Last updated on April 14th, 2021 at 11:41 am
Last year David Cameron promised fast broadband for every person in the UK by 2020 prioritising fast and affordable broadband as a legal right in the modern world.
Broadband alone is no longer enough to keep up with the pace and amount of usage people now consume. With more people than ever streaming television, online gaming and downloading music and film, superfast broadband is required and has now become the norm with 83% of UK premises using it in 2015, up from 75% in 2014.
To answer the question, ‘Which UK city has the fastest broadband?’, you first have to break down the question into specifics such as download speed and area coverage. The fastest broadband in the UK at the moment is superfast broadband which offers speeds up to 300Mbps. Therefore, to find out where the fastest broadband in the UK is you need to look at which city has the most coverage of superfast broadband.
In Ofcom’s 2015 Connected Nations Report the UK cities with the fastest broadband speeds in terms of area coverage are listed.
Luton, Belfast and Portsmouth come up top with an average of 97% area coverage of superfast broadband. Brighton, Plymouth and Lincolnshire follow suit with 95% area coverage. On the other end of the spectrum were cities such as Kent, Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire.
Surprisingly, a lot of the UK’s major cities, including London, are not at the top of the list for broadband coverage. Phone giant Vodafone blames the lack of broadband coverage in London to the minimal number of antennas around the city, currently around 2.5 antennas per kilometre, which is around a third less than that of other major cities around Europe who have an average of 7 antennas per kilometre.
Mr Cameron has four years left to ensure that every home in the UK has access to affordable superfast broadband. However, Ofcom raise some doubts as to whether his goal is achievable. The independent communications regulator claim that over 2 million city homes and almost 50% of homes in rural areas are still using broadband with speeds of only 10Mbps.