'Third of UK postcodes' have slow broadband speeds

While half of addresses get broadband speeds of 6.7Mbps or above, a third struggle to get speeds above 5Mbps, 1.7m speed tests found.

The East Sussex village of Winchelsea was the slowest, with an average speed of 1.1Mbps, according to uSwitch.

Hereford was the slowest city, with average speeds of 3.1Mbps.

The government wants to see super-fast broadband as the gold standard in most UK homes, and has pledged to make the UK the fastest broadband nation in Europe by 2015. By that time, it also promises to make sure that all homes have speeds of at least 2Mbps.

The uSwitch data - based on 1.68 million speed tests carried out over the last six months - suggests that there could still be some way to go.

UK'S SLOWEST POSTCODES

Winchelsea, East Sussex - 1.1Mbps
Menstrie, Clackmannanshire - 1.2Mbps
Askam in Furness, Cumbria - 1.25Mbps
St Bees, Cumbria - 1.38Mbps
Ripley, Surrey - 1.5Mbps
Newbiggin-by-the-sea, Northumberland - 1.6Mbps
Pembroke, Pembrokeshire - 1.65Mbps
Johnstone, Renfrewshire - 1.8Mbps
Lampeter, Ceredigion - 1.8Mbps
Watchet, Somerset - 1.8Mbps
 

"Britain might be riding the wave of a super-fast broadband revolution, but for 49% who get less than the national average broadband speed, the wave isn't causing so much a splash as a ripple," said Julia Stent, director of telecoms at uSwitch.

"And what's really surprising is the number of cities and towns such as Hereford and Carlisle that are suffering from slow broadband speeds, dispelling the view that it's just rural areas and small towns that have issues with their broadband," she added.

Other towns and cities to offer average broadband speeds of below 5Mbps include Kilmarnock (3.2Mbps), Dumfries (3.6Mbps), Canterbury (4Mbps) and Shrewsbury (4Mbps).

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