South and west London boroughs experience some of the lowest broadband speeds during lockdown
By Melissa Kasule
Four in 10 people have experienced broadband problems which have impacted their ability to work from home, a survey has revealed.
It was revealed Lewisham, Hammersmith & Fulham, Greenwich, Southwark and Croydon saw the lowest of broadband average download speeds in London during lockdown, as well as the least improvement in the past year.
Research from comparison website comparethemarket.com analysed the average broadband speed for locations around the UK between 2018 and 2019, to discover where internet connectivity has improved the most.
Lewisham was ranked one of the worst in London for average broadband speeds.
The study found in 2018 the average download speed in Lewisham was 44.4 Mbits and improved by only 12.5 Mbits within a year.
Results showed Hammersmith & Fulham closely followed, with an average download speed of 40.4 Mbits in 2018, rising by a slight improvement to 53.3 Mbits within the past 12 months.
A Lewisham resident who asked to be anonymous said: “For at least the last three weeks my internet has been too slow.
“With the need to self-quarantine, reliable internet is of utmost importance not just for business but for the individual user.
“I have lost many hours of working time from waiting for pages to load or restarting my router to refresh. This has been time-consuming and distressing.”
Kingston-upon-Thames was revealed to be the city’s borough with the fastest broadband download speed overall and Merton had one of the biggest improvement in average download speed in the capital.
Holly Niblett, head of digital at comparethemarket.com said: “With the UK on lockdown, internet connectivity is more important than ever, whether it be for working from home or streaming movies and TV shows.
“While it is encouraging that broadband speed has improved in some parts of the country, there is still some way to go.
“Whilst the government recently pledged to increase broadband infrastructure spending, there are still hundreds of thousands of homes without decent broadband and the vast majority of these are in remote areas.
“With a significant number of people now working from home, lack of connectivity could be a serious cause for concern.”
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