Banchory: Aberdeenshire town has Scotland's slowest broadband speed

Banchory has an enviable location in rural Aberdeenshire but along with its gentler pace of life it is also the slowest place in Scotland for for internet downloads.

New data has revealed that with an average download speed of 0.28Mbps, Grant Road in Banchory is the worst.

Analysis of 276,083 consumer speed tests for Uswitch.com, the comparison and switching service, found sluggish broadband in the town, population 7,500, is a staggering 2,375 times slower than Scotland’s fastest street, Murrayfield Terrace in Bannockburn, Stirlingshire, where average download speeds reached 665Mbps over the past year.

Murrayfield Terrace is 389Mbps quicker than last year’s fastest street, showing the improvements in ultrafast broadband infrastructure across Scotland with the rollout of full fibre broadband.

Scotland's fastest and slowest broadband speeds. (Uswitch.com)

It would take the residents of Grant Road more than 41 hours to download a two-hour HD film, compared to 62 seconds for the people living in Murrayfield Terrace.

Meanwhile, Wistaston Road in Crewe, Cheshire, is the slowest street for broadband in the UK, according to the research.

The street clocked an average download speed of just 0.24Mbps, which means it would take more than 48 hours to download a two-hour HD film.

In contrast, the fastest street in the UK – Haul Fryn in Birchgrove, Swansea – had average speeds of 882Mbps, meaning that the same two-hour film could be downloaded in just 47 seconds.

The Crewe street is joined in the top five on the slowest list by Grand Road Dutchells Copse, Horsham, West Sussex; Cornwall Avenue in Manchester; and Crossways South in Doncaster – all of which had average speeds under 0.35MBps.

Slow internet speed leaves Scots islanders without Netflix or online banking

The UK average broadband speed is 79.1Mbps, according to the figures.

Llys Tripp, Gwaelod-y-Garth, Cardiff; Seymour Avenue in Morden, south London; South Park Crescent, Lewisham, south-east London; Brant Road in Lincoln; and Berriedale in Caithness completed the slowest street list, none of which clocked higher than 0.40Mbps.

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Ernest Doku, broadband expert at Uswitch.com, says: “Scotland’s broadband keeps getting quicker every year, but parts of the country continue to be left behind.

“Residents of this year’s fastest street, Murrayfield Terrace, could download a film in 62 seconds - where it would take those living in Grant Road more than 41 hours to do the same thing.

“At a time when so many of us rely on our broadband for work, streaming films and TV, and gaming, it’s hard to imagine how frustrating such a slow connection must be.

“It’s great to witness the increased uptake of ultrafast broadband, but we don’t want to see large swathes of the country left behind on shoddy connections that aren’t cutting it for modern life.

“Initiatives like the Universal Service Obligation and Project Gigabit are helping improve connections at both ends of the spectrum, but there is a lot more to be done so consumers don’t get left behind.

“Of the ten slowest streets, nine could have access to faster broadband, so we urge residents there to do a quick search online to see what speeds they could be getting with another provider.”

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