A new analysis of 149,187 consumer broadband ISP speed tests claims to have identified the top fastest and slowest cities across the United Kingdom. For example, Canterbury (22Mbps) in Kent is named as the slowest city for the second consecutive year, while the fastest was found to be Lichfield (359Mbps) in Staffordshire.
The data, which was gathered during a 12-month period by Broadband Genie using the BroadbandUK speed test solution, only included cities that had a minimum of 150 speed tests in the area from residential connections. Cities were then ranked from fastest to slowest on weighted broadband speed, which requires a little more explanation below.
In order to calculate the weighted broadband speed in each area, the 10th, 50th and 90th percentile (median) was taken from all locations for both download and upload speed. Percentile download and upload speeds were then calculated into an average using a 1:8:1 weighted ratio (i.e. an attempt to emphasise and represent what the majority of customers experience daily). The final ‘weighted speed’ is based on an 80/20% split of download and upload speed.
As usual, it’s necessary to point out that speedtest based studies like this don’t tell you the whole story and are more a reflection of what connections or packages consumers have taken than the actual underlying availability of faster networks. On top of that, the study appears to have included tests from both fixed broadband and mobile broadband connections, which are obviously two very different sides of the internet connectivity market.
Consumer awareness, or lack thereof, can also impact the adoption of faster packages. In other cases, consumers may be aware that a faster service exists, but they have simply chosen not to upgrade due to various issues (e.g. higher prices, being stuck in a long 18-24 month contract term or a simple lack of need / desire for anything faster). But the study does at least attempt to balance against some of this with its weighting system.
Finally, such studies can also be influenced by other factors too – ones that can be quite opaque to speed tests, such as poor home wiring, local (home) network congestion, any limitations of the remote speed tester itself and slow WiFi performance etc. In short, take these results with a pinch of salt, although it’s worth remembering that all the listed locations will share these same caveats.
Just to underline some of these points, the study notes that the slowest named city of Canterbury “currently lacks the otherwise widely available Virgin Media and almost a third (30%) of premises don’t have access to full fibre broadband“. But that still means that over 70% of premises could access gigabit broadband speeds if they wanted, often via either Openreach (dominant coverage), Netomnia (YouFibre), nexfibre (Virgin Media) or OFNL, which isn’t bad. For example, the areas covered by YouFibre can access speeds of up to 7-8Gbps!
Fastest and Slowest 71 UK Cities for Broadband
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