IT'S the former coal mining village in North Lanarkshire that was home for Scots TV and panto star Elaine C Smith and former Scotland football captain Gary McAllister.
Now Newarthill has a place in the record books as having a street with the fastest broadband speeds in the UK, at least according to one speed test study. A street in Newarthill tops the list of five Scottish streets which are amongst the 30 with the fastest broadband speeds.
Residents there have access to gold standard Virgin fibre-to-the-router superfast broadband which can provide speeds of up to 300mbps. They were getting an average of 177mbps – more than 260 times faster than the slowest in the UK, Thorpe Lane, Trimley St Martin in Suffolk with a “dire” 0.68mbps..
It comes less than a week after the SNP and the Scottish Conservatives have argued over the availability of broadband in Scotland.
On Thorpe Lane it would take over 21 hours to download a two-hour HD film on Netflix and nearly eight hours to download a 45-minute HD TV show. By contrast, on Benford Avenue, it would take less than five minutes to download a two-hour HD film and 109 seconds to download a 45-minute HD TV show.
A second Motherwell street, Airbles Crescent, which also has access to Virgin's superfast services, was ninth fastest averaging 141.344mbps.
Three other Scottish streets were in the top 30 of the fastest speeds in the UK, Kingsdyke Avenue, Glasgow (132.797mbps), Simshill Road, Glasgow (129.386mbps) and Mauchline Court, Hamilton (125.773mbps).
Just two Scottish streets featured in the slowest 30 in the research by the UK-based price comparison service uSwitch, which tested broadband services between September 1, 2016 and August 1, 2017.
Scotland’s slowest street is Craigflower Road (below) in Glasgow at 1.028mbps followed closely by Pentland Way, Grangemouth (1.038mbps) No streets in Scotland featured amongst the slowest 30 streets USwitch called on broadband providers to make property specific broadband speeds available more widely so that consumers can see exactly what services and what speeds are available at their home.
Ewan Taylor-Gibson, broadband expert at uSwitch.com, says: “It is astonishing to think that you could fly to Sydney in Australia in the time it takes to download a film on the UK’s slowest street.
“While cable services offering the fastest broadband speeds aren’t available at any of the UK’s slowest streets, fibre-to-the-cabinet broadband should be accessible at more than two thirds of the most sluggish postcodes, something that might be a surprise to those that have been frustrated enough to run a speed test.
“Whilst Ofcom has proposed having providers give more information on what speeds consumers should expect, unless this information is presented transparently, in a way that enables broadband users to compare the available options side-by-side, these changes won’t be truly effective.
“What consumers want to know is what they are getting now and how that compares to services they could access. Only then will consumers be fully empowered to make an informed decision about which service is right for their needs."
The issue over broadband availability was raised by Ochil and South Perthshire MP Luke Graham during Prime Minister’s Questions at the end of October, when he attacked the Scottish Government for failing to do enough to get superfast services to householders.
The issue has remained live since, with Scotland’s 12 back-bench Tory MPs writing a joint letter to Nicola Sturgeon asking her to explain why £20 million given to her administration by Westminster three years ago for the second phase of broadband roll-out has not yet been spent.
The Scottish Government pledged to ensure all premises in the country have access to superfast broadband with a speed of 30mbps by 2021.
The rural Glen Clova Hotel in Angus has revealed how it was quoted £80,000 to install a connection by Openreach, and currently receives just 0.5mbps.
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