(Image Credit: Sean MacEntee)
New data from ThinkBroadband shows Bristol leads the UK for superfast broadband coverage, with 97 percent of the city having access to high-speed connections. Alongside the fastest average download and upload speeds in the country, this strong coverage supports Bristol’s growing reputation as a technology hub.
The city’s average download speed is 30.6 Mbps and the average upload speed is 5.4 Mbps, based on measurements collected in the third quarter of 2015. Although these figures reflect city-wide averages, many areas already enjoy much faster services, with connections up to 152 Mbps available and plans to expand to 200 Mbps in the near future.
In the UK, broadband is classified as “superfast” when download speeds exceed 24 Mbps. After Bristol, the highest-ranked cities for superfast coverage are Birmingham, Liverpool, Bradford and Leeds, completing the top five. London ranks seventh overall.
At the other end of the scale, Hull ranks worst among UK cities for superfast broadband. Only 29 percent of properties in Kingston upon Hull East and 30 percent in Hull West have access to superfast connections. Hull North also appears in the bottom ten constituencies. Nearby Haltemprice and Howden, along with Beverley and Holderness, are listed among the worst twenty constituencies for superfast coverage.
The bottom 20 of the league:
| Area | % superfast 24 Mbps or faster |
% Under 2 Mbps USC | % Under 15 Mbps |
| Na h-Eileanan an Iar (Western Isles) | 21.9% | 2.8% | 71.8% |
| Kingston upon Hull East | 29.9% | 0% | 56.9% |
| Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle | 30.5% | 0% | 53.7% |
| Orkney and Shetland | 33.3% | 2.6% | 61.8% |
| Argyll and Bute | 35.1% | 2% | 45.1% |
| North Herefordshire | 37.7% | 1.3% | 46.7% |
| Carmarthen East and Dinefwr | 38.9% | 1% | 46.1% |
| Ross, Skye and Lochaber | 40.3% | 3.8% | 55.8% |
| Kingston upon Hull North | 39.2% | 0% | 45.7% |
| Haltemprice and Howden | 40.2% | 1.4% | 42.4% |
| Ceredigion | 44.2% | 2.9% | 49.9% |
| Montgomeryshire | 44.1% | 2.5% | 49.5% |
| Beverley and Holderness | 45.6% | 2.1% | 40.5% |
| Stroud | 47.5% | 0.5% | 27.7% |
| Tiverton and Honiton | 49.1% | 1.9% | 34.7% |
| Brecon and Radnorshire | 48.9% | 1.8% | 39.3% |
| Mid Ulster | 53.1% | 17.2% | 43% |
| Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross | 51.8% | 4.2% | 40.9% |
| Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale | 52.6% | 3.9% | 37.4% |
| Derbyshire Dales | 52.7% | 2.8% | 29.8% |
ThinkBroadband attributes much of Hull’s poor ranking to the local provider KC, which owns the phone lines and is rolling out a Lightstream fibre-optic network. Lightstream promises faster speeds than BT’s national Infinity superfast service but is slower to deploy because it requires more extensive installation work.
Currently, Lightstream is available to 30 percent of homes and 40 percent of businesses across Hull. KC aims to reach 60 percent of households by the end of next year, which would significantly improve local availability and introduce “ultrafast” connections exceeding 100 Mbps.
Are you satisfied with the superfast broadband rollout across the UK? Share your thoughts in the comments.