Worst UK locations for business broadband revealed

A recent report examining the UK’s swiftly changing broadband landscape has uncovered the area of the country still suffering from poor access to faster speeds.

While Fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) rollouts continue across the UK increasing quality and speed of service for many firms, there are many parts of the nation where FTTP networks fail to pass by.

The study found that while enterprises in cities and towns had multiple networks to select from to enhance their service (between two to four FTTP networks passing their property), other areas lacked a single option. In total, the report found that only 54% of premises in the UK are passed by an FTTP network.

Furthermore, the research uncovered that while internet service providers (ISPs) are claiming to provide expansive coverage in some towns, upon closer inspection many of these services are not yet ready to be accessed. In such cases, ISPs have posted messages for customers like “Doing final checks” and “Coming soon”.

In its hall of shame, the report outlined 10 local authorities offering the lowest levels of FTTP access. The worst culprit was Isles of Scilly, with a mere 2.61% FTTP coverage. The level of service had shown no visible change since April 17 this year. The Orkney Islands followed with 4.5%, showing only a marginal increase of 0.24% since July 5, as well as the Shetland Islands with 5.13% and no improvement since May 8.