Uswitch shows Scottish streets with the best and worst internet connection

Price comparison site Uswitch.com compared broadband speed tests from almost 55,000 postcodes across the UK to compile the data.

It found that the slowest areas in Scotland are in the North East. Grant Road in Banchory, outside Aberdeen, recorded the slowest internet connection in the country, with a speed of just 0.28Mbps (Megabits per second).

However it is not the slowest in the UK. That accolade was taken by Wistaston Road, in Crewe, which recorded speeds of 0.25Mbps.

Berriedale, in Caithness, is Scotland’s second slowest place for internet, recording speeds of 0.4Mbps. However, Berriedale is the tenth slowest place in the UK, recording faster internet than streets in Manchester, Cardiff, Lincoln and elsewhere.

At the opposite end of the scale, the fastest internet in Scotland was recorded on Murrayfield Terrace, Bannockburn, Stirling. Speeds there reached as high as 665Mbps - more than 2000 times faster than the speeds in Banchory.

Uswitch broadband expert Ernest Doku said residents of 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”.

Last year, the same survey found Scotland’s fastest street only reached 276Mbps, which Uswitch says highlights the growth in ultrafast broadband, with average speeds up 10% in a year.

Scotland’s second fastest street was Dalhousie Crescent in Dalkeith, which recorded speeds of 576Mbps. Next was Raith Drive in Cumbernauld, with speeds of up to 536Mbps.

However, no Scottish street broke the UK top ten for fastest speed. Haul Fryn in Birchgrove, Swansea was named the fastest street in the UK, with speeds of up to 882Mbps. Streets in Leeds, Liverpool, Derby and elsewhere made up the top ten.

Uswitch said that their data showed two-fifths of UK users (43%) now get superfast speeds of more than 30Mbps, which is almost double the 22% of six years ago.

The firm added that residents in nine of the ten slowest UK streets could actually have access to a quicker service.

The internet speeds across the UK were found through analysis of 276,083 speed tests run by broadband users over the last year. The number of speed tests is up 124% on 2019’s tally, with Uswitch ascribing the dramatic rise to consumers paying closer attention to the performance of their home broadband since the start of the pandemic.

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

“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.

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