Residents of South Park Crescent feel vindicated for broadband complaints

Residents of South Park Crescent felt vindicated by the survey which showed they have London’s worst broadband speeds – and the eighth-worst in the UK, writes Alexandra Warren.

Max Brockbank works in digital marketing. He moved into the street in 2012 with his son, Zachary, and they have had problems with their connectivity since then.

Max said: “We are supposed to have the fastest broadband that Virgin Media does, and when it’s good it’s very good, but when it’s bad it’s not very good at all. It quite often stutters. It just goes off for a while.

“We’ve had a couple of occasions where it’s shut off for two or three days at a time and the messaging you get via their website ranges from “your broadband is fine” to “We know there’s a problem and an engineer is going to fix it” but that’s all that happens.

“And after about two or three days it comes back. I think the longest it’s been off is three days. On average it happens about two or three times a week.

“And of course I work from home. I work in digital marketing so I’m using computers all the time.

“I actually have staff working in South Africa and I talk to clients in the US and so when the broadband goes down, things like Zoom calls and Google Meet and even Skype can be very difficult, and then I fall back on mobile.

“Unfortunately where we are here the mobile signal is not that good, either. So if we had a reliable mobile it wouldn’t be so bad but we don’t have a reliable mobile.

“This is meant to be the best package they do “I didn’t realise that we were the worst street in London. I’m not surprised.”

Son Zachary Brockbank, 27, said: “It does inconvenience me. I use it for various hobbies that I have.

“One of the hobbies that I have is music production and one of the plug-ins that I use for that requires a stable internet connection and when it drops the system will come up and say it can’t find the plug-in. There is no way of using it.”

A woman who didn’t want to be named, who lives in the street, said: “Oh my god, I’m so glad I’m vindicated, because I feel like I’m complaining.

“I’m always complaining to them, because we can’t get any service. I work from home and when I do meetings I get kicked out of my meetings.

I have a business as well so when I’m trying to deliver a training through my business I get kicked off.

I have to use 4G “Even with that you can’t watch television.

It’s rubbish, absolutely rubbish “I don’t know if there is a black spot. It’s awful. Really bad.

When the children were educated at home because of the lockdown it was a nightmare. So yeah, not helpful “But if it’s a known fact, it is what it is.

We might have to move house.”

But not everyone in the street is unhappy. Shawn Bryan said he has never had a problem with his broadband with Virgin.

He said: “My broadband, to me, it’s working perfectly. Everything’s fine.”