London internet speed varies across capital as slowest and fastest streets for broadband revealed
Dufferin Street in Islington was named London’s slowest street for broadband
(Pierre Terre/Geograph)London’s worst street for broadband is almost 50 times slower than its fastest, new research reveals.
Dufferin Street in Islington shows average download speeds of 3.15Mbps, which is not even considered adequate for watching good-quality video, let alone all other online tasks.
This compares to speeds of 141.3Mbps on Junction Road in Enfield, with Franche Court Road in Wandsworth taking second place at 118.74Mbps.
Central Park Road in Newham retains its position from last year as the third fastest street in the capital. It is the only street from 2019 to reappear in this year’s top rankings for the city.
The results are part of UK-wide research conducted by comparison site Uswitch.com, based on some 398,973 “real world” speed tests run by broadband users over the last year.
London’s top five fastest streets are as follows:
Junction Road, Enfield: 141.3Mbps
Franche Court Road, Wandsworth: 118.74Mbps
Central Park Road, Newham: 107.12Mbps
Dulwich Road, Lambeth: 106.12Mbps
Ashbourne Avenue, Barnet :73.58Mbps
London’s five slowest streets are:
Dufferin Street, Islington: 3.15Mbps
Roundwood Terrace, Haringey: 3.28Mbps
Rookstone Road, Upminster: 3.63Mbps
Seymour Gardens, Lewisham: 3.8Mbps
Rathcoole Avenue, Haringey: 4.5Mbps
Despite its unenviable position within the capital’s scoreboard, Dufferin Street performs markedly better than the country’s most sluggish streets for broadband.
This is most likely because it is located in an urban area with a wider general coverage compared to more rural areas.
Queens Road in Weybridge, Surrey, took the crown for the nation’s slowest connection, coming in with average download speeds of 0.12Mbps.
This is 5,330 times slower than the country’s fastest street, Dale Lane in Appleton, Cheshire, which records average speeds of 639.67Mbps.
This means that the residents of Queens Road would have to wait approximately 119 hours to download a two-hour high definition film, while Dale Lane’s lucky inhabitants could expect it within about a minute and 20 seconds.
Home working has placed added strain on broadband demands
Uswitch.com said the latest results suggest a growing digital divide across the country when compared to the 2019 analysis. According to last year’s survey, the fastest street was only 830 times quicker than the slowest.
“The digital divide that runs through Britain has grown dramatically in the last year, with the fastest street’s broadband more than 5,000 times quicker than the slowests,” said Ernest Doku, the site’s broadband expert.
“It’s interesting to see that the North claims the fastest street this year, while the slowest street is in the south east, showing that the speed of your connection has nothing to do with where you live.
“It’s great that more of us are enjoying ultra-fast broadband, but we don’t want to see large swathes of the country left behind on shoddy connections that aren’t suitable for modern life.”
However, the findings suggest that the number of broadband users enjoying faster speeds is growing, with more than half (54 per cent) able to receive speeds of more than 30Mbps, up from under a quarter (22 per cent) five years ago.
There is also concern that people are not checking whether they can get faster speeds, with research showing seven out of the ten slowest streets have access to a quicker service.
“With millions of us working from home and watching more streaming TV at the moment, a good broadband connection is more important than ever,” Mr Doku continued.
“One of the biggest obstacles stopping people from getting faster downloads speeds is the lack of awareness regarding superfast and ultra-fast broadband.
“For example, some people on the UK’s fastest street, Dale Lane, enjoy speeds above 900Mbps, while others only get 5.5Mbps.
“And of the ten slowest streets, seven could have access to faster broadband, so we urge residents there — and anyone else unhappy with their broadband speeds — to do a quick check online to see what speeds they could be getting.”
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