Why It Matters
Broadband Performance
Summary
We have measured the average and median broadband speeds (upload and download) of every postcode in Mbit/s (megabits per second).
Definition
Our broadband performance metric is used to show how fast broadband speeds are in your neighbourhood.
| Dataset | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Postcode Average Download Speed | This shows you the average (mean) download speed of all households in your postcode with broadband access. |
| Z-Score (Postcode Average Download Speed) | This shows you the Z-Score of the postcode for its average (mean) download speed so that you can tell how far below or above the London-wide average your postcode’s average Broadband download speed is. |
| Postcode Median Download Speed | This shows you the median download speed of all households in your postcode with broadband access. |
| Z-Score (Postcode Median Download Speed) | This shows you the Z-Score of the postcode for its median download speed so that you can tell how far below or above the London-wide average your postcode’s median Broadband download speed is. |
| Postcode Maximum Download Speed | This shows you the maximum download speed identified in your postcode. |
| Z-Score (Postcode Maximum Download Speed) | This shows you the Z-Score of the postcode for its maximum (fastest) download speed so that you can tell how far below or above the London-wide average maximum your postcode’s maximum Broadband download speed is. |
| Postcode Average Upload Speed | This shows you the average (mean) upload speed of all households in your postcode with broadband access. |
| Z-Score (Postcode Average Download Speed) | This shows you the Z-Score of the postcode for its average (mean) upload speed so that you can tell how far below or above the London-wide average your postcode’s average Broadband upload speed is. |
| Postcode Median Upload Speed | This shows you the median upload speed of all households in your postcode with broadband access. |
| Z-Score (Postcode Median Upload Speed) | This shows you the Z-Score of the postcode for its median upload speed so that you can tell how far below or above the London-wide average your postcode’s median Broadband upload speed is. |
| Postcode Maximum Upload Speed | This shows you the maximum upload speed identified in your postcode. |
| Z-Score (Postcode Maximum Upload Speed) | This shows you the Z-Score of the postcode for its maximum (fastest) upload speed so that you can tell how far below or above the London-wide average maximum your postcode’s maximum Broadband upload speed is. |
Why the metric matters from a commercial inhabitant’s perspective
Nearly all our everyday activities are mediated in some way by internet-enabled technology, whether it is watching Netflix at home, communicating with a colleague via video call, keeping track of a fitness regime or booking an appointment at the local doctors. Access to reliable and speedy broadband is an integral part of the functioning of modern urban society. Despite this fact, broadband speeds can vary greatly throughout London, and can have a large impact on the types of individuals and businesses that live and work in the area.
Any modern business will be hesitant to set up an office in an area that offers sub-par broadband speeds, as this can have an incredibly detrimental effect on productivity. High domestic broadband speeds are also becoming increasingly popular with average folks - not just tech-savvy early-adopters. This is because the modern job landscape increasingly consists of freelancers, consultants, and full-time employees who frequently work from home, meaning quick download and upload speeds are highly desirable. This in turn affects the local economy, as jobs (and salaries) depend on reliable broadband speeds, and will affect what types of people find the area desirable to live in.
Why the metric matters from a residential inhabitant’s perspective
Broadband speed is essential to everyday activities as it determines how quickly you will be able to download (take in data from somewhere else e.g. downloading a film) and upload data (send data to another place e.g. posting photos on Instagram) from your home. For example, video calling a family member requires a speed of at least 1.5 MB/s, downloading a HD film to watch off Netflix will take 2 minutes and 20 seconds with a speed of 25 MB/s, and downloading 1000 songs from your Spotify library would take less than a minute with an ultrafast broadband speed of 100 MB/s.
The issue with many broadband providers is that advertised speeds are often very different to the speeds the customer experiences within a given area. By law internet providers must advertise speeds which are consistently available to at least 10% of users of the advertised service, hence they are a vague indication of what speeds you can expect at best. Our broadband metric therefore allows you to accurately see what speeds you can expect within a given neighbourhood area.
General commentary
Broadband speed is intertwined with economic prosperity, community well-being, and environmental quality within both London and the UK as a whole. This is so much so that expert estimates project that at present, every £1 the government invests into broadband, the economy will gain back £20. This is because although nobody knows precisely what the next technological breakthroughs will bring, they will be entirely dependent on the ability to transfer large amounts of data as quickly as possible.
This will include things such as new medical technologies to diagnose and treat patients faster and more efficiently, state-of-the-art manufacturing technologies that can rapidly fabricate complex structures such as entire cars and houses, or even headphones that can translate languages as you hear them spoken. These proliferating technologies will also greatly expand the job market, not only in short-term through the construction and implementation of ulra-fast broadband infrastructure, but through the creation of new markets, industries and communities.
Germany is an excellent example of this, having generated over 300,000 jobs through its national broadband strategy between 2010 and 2014.
Much of London’s internet is carried along fibre optic cables (Photograph: Wikimedia Commons)
Trivia
In 1995, Newsweek published an article titled ‘Why the Web Won’t Be Nirvana’ mocking the idea that the internet would ever amount to anything significant. It poked fun at the idea that people would one day get news, educational content, and buy airline tickets from a computer. The article has since been published on their website and is still available to view to this day.
History
The founding of the internet owes a great debt to the city of London, as Peter T. Kirstein’s research group at the University College London was responsible for one of the first international connections on an early form of the internet in 1973. However, it was not until 1991 that BT (British Telecommunications) began using the world wide web as we know it today.
A BT network engineer named Clive Salmon used the BT network to establish a link between Ipswich and London, where the first-ever file transfers were made over the internet. The following year dial-up internet was introduced by the UK company Pipex, the first commercial internet provider in the UK. Initially implemented through the use of copper telephone cables, as information proliferated and demands for more content such as online video streaming increased, the speed of data transfer along these cables was not sufficient. To remedy this problem, a number of companies began to implement fibre optic cables - insulated tubes that send information via beams of light, which is much faster than the speed of electricity down a copper wire.
Although fibre optic cables are now widely used throughout London, many broadband providers are still in the process of making their networks fully fibre optic, hence the reason that some people experience variable speeds depending on their area. Furthermore, although you may be paying for a fibre optic service at home, this can mean that only part of the line connecting your phone to the nearest exchange centre is fibre optic cable, with the rest being copper.