A survey commissioned by the BBC and SamKnows Broadband has revealed the inconvenient truth about the state of broadband speeds in the UK.
According to the results and the handy colour-coded, measle-ridden map, 10 per cent of the UK's 1.7 million postcodes suffer from broadband speeds lower than 2Mbps, which equates to around 3 million homes.
The survey shows just what an uphill struggle it will be for the government to match its promise mapped out in the Digital Britain interim report that all UK households should be equipped with at least 2Mbps broadband speeds by 2012.
Red Vs blue
As you can see from the map, the spots of red represent postcodes with ADSL broadband speeds of less than 512Kbps, and the blue dots represent postcodes with ADSL broadband speeds of less than 2Mbps.
Worryingly, the black dots show where there's no broadband at all. So, if you are reading this in the Western Isles or Hebrides, we applaud your perseverance for loading up the site on 56k dial-up.
It sort of puts a new perspective on those of you that rant about having no free Wi-Fi in your town.
This story has been updated.
Via PC Pro
Your comments (3) Click to add a new comment
adamdavid
May 27th 2009
3. I'd be interested to see how the speeds were measured as I've been experimenting myself recently. My 10MB Virgin gives me 5Mbps when running my cable modem via usb under Vista, but gives the full 10 when running Linux via ethernet connection. Linux with USB gives 8 meg.
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iainx
May 27th 2009
2. Western Isles Hebrides? Western Isles or Hebrides, surely.
Iain Maciver
Western Isles
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agentcool
May 27th 2009
1. Here in Hull with our KCOM/Karoo monopoly we used to feel like we got the shaft when it came to broadband speeds. Obviously that isn't the case anymore; 9-10Mbps and beyond is standard around here.
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