Banchory street has the slowest broadband in Scotland
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Grant Road in Banchory has been crowned Scotland’s slowest street for broadband — with average download speeds of just 0.28Mbps.
This is 2,375 times slower than Murrayfield Terrace in Bannockburn, Stirling, which boasts average speeds of 665Mbps.
Last year Scotland’s fastest street only reached 276Mbps, highlighting the growth in ultrafast broadband, with average speeds up 10 percent in a year.
Residents in nine of the ten slowest streets in the UK could upgrade their service to get superfast broadband of at least 30Mbps.
It would take the residents of Grant Road more than 41 hours to download a two-hour HD film, compared to 62 seconds for the people living in Murrayfield Terrace.
Uswitch.com urges frustrated consumers to check what speeds they are getting and see whether faster broadband is available.
The slowest street for broadband in Scotland, with an average download speed of 0.28Mbps, is Grant Road in Banchory according to analysis of 276,083 consumer speed tests collated by Uswitch.com, the comparison and switching service.
Sluggish broadband in Grant Road is a staggering 2,375 times slower than Scotland’s fastest street, Murrayfield Terrace in Bannockburn, Stirling, where average download speeds reached 665Mbps over the past year.
Murrayfield Terrace is 389Mbps quicker than last year’s fastest street, showing the improvements in ultrafast broadband infrastructure across Scotland with the rollout of full fibre broadband.
For the unfortunate residents of Grant Road suffering slow speeds, it would take more than 41 hours to download a two-hour HD film.
By contrast, the people of Murrayfield Terrace could download the same film in just 62 seconds.
The good news is that the number of broadband users enjoying faster speeds is growing.
Two fifths of UK users (43 percent) now get superfast speeds of more than 30Mbps, which is almost double than those (22 percent) six years ago, but despite the fact that superfast broadband is available to 96 percent of the country, and ultrafast to 62 percent, a recent Uswitch survey found that four in ten (40 percent) are unaware they can access it in their local area.
Residents in nine of the ten slowest UK streets could actually have access to a quicker service, suggesting that consumers who are willing to pay for faster speeds are being deprived of better broadband because they aren’t aware they could change to a faster alternative.
The slowest and fastest UK streets have been revealed through the analysis of 276,083 speed tests run by broadband users over the last year.
The number of speed tests is up 124 percent on 2019’s tally of 122,845, with the dramatic rise suggesting that consumers have been paying closer attention to the performance of their home broadband since the start of the pandemic.
The slowest streets were:
- Grant Street, Banchory (0.28)
- Berriedale (0.4)
- Earlish, Portree (0.83)
- Rolland Avenue, East Wemyss (0.96)
- Houston Gardens, Uphall (0.98)
- Portlethen, Erskine (1.18)
- Duncan Drive, Elgin (1.34)
- Bunloit, Drumnadrochit (1.35)
- Clayton Caravan Park, St Andrews (1.67)
- East Park Street, Huntly (1.69)
The fastest streets were:
- Murrayfield Terrace, Bannockburn (665)
- Dalhousie Crescent, Dalkeith (576)
- Raith Drive, Cumbernauld (536)
- Harmony Street, Bonnyrigg (529)
- Abbotsford Avenue, Hamilton (473)
- Ruchill Street, Glasgow (420)
- Skylands Rise, Hamilton (389)
- Tower Place, Edinburgh (371)
- Paterson Drive, Dumfries (313)
- Galashiels Avenue, Chapelhall (311)
Broadband expert Ernest Doku said: “Scotland’s broadband keeps getting quicker every year, but parts of the country continue to be left behind.
“Residents of this year’s fastest street, Murrayfield Terrace, could download a film in 62 seconds - where it would take those living in Grant Road more than 41 hours to do the same thing.
“At a time when so many of us rely on our broadband for work, streaming films and TV, and gaming, it’s hard to imagine how frustrating such a slow connection must be.
“It’s great to witness the increased uptake of ultrafast broadband, but we don’t want to see large swathes of the country left behind on shoddy connections that aren’t cutting it for modern life.
“Initiatives like the Universal Service Obligation and Project Gigabit are helping improve connections at both ends of the spectrum, but there is a lot more to be done so consumers don’t get left behind.
“Of the ten slowest streets, nine could have access to faster broadband, so we urge residents there — and anyone else unhappy with their broadband speeds — to do a quick search online to see what speeds they could be getting with another provider.”
Anyone frustrated with their broadband service can test what speed they’re getting at www.uswitch.com/broadband/speedtest
