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Do you live in the worst town in the UK for home broadband?
Thanks to Broadband Genie, it's now possible to find out. The popular comparison site has analysed data from 149,000 speed tests across the country to come up with a definitive leaderboard of the best — and worst — towns and cities across the UK for broadband speed. We've published the full list later in this article.
Canterbury suffers from the worst broadband speeds, with average downloads of 22Mbps throughout the city. That's slower than what BT-owned Openreach, which owns and operates the largest broadband infrastructure across the UK — connecting to 99% of homes and businesses nationwide, classifies as its "Standard Broadband" packages for "hard to reach areas".
Clearly, Canterbury — one of the most expensive UK cities to live in — isn't a remote rural location that would explain these poor speeds. According to research by Broadband Genie, Canterbury currently lacks the otherwise widely available Virgin Media and almost a third (30%) of premises don’t have access to full-fibre broadband, which drag down the average speeds across the city.
Canterbury, in Kent, is one of the most expensive cities to live in ...but despite that hefty asking price, broadband connections leave a lot to be desired
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Other factors can influence the results too, the team behind the research point out. Faulty infrastructure and Wi-Fi connectivity issues can dampen the performance. Plus, a general lack of awareness that improvements have been made to infrastructure, unwillingness to pay for a faster upgrade, and confusing terminology may put off some customers. This results in more people staying on slow broadband deals which aren’t fit for purpose.
The next two slowest cities remain unchanged from the 2023 report by Broadband Genie. The second-worst for speeds remains the Cathedral City of Ripon, in North Yorkshire. This also fails to meet the requirements of most entry-level full-fibre packages, which offer roughly 28Mbps.
However, Broadband Genie sees signs of hope — CityFibre is connecting thousands of premises to full-fibre broadband and altnet Zzoomm is planning to expand into the area. Alt-net is an industry term for smaller broadband providers that operate their own networks.
Many of these newer brands offer full-fibre internet connections to local areas not served by infrastructure from Virgin Media or BT’s Openreach, which is used by most nationwide brands.
A view at sunrise of St Mary's Church spire from Tamworth Street in the centre of the ancient and historic city of Lichfield in Staffordshire
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If you're looking for the best broadband speeds in the UK, you'll need to pack-up and move to Lichfield. This city in the heart of Staffordshire topped the charts with an average broadband speed of 359Mbps — that's 16x faster than broadband users are experiencing in Canterbury.
In other words, it would take home broadband users in Canterbury almost one hour to download Denis Villeneuve's blockbuster science-fiction epic Dune: Part II ...while those in Lichfield would be ready to watch the 2h 47m movie in under four minutes. That's barely enough time to make popcorn in the microwave.
Newry, Northern Ireland, was the second best positioned for speedy downloads. However, this charted with notably slower speeds of 138Mbps. Ely, Dundee and Lisburn ticked off the rest of the top five towns.
As for the capital city, London ranked in 38th position with an average score of 57Mbps. That's slower than Openreach's average broadband speed across the UK, which was set at 69Mbps last year. Ouch.
When it comes to UK capitals, Edinburgh (12th) has the broadband bragging rights. Previously held by Belfast, which drops to (15th), the Scottish capital recorded weighted broadband speeds of 78Mbps — fractionally ahead of the Northern Irish city (76Mbps), 26% faster than London (57Mbps) and 36% more than Cardiff (50Mbps).
Some of the worst-ranked cities in the Broadband Genie research don't even meet the Openreach criteria for the most remote and rural connections across the UK, shown above
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The team at Broadband Genie says it put together its leaderboards based on over 149,000 real user speed tests, using a mix of download and upload speeds to reflect what most customers experience daily. Tests were taken from fixed and mobile connections. These were run through Broadband Genie and other partners using the BroadbandUK speed test solution, it confirmed to GB News.
