capped to 3MB for 6hrs after 3GB of that activity. Which is not really acceptable. I understand that it is busier during the day but it seems that even with fiber ops you don’t get a better deal. I can say however that after 1~2am UK time the speed stays constant at 10MB, But how many people benefit from this is questionable. “Double your speeds” says usain bolt as branson, But that’s really “double your cap” in real terms. All pointless.