Ofcom has released its first ever interactive map showing UK broadband speeds and it’s not a pretty picture for most of the country. While 68% of premises have a broadband connection, the average maximum speed is a paltry 7.5Mbit/s.

Casting your eye over the colour coded Ofcom map also reveals that most of us live in areas classed as on the lower end of Ofcom’s performance scale with Wales coming out worst. Read on to discover the best places to live if you crave a speedy connection and where you’re guaranteed to be frustrated…

The Ofcom map reveals that Brighton & Hove has the highest take up of broadband services in the country with 80% of households hooked up but it’s not home to the fastest connections. Edinburgh has the speediest average maximum speed at 10.1Mbit/s with Bristol close behind at 9.9Mbit/s.

While 58% of UK addresses can access superfast broadband, the best place to be to get connected at high speed is Northern Ireland where there’s 97% availability thanks to a major investment programme.

If you’re particularly unlucky, you could find yourself among the 14% of UK broadband customers who receive speeds of less than 2Mbit/s. They tend to be in rural areas where the old copper phone lines are longer.

You can explore the interactive Ofcom UK broadband speed map on the regulator’s website. Let us know in the comments whether it’s right about the broadband speeds you’re getting where you live.

Out now | £free | Ofcom

Be Sociable, Share!
  • http://www.facebook.com/nickthomas125 Nick Thomas

    I live in South Gloucestershire and get 1.8mb/s shocking

  • http://twitter.com/tawalker T.A. (Tim) Walker

    “If you’re particularly unlucky, you could find yourself among the 14% of
    UK broadband customers who receive speeds of less than 2Mbit/s. They
    tend to be in rural areas where the old copper phone lines are longer.”

    I live on the outskirts of a large town in the Home Counties, on an estate which was a field ten years ago, less than a mile from a new-ish, BT Infinity-enabled exchange… and we STILL struggle to get 2Mbps even on a good day. To rub the salt in, BT says they have no idea when this lamentable service will be improved.

    Talk about the broadband “slow lane” – we’re stuck on a rural dirt-track. And we’re not even in the countryside.

  • Retrohead

    I used to get absolutely terrible speeds with orange broadband. I mean, suicidally bad. Toward the end of my time with orange, I had about 10kb/s maximum. Now that I’ve switched to BT I get 0.5MB/s max which is much better but still pretty bad. Damn rural areas.

  • http://twitter.com/Patrick_J73 Patrick Johnson

    I have Digital Region Broandband which is in alot of South Yorkshire and its fibre to cab.
    I’m paying £25 for upto 40mbps and get most days around 32mbps and A upload speed of 6-7mbps.

    I’m at the end of my normal adsl exchange and that only gave 2.5mbps

    So I’m happy with it for the money its unlimited. But they do not seem able to signup any big players like talktalk or BT etc as they need to as they only provide the backbone for this service.

    I’m with a small company and that don’t have the best support system in place.
    But I guess thats the price you pay for speed LOL

  • http://www.connetu.com/ Paul Brown

    I’m sure providers will do what they can to increase broadband speed over time. It doesn’t benefit them to provide a slow connection because they know they will receive less customers, whereas a company which increases it’s average broadband speed knows it will get more customers. 

  1. The machine that turns brainwaves into music
  2. The vibrating suit: Using sensors to train Olympians
  3. Smart Skin: Squid and zebrafish inspire camouflage tech

Hot chat, right here!


Our most commented stories right now...