The slowest street for broadband in Scotland, with an average download speed of 0.28Mbps, is Grant Road in Banchory, Aberdeenshire.

This is according to analysis of 276,083 consumer speed tests collated by comparison and switching service Uswitch.com.

Sluggish broadband in Grant Road is 2,375 times slower than Scotland’s fastest street, Murrayfield Terrace in Bannockburn, Stirling, 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.

For the unfortunate residents of Grant Road suffering slow speeds, it would take more than 41 hours to download a two-hour HD film. By contrast, the people of Murrayfield Terrace could download the same film in just 62 seconds

The good news is that the number of broadband users enjoying faster speeds is growing. Two fifths of UK users (43%) now get speeds of more than 30Mbps, which is almost double than those (22%) six years ago.

But despite the fact that superfast broadband is available to 96% of the country, and ultrafast to 62%, a recent Uswitch survey found that four in ten (40%) are unaware they can access it in their local area.

Residents in nine of the ten slowest UK streets could actually have access to a quicker service, suggesting that consumers who are willing to pay for faster speeds are being deprived of better broadband because they aren’t aware they could change to a faster alternative.

The number of speed tests is up 124% on 2019’s tally of 122,845, with the dramatic rise suggesting that consumers have been paying closer attention to the performance of their home broadband since the start of the pandemic.

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Ernest Doku, broadband expert at Uswitch.com, said: “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.

“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.”

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