A neighbourhood in East Ayrshire has been revealed to have the slowest internet in the county.
People who live around Meikleyard in Ayrshire see average download speeds of just 0.5 Mbit/s, joint slowest in the UK.
That’s slower than 3G (around 6 Mbit/s) - but better than dial-up (0.06 Mbit/s).
The figures from Ofcom’s Connected Nations report show 97% of homes in the area are unable to receive download speeds of at least 2 Mbit/s. When it comes to ultrafast internet (speeds of 100 Mbit/s or more), just 3% of homes in the area could get those speeds.
At local authority level, properties in the Orkney Islands as a whole can expect the lowest average download speeds at 34.8 Mbit/s.
The speed is based on the median - or how fast downloads are for the household in the middle of everyone in the area.
Households in West Dunbartonshire enjoy the fastest average download speeds in the area, at 107.0 Mbit/s.
However, across Scotland, there are 16,133 households that don’t get speeds of more than 2 Mbit/s.
The number of properties that can get full-fibre jumped by three million in a year to eight million, or 28% of homes. While 750,000 homes upgraded to these services in 2021, taking the number of properties connected to nearly two million, that’s only 24% of those to which full-fibre upgrades are available.
As part of its Levelling Up agenda, the UK Government has pledged that by 2030, the UK will have nationwide gigabit-capable broadband and 4G coverage, with 5G coverage for the majority of the population.
It’s put forward £5bn to bring gigabit-capable broadband to 85% of the UK by 2025, and the £1bn for the Shared Rural Network deal with mobile operators to deliver 4G coverage to 95% of the UK by the same year.
Full fibre can better support data-hungry households where family members need to stream, work, game, video-call and study online at the same time. In a year when many people continue to work from home due to the coronavirus pandemic, average monthly data use grew to 453 GB per connection – more than triple the level of five years ago (132 GB).
Around 123,000 homes (0.4% of the UK) still do not have access to a ‘decent’ broadband connection – defined as offering download speeds of 10 Mbit/s and upload speeds of 1 Mbit/s.
At this speed, it could take up to an hour and a half to download an HD film.
Lindsey Fussell, Ofcom’s network and communications group director, said: “Full fibre is helping meet those demands, with millions more benefitting from faster speeds and more reliable connections.
“But some homes in hard-to-reach areas still struggle to get decent broadband, so there’s more work to do to make sure these communities get the connections they need.”
Earlier this month, the Auditor General for Scotland gave an update on the progress of the Scottish Government's R100 (Reaching 100%) superfast broadband programme.
The report stated that after a slow start, by 31 December 2021, around 107,000 premises remain to be connected through the contracts, out of the around 112,000 premises which are expected to be connected.
It noted that many of these are in the hardest to reach locations, with the majority in the North. "Connecting these remaining premises will be challenging and expensive".
Average speeds have increased significantly since 2018 through commercial and public sector investment, with the superfast broadband programme (DSSB) reaching around 951,000 premises, at a total public sector investment currently estimated to be £311m.
However, due to delays in finalising the R100 intervention area and awarding the North, South and Central contracts to BT, work will now continue until 2027 in some areas.
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