The pundits, geeks and tecky guys have revealed we have the proud honour to have the slowest broadband, “probably in the world.” Apparently the rural areas of Britain are losing out in the battle for broadband speed.
Which? the consumer watchdog have discovered huge variations in speed. Taking Tamworth in the West Midlands as the benchmark for the fastest broadband in the UK with a dizzy speed of 30.4 Mbps, rural Yorkshire, with Ryedale as our low end benchmark, comes in at 10 Mbps.
Even the Orkneys – which the report says has the slowest broadband in the country has a massive 6.3 Mbps.
Now here’s a thing; Burghwallis can top this by a mile. Average speed in the village, with a following wind rips in at 3 Mbps. Unless it’s raining when it tucks in under an umbrella and shrinks to 0.5 Mpbs. And don’t get me started on what happens at 5 pm when everyone gets home or every Friday at 4 pm when the Openreach guys play solitaire with the switch gear.
The government’s minimum broadband standard states every home should have a minimum of 10 Mbps. We are therefore running at 10% of the minimum standard as should therefore pay 10% of the BT monthly line rental cost. As if!
But wait salvation is at hand, for BT have plonked down a new fibre cabinet. They all have numbers and ours is no 13 – just to add to our grief. It lives alongside the Dowager House in Sutton Lane. That’s the good news, the indifferent news is this happened late last year. But the man with spanners, a screwdriver and most importantly a piece of paper has yet to switch it on. Then our world will suddenly enter the 21st century, but don’t hold your breath.
The fastest broadband in the world is in Korea at 26.3 Mbps. This is appears significantly slower than what happens in Tamworth, but some people just tell fibs. Oh, and as the final slap in the face, the global average…. drum roll… is 6.3 Mbps. So we are running at half of the worlds average, which includes everywhere else you can possibly imagine. Now not every can wake up to the fact they are a global leader in the slowest broadband stakes. Makes you proud doesn’t it.