Lack of awareness driving a widening broadband speed gap

The average UK home download speed is currently 59.4Mbps, yet the broadband gap between UK households in the same neighbourhood is widening, according to USwitch.

In the three UK cities with the widest broadband speed gaps, the areas reporting the slowest speeds had far faster broadband packages available, including full fibre services.

“While the average UK broadband speed is increasing year on year, not everyone is benefiting,” said Ernest Doku, broadband expert at Uswitch.com.

“Advances in technology and the rollout of infrastructure means that millions of customers have far faster options on their doorstep. And competition among providers offering full fibre services has also helped to deliver better value to consumers.”

USwitch finds that consumers on a standard copper wire connection can likely at least triple their current speed by moving to another deal for around the same price or even cheaper.

Research of 16,500 consumer speed tests found that Glasgow has the UK’s biggest broadband speed gap, with its quickest area getting speeds 866 times faster than the slowest.

The highest average download speed measured in Glasgow was 840.4Mbps, logged in the Milton district. Four miles away in the suburb of Bearsden, speeds as low as 0.97Mbps were recorded.

Nottingham and Cardiff have the next biggest download rate divides, while Portsmouth, Wolverhampton and Bradford were the most equal.