The Kent village of Farningham has the UK’s worst broadband service, with average connection speeds of 1.3Mb, a study of the most poorly served areas has revealed.
Broadband speeds in the parish are so slow that it would take 45 minutes to download a music album. Downloading a movie would take 12 hours.
Not far behind Faringham in the technology slow lane are the Scottish Borders town Duns and Harbury in Warwickshire, where average speeds are 1.43 Mb and 1.51Mb respectively.
Perhaps not surprisingly, rural locations such as these dominated further down the list, once again highlight the digital divide between better served cities and worse-off areas with low population density.
Among the worst 20 places for broadband, Worcester is the sole city, with an average connection speed of 2.01Mb.
A gap in service standards was also noted between the north and south of the UK. Farningham and Holsworthy are the sole locations south of London to figure in the list.
Conversely, the midlands county of Lincolnshire is home to three broadband blackspots, namely Brigg (1.71Mb), Ancaster (1.88Mb) and Grantham (1.97Mb). Meanwhile, provision in Scottish villages is especially bad, with Stevenston (1.76Mb), Dunoon (1.90Mb) and Banchory (1.95Mb) making the list.
The findings are based on 98,000 speed tests conducted between August and October 2010.
A full breakdown of the study's findings is available here
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