Britain plagued by slow broadband speeds

Roughly a third of addresses in the UK are suffering from poor residential and business broadband connections, according to the latest research.

Comparison site uSwitch.com has found that approximately one in three buildings in the country have access to a broadband connection with a speed that is well below the national average.

Winchelsea in East Sussex has been identified as the slowest of all, with a typical rate of 1.1 Megabits per second (Mbps).

Such speeds are in stark contrast to Virgin Media's 100 Mbps service, which it recently said is now available to ten million Britons, as well as the 300 Mbps offering in the pipeline from BT. O2 has also launched a superfast 4G connection in London – the first of its type in the city.

Julia Stent, director of telecoms at uSwitch.com, said it is not only rural areas that are suffering, as locations such as Hereford and Carlisle are also victims of slow internet links.