Full fibre broadband is available to 68% of the UK, and the Government plans to reach 85% by 2025. However, barriers to uptake, such as cost, confusing language in advertising and on websites — with people often mistakenly believing they've signed up for fibre-optic speeds, all working to slow the adoption rate.
Speaking about the results, Broadband Genie Strategist Alex Tofts said: "No broadband customer should accept a sub-par service, least of all in a year when customers are putting up with hefty price rises. Most of Britain’s biggest providers sign up to Ofcom’s Broadband Speeds Code of Practice. This means they have to be clear about the speeds you should expect at your address, including a guaranteed minimum they must keep above.
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"Speed tests are a useful tool for regularly monitoring the performance you are receiving. If they are falling short of what has been promised, contact your provider and raise the issue. It’s worth bearing in mind that poor broadband speeds can also be influenced by factors outside your provider’s control, so make sure you check these first. Poor home wiring or a poorly positioned or a faulty router could be dragging your Wi-Fi down.
"Residents in the slowest towns and cities may also be suffering unnecessarily, with faster speeds available in their area if they switch. If you are out of contract and looking to upgrade your broadband, do a quick comparison online to see the best deals on offer.
"You may even end up paying less for a better and faster service."
| Rank | City | Broadband speed (Mbps) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lichfield | 359 |
| 2 | Newry | 138 |
| 3 | Ely | 118 |
| 4 | Dundee | 100 |
| 5 | Lisburn | 99 |
| 6 | Oxford | 94 |
| 7 | Stoke-on-trent | 91 |
| 8 | Cambridge | 85 |
| 9 | Bangor | 83 |
| 10 | Liverpool | 81 |
| 11 | Hull | 80 |
| 12 | Edinburgh | 78 |
| 13 | Inverness | 77 |
| 14 | Dunfermline | 77 |
| 15 | Belfast | 76 |
| 16 | Londonderry | 75 |
| 17 | Hereford | 74 |
| 18 | Nottingham | 73 |
| 19 | Manchester | 72 |
| 20 | St Albans | 67 |
| 21 | Derby | 67 |
| 22 | Coventry | 66 |
| 23 | Armagh | 66 |
| 24 | Colchester | 66 |
| 25 | Wrexham | 65 |
| 26 | Durham | 64 |
| 27 | Wakefield | 64 |
| 28 | Plymouth | 62 |
| 29 | Salisbury | 62 |
| 30 | Truro | 62 |
| 31 | Stirling | 62 |
| 32 | Southampton | 61 |
| 33 | Brighton | 61 |
| 34 | Chelmsford | 61 |
| 35 | Leeds | 60 |
| 36 | Newport | 58 |
| 37 | Chichester | 57 |
| 38 | London | 57 |
| 39 | Bristol | 57 |
| 40 | Sheffield | 57 |
| 41 | Swansea | 57 |
| 42 | Sunderland | 57 |
| 43 | Leicester | 56 |
| 44 | Bath | 56 |
| 45 | Lancaster | 56 |
| 46 | Gloucester | 56 |
| 47 | Lincoln | 56 |
| 48 | Southend-on-Sea | 54 |
| 49 | Glasgow | 54 |
| 50 | Preston | 54 |
| 51 | Portsmouth | 53 |
| 52 | Salford | 51 |
| 53 | Wolverhampton | 51 |
| 54 | Bradford | 50 |
| 55 | Doncaster | 50 |
| 56 | Cardiff | 50 |
| 57 | Milton Keynes | 49 |
| 58 | Carlisle | 46 |
| 59 | Worcester | 46 |
| 60 | Newcastle | 45 |
| 61 | Peterborough | 45 |
| 62 | Exeter | 45 |
| 63 | Chester | 44 |
| 64 | York | 43 |
| 65 | Aberdeen | 42 |
| 66 | Birmingham | 41 |
| 67 | Winchester | 40 |
| 68 | Norwich | 38 |
| 69 | Perth | 37 |
| 70 | Ripon | 28 |
| 71 | Canterbury | 22 |
