Survey names UK's "broadband blackspots"

A new poll has highlighted the UK's "broadband blackspots".

The survey, which was conducted by comparison site Top10.com, found that rural areas dominated in terms of slow connection speeds - although one city, Worcester, did make it into the list.

Overall, Farningham in Kent had the slowest broadband in the country at 1.30Mbps.

At this speed, it would take 12 hours to download a film, the site said.

The town of Duns in the Scottish Borders was second with a speed of 1.43Mbps, with Harbury in Warwickshire in third on 1.51Mbps.

Worcester was 20th overall with a download rate of 2.01Mbps.

In July, communications regulator Ofcom published what it called the most comprehensive review of broadband speeds undertaken in the UK.

It found that the average download rate of fixed-line residential connections had increased by 25 per cent in the preceding 12 months from 4.1Mbps to 5.2Mbps.

However, the watchdog said there was a "growing gap" between the "up to" speeds advertised by providers and the actual speeds received by consumers.