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A bridge in London

A bridge in London

Recently, various speed tests have been conducted by the consumer broadband advice site throughout the UK in order to find out the villages and towns with both fastest and slowest broadband speeds. These speed tests are measured in Mbps. Let us get to know more about these cities and what are the reforms required to put an end to this suffering.

Current Broadband Speed Scenario Around the UK
The speed of the broadband considerably varies in the urban regions. For instance, if you are living in Inverness or Cardiff, chances are more that you will struggle to download a 2 hour 50 minutes movie, but on the contrary you can do the same in lesser time if you are living in Birmingham.

There are some deprived regions where the broadband services were not satisfactory. Talking about Belfast, there are regions where the broadband services hardly meet the minimum speed of 2Mbps. Moving to Manchester, don’t expect the figures to vary too much. The figure dropped to 28% in Glasgow’s deprived regions, while the overall average of the city is a little above 65%.

The locals of Hull have recorded an average download speed of 12.40 Mbps for a period of July 2015 and April 2016. Milton Keynes and Aberdeen also have to face the same situation where they recorded the speed of 15.60 Mbps and 17.01 Mbps. The cities of UK should enjoy the privilege of high-speed broadband speed, yet only 24 cities have the privilege of using an average speed of 24 Mbps.

Miserden is known to receive a speed of 1.3 Mbps, in Laddingford if you are lucky then you might come across a speed of 0.7 Mbps. The locals are of the view that money had been sanctioned for making reforms in the area’s broadband network, but the changes are yet to be witnessed. Some of the locals of Colchester even complained that their houses are three years old, even then they are just getting a broadband speed that is less than 1 Mbps.

Appointment of first Technology Adviser

Mr. Liam Maxwell has joined as new Chief Technology Officer. His new role will dictate the expansion of the government relationships with the digital and technology industry in order to give a boost to the digital economy of UK. This will further prove handy in offering enhanced & world-class services to the the British citizens.

Mr. Maxwell said, his job will comprise of engaging the topmost leaders of the industry, which will cater to the digital market issues and scaling the role of UK in the new & emerging technologies such as blockchain, mass stimulation technologies and sharing economy, etc.

His core task will comprise of initiating amendments that will prove helpful in giving a boost to the digital economy of UK. He will also be accountable for the consolidation and expansion of the government’s relationship with the digital and technology industry, assembling the new National Technology Council and being a key source to boost the investment in the UK.

Government Initiative

The good times are all set to roll for all those who are struggling with the poor broadband speed. This is being said to the context to the reforms being initiated by UK’s government to propose ultra-fast broadband services. In order to execute this, the government is all set to pump in £1 billion investment. The government is hopeful of providing the people with a minimum speed of 24 Mbps per second by 2018. The best part is that the locals don’t have to upgrade their existing gadgets or switching to ISP. Now, the locals will soon get to enjoy YouTube videos without any interruption or without facing any buffering issue.

Gov UK Logo

Gov UK Logo

The Queen in her speech mentioned that the proposed reforms will also give a boost to the mobile coverage via cutting down the rents for the mast sites. As per the declaration by the government, a speed of 10 Mbps USO is confirmed as per the Digital Economy Bill. She added that these measures will provide the households with an easy access to high-speed broadband speed.

The ongoing code that regulates the alliance between the site providers and the electronic communications network never managed to become popular, owing to its complexity and having conflicts with other regulations. Talking about the providers, Sky is one of the leading broadband names in UK. Recently, they have taken their customer services to a next level by offering new and economic broadband plans & services. Above all, the government is interested in offering fast-paced broadband services and boost mobile coverage. This needs ECC becoming pliable towards the infrastructure developers so that they are able to build new telegraph poles and wireless masts.

Residential Broadband Significance

It has been found that setting up broadband connections, for the new homeowners, will have more priority as compared to maintaining water or gas supply. One out of five respondents displayed their interest in having fast-paced broadband services, electricity got 50% votes and water had 15% votes.

The users have shown interest in having a minimum speed of 9 Mbit/s and a potential buyer will prefer to spend 12% more for a property with a broadband having a speed of 100 Mbps. Around 70% of the respondents preferred having fast broadband speed.

Improving Slow Speed

The telecom industry and the government has claimed that around 85% of the nation has access to super-fast broadband, with the locals experiencing a minimum speed of 24 Mbps. However, around 50% cities and towns where speeds audited only had a standard download speed of 24Mbps. Low average speeds suggests that the people are not making the utmost use of the fibre broadband, the reasons being either they are not aware of the facility or they think that the prices for these services are on a higher end.

The figures suggested by the government states that more than 85% of the homes and businesses in the UK enjoy the facility of superfast broadband. The efforts are to take this figure to 95% by 2017. But, there is an increasing need of creating an awareness that fibre is available and home broadband users need to be aware of this fact and there is a need to set a feasible price for it.

Fastest and Slowest cities for broadband speed –

Let us have a rundown of the cities having both the fastest and slowest broadband speed –

Fastest
? Belfast- 34.34
? Brighton- 33.80
? Southampton- 27.03
? Swindon- 31.83
? Cardiff- 30.23
? Bristol- 28.63
? Rickmansworth- 195.02
? Huddersfield- 27.71
? Middlesbrough- 34.46
? Plymouth- 27.33
? Shepshed- 93.24
? Springburn- 106.36
? Llantwit Major- 74.61
? Guisgorough- 148.83
? Nottingham- 30.43

Slowest
? Norwich 19.43
? Sheffield 18.36
? Aberdeen 15.67
? Milton Keynes 17.10
? Hull 12.42
? Ashwell- 0.13
? Wakefield 17.49
? Doncaster 18.38
? Edinburgh 21.07
? Newcastle 21.14
? Brent Knoll- 0.63
? Miserden 0.12
? Newport 21.24
? Gilsland- 0.51
? Ulverston- 0.12

 

This article is a contribution to this website made by Hill Callie.