Broadband: towns with the fastest and slowest internet connections

New research reveals the villages, cities and even the streets with the fastest and slowest broadband speeds.

If there’s one thing that the last few years has made clear, it’s that having a half-decent internet connection is absolutely essential.

Working from home is not exactly straightforward if your broadband is unreliable, while streaming services like Netflix and Disney+ have played a huge role in keeping us entertained ‒ and vaguely sane ‒ when the working day finishes.

But life isn’t fair, which is why some areas enjoy fantastic internet coverage, while in others it’s a bit of a struggle.

So which are the streets with the fastest broadband services? And which have the slowest?

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Suffering from buffering

A new analysis from the experts at Broadband Genie has picked out the individual streets in the UK with the fastest and slowest broadband speeds.

The study broke down the average speeds at postcode level from more than 265,000 speed tests conducted over the last year.

And while the report found that the average speed across the country is 122.2mb per second, the reality is that there are some areas where you can enjoy must faster download speeds, and others where you are going to need the patience of a saint.

Let’s take a look at the hall of fame first:

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The streets with the fastest broadband

Street	Average speed (Mb)
Meadway, Northampton	896.30Mb
Rolvenden Grove, Milton Keynes:	711.64Mb
Colville Street, London	626.61Mb
Nicholas Meadow, Callington	619.82Mb
North Road East, Wingate	608.80Mb
Chestnut Avenue, Chesham	603.90Mb
Town Street, Pudsey	594.04Mb
Amethyst Road, Christchurch	587.17Mb
Lumsdale Crescent, Matlock	583.73Mb
Ridge Green, Redhill	569.70Mb

Interestingly only one of these streets is located within a major city. Seemingly the fastest streets are found in slightly less central locations.

What’s remarkable though are the speeds, which are vastly faster than not only the UK average but also the 10Mb minimums which Ofcom reckons are needed for basic digital needs.

Now let’s take a look at the streets which have the lowest speeds:

Street	Average speed (Mb)
Morriston Close, Watford	0.60Mb
Wade Court, Cheltenham	1.20Mb
Leazes Lane, Bishop Auckland	1.38Mb
Borstal Street, Rochester	1.39Mb
Rocks Lane, London	1.42Mb
Cefn Road, Bridgend	1.43Mb
Mersea Road, Colchester	1.53Mb
Hawthornvale, Edinburgh	1.57Mb
Hollin Drive, Wakefield	1.58Mb
Glebe Avenue, Braintree	1.70Mb

The speeds here are little short of shocking. Good luck trying to stream a film in you live on Morriston Close in Watford.

What about looking at larger areas, though? Just because one street has a dodgy service, the neighbouring street could be much faster, after all.

The areas with the fastest and slowest broadband speeds

Broadband Genie has also picked out the fastest and slowest villages and cities for broadband connections.

First let’s take a look at the quickest villages and cities:

Place	County	Average speed (Mb)	City	County	Average speed (Mb)
Lochwinnoch	Renfrewshire	409.2	Belfast	Antrim/Down	152
Monmouth	Monmouthshire	270.5	Portsmouth	Hampshire	122
Pudsey	West Yorkshire	241.6	Milton Keynes	Buckinghamshire	117.2
Wooler	Northumberland	225.1	Derry	Derry	114.9
Middlewich	Cheshire	223	Plymouth	Devon	109.5

And now the slowest villages and cities:

Place	County	Average speed (Mb)	City	County	Average speed (Mb)
Halkirk	Caithness	2.8	Canterbury	Kent	34.3
Lockerbie	Dumfries and Galloway	6.5	Ripon	North Yorkshire	39.9
Ringwood	Hampshire	6.8	Chester	Cheshire	43.6
Longhope	Gloucestershire	12	Carlisle	Cumbria	46
Laurencekirk	Kincardineshire	12.3	Worcester	Worcestershire	46.9

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Speed up your service

If your internet speeds are less than impressive then there are things you can do to improve them, no matter where you live.

Check out our guide on how to boost the signal and speeds within your home or just jump straight in and start searching for a better, faster deal.

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