A Merseyside neighbourhood has been revealed to have the slowest internet in the whole county.
People who live in King’s Moss area of St Helens see average download speeds of just 4.4 Mbit/s. That’s slower than 3G (around 6 Mbit/s) - but better than dial-up (0.06 Mbit/s).
The figures from Ofcom’s Connected Nations report show 34% of homes in the area are unable to receive download speeds of at least 2 Mbit/s. And when it comes to ultrafast internet (speeds of 100 Mbit/s or more), just 1% of homes in the area could get those speeds.
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In response to the new findings, St Helens North MP, Conor McGinn made clear that broadband is a necessity and he has lobbied the Conservative Government to imporove broadband in St Helens.
Mr McGinn told the ECHO: "Decent access to quick, reliable and affordable broadband isn’t a luxury, it’s a real essential that local people need to work, study, connect with loved ones, and get on with many basic tasks in their lives.
"The blight of poor internet connectivity is making that far too difficult for too many residents in areas like Rainford, Billinge, Haydock and right across St Helens.
"For years, I’ve lobbied the Conservative Government to go further and faster in ensuring speedy and dependable broadband for everyone in our communities, and I won’t stop until that’s finally been delivered."
Wirral has slow download speeds
At local authority level, properties in Wirral as a whole can expect the lowest average download speeds at 55.1 Mbit/s. The speed is based on the median - or how fast downloads are for the household in the middle of everyone in the area.
Households in St Helens enjoy the fastest average download speeds in the area at 76.3 Mbit/s. However, across Merseyside, there are 109 households that don’t get speeds of more than 2 Mbit/s.
Slowest internet in Britain
The places with the slowest internet in Britain are the areas around Adlington Road and Otterpool Lane in Lympne, in Folkestone and Hythe, and around Meikleyard in Ayrshire. Both areas have an average download speed of 0.5 Mbit/s.
That compares to 65 neighbourhoods across the country where the average speed is 1,000 Mbit/s. These are mostly in Lancashire, as well as South Lakeland in Cumbria, and Craven in North Yorkshire.
Connections that can achieve these kinds of speeds are known as gigabit connections (download speeds of up to 1 Gbit/s). As of September 2021, gigabit-capable broadband was available to 13.7 million homes across the UK (47%).
This includes full-fibre and upgraded cable networks that are capable of delivering download speeds of 1Gbit/s or higher. This figure has increased further as Virgin Media O2 completed an upgrade of its network in December.
The number of properties that can get full-fibre jumped by three million in a year to eight million, or 28% of homes. While 750,000 homes upgraded to these services in 2021, taking the number of properties connected to nearly two million, that’s only 24% of those to which full-fibre upgrades are available.
As part of its Levelling Up agenda, the Government has pledged that by 2030, the UK will have nationwide gigabit-capable broadband and 4G coverage, with 5G coverage for the majority of the population. It’s put forward £5bn to bring gigabit-capable broadband to 85% of the UK by 2025, and the £1bn for the Shared Rural Network deal with mobile operators to deliver 4G coverage to 95% of the UK by the same year.
Full fibre can better support data-hungry households where family members need to stream, work, game, video-call and study online at the same time. In a year when many people continue to work from home due to the coronavirus pandemic, average monthly data use grew to 453 GB per connection – more than triple the level of five years ago (132 GB).
Around 123,000 homes (0.4% of the UK) still do not have access to a ‘decent’ broadband connection – defined as offering download speeds of 10 Mbit/s and upload speeds of 1 Mbit/s. At this speed, it could take up to an hour and a half to download an HD film.
The UK Government and governments in each of the UK nations continue to deliver projects aimed at making sure people in the hardest-to-reach areas can get the connections they need. Since its launch in March 2020, orders have been placed under the Government’s universal broadband service that will result in around 6,500 households being connected to full-fibre broadband, and thousands more are expected to benefit from this scheme and others.
More work to do to make sure certain communities get connections they need
Lindsey Fussell, Ofcom's Network and Communications Group Director, said: "Full fibre is helping meet those demands, with millions more benefitting from faster speeds and more reliable connections. But some homes in hard-to-reach areas still struggle to get decent broadband, so there's more work to do to make sure these communities get the connections they need."
