The village of Brent Knoll has “worse broadband than Mount Everest base camp”, with some residents reporting a service so poor it would take roughly five days to download an HD film, it’s been claimed this week.
Speed tests conducted by the website Cable.co.uk found there are just four other areas across the UK suffering slower average broadband speeds.
Mount Everest, at 18,000ft, sees visitors able to access broadband speeds of two megabites per second (mpbs) via a satellite connection.
But residents in Brent Knoll have been left with an average speed of 1.3Mbps.
Dan Howdle from Cable.co.uk said this week: “Digital inequality is a huge problem in the UK, both for those who suffer at the bottom end and for the UK economy as a whole.”
“While the number of UK households on the right side of the ‘digital divide’ is increasing thanks to the continuing rollout of superfast broadband, those left stranded are finding themselves further and further behind – to the detriment of both themselves and their local economies.”
A BT spokesman responded: “Fibre is available to 81% of those connected to the Brent Knoll exchange – a far cry from the ‘digital black holes’ described. This report is either based on out-of-date information or on the speeds people choose to buy rather than the maximum speeds available to them.”
Burnham-On-Sea’s MP James Heappey has been campaigning for improved broadband speeds, as linked below.
Also see:
Burnham-On-Sea MP calls for BT to forfeit rights to broadband roll-out
Anger over slow rollout of super-fast broadband in Burnham area
New app reveals broadband hotspots and ‘not spots’ in Burnham area
