City near bottom of broadband table

The industry regulator has for the first time published an interactive map of broadband usage in the UK, which shows stark differences across the regions.

A total of 68 per cent of homes and businesses have a fixed broadband connection – excluding “superfast” broadband – with the average maximum speed of 7.5 Mbit/s.

The Western Isles had the lowest take-up of fixed-line broadband at 46 per cent with the City of Brighton and Hove registering the highest at 80 per cent. But the league table showed Hull to have the third lowest take-up of fixed broadband at just 50 per cent, a relatively low figure compared to similar sized cities in the UK, Ofcom said.

Unlike other parts of the UK, which have access to British Telecom’s infrastructure, Hull-based telecoms firm KC is the sole provider of fixed-line broadband in the city – but the company said its market dominance did not explain the low take-up rates there.

Sean Royce, KC’s commercial and finance director, said: “It’s easy to assume that the relatively low take-up of broadband in Hull is down to lack of competition in the market, but the fact that take-up is much higher in the parts of our network that are within the East Riding of Yorkshire’s boundaries, where we’re also the only fixed line broadband provider, shows clearly that this isn’t the case. In these areas take-up is around the national average.”

Ofcom said superfast services made up less than three per cent of total broadband connections and were not included in the figures, although it said it expected the take-up of superfast services to rise significantly over the coming year. The regulator said the map would help individuals, businesses and the Government.