Household bills aren't cheap these days—and especially not broadband. Many of us fork out hundreds every year just to access basic online services, and yet sometimes even the priciest networks offer glacially slow connections.
Well, it might not be your Wi-Fi router causing the issue. New research by Broadband Genie has revealed which of the UK's towns and cities are the slowest when it comes to broadband access, with 32 cities falling below the average speed of 69.4MB recorded by Ofcom.
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That's especially true if you live in Canterbury, east Kent's largest city. Despite being the last bastion of civilization before Thanet, this student-heavy cathedral city is forced to put up with the slowest average broadband speeds in the entire country. That's right: downloading the entirety of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales here could take you ages here as the average download speed is a paltry 34.4 Mbps.
Residents of Ripon, Chester, Carlisle and Worcester don't have it much better, with their download speeds ranging between 39.9 and 46.9Mbps.
Things get even worse, as rural areas suffer from mind-numbingly slow Internet speeds. Broadband Genie found that people in remote areas of Scotland, Gloucestershire and Hampshire face download speeds as slow as 2.8Mbps, which is even slower than 3G mobile connections.
SLOWEST 5 UK CITIES
1 Canterbury, Kent - SPEED 34.3Mbps
2 Ripon, North Yorkshire - SPEED 39.9Mbps
3 Chester, Cheshire - SPEED 43.6Mbps
4 Carlisle, Cumbria - SPEED 46Mbps
5 Worcester, Worcestershire - SPEED 46.9Mbps
SLOWEST 5 UK AREAS
1 Halkirk, Caithness - SPEED 2.8Mbps
2 Lockerbie, Dumfries and Galloway - SPEED 6.5Mbps
3 Ringwood, Hampshire - SPEED 6.8Mbps
4 Longhope, Gloucestershire - SPEED 12Mbps
5 Laurencekirk, Kincardineshire - SPEED 12.3Mbps
Typically, a household of up to 5 people needs a minimum speed of 50-100Mb to keep up with basic streaming requirements, so bad luck to anyone who chooses a quiet rural life.
It's not all bad news, however. People in Belfast are lucky enough to get breakneck average speeds of 152 Mbps, while those in Portsmouth, Milton Keynes, Derry and Plymouth can enjoy download speeds of between 109 and 152Mbps.
The very best average speeds can be found Lochwinnoch, Renfrewshire with residents there getting 409.2Mbps.
If you're concerned about your broadband speeds there are a few things you can do. Firstly, try testing the speed of your broadband on a few different devices using SpeedTest.net. This should give you an idea of your general download and upload speeds.
Secondly, many broadband providers have a minimum download speed guarantee, so if your real Internet connection is falling short of this, you might be able to swing a discount or even a free upgrade.
Failing that, you could always just move to Belfast.