Blackpool's battle of the broadband - where are the fastest and slowest internet speeds in the resort?

Faced with a global pandemic, two lockdowns and weeks of tier three restrictions, people in Blackpool have been spending more time at home.

But new figures reveal the huge postcode lottery that left some struggling with crippling broadband, while others enjoyed superfast download speeds from the comfort of their homes.

Across Blackpool, broadband speeds range from a lightning fast 224.2 megabits (Mbps) per second to a snail-paced 2.4 Mbps, according to data from Uswitch.com.

It means families using Zoom, Skype or Facebook to speak to relatives and friends could be faced with annoying freezes, cut-outs and sound delays.

Meanwhile, those downloading films could be left waiting up to 120 hours, compared to just one minute 20 seconds in neighbourhoods with the fastest speeds.

The average broadband speeds were collected in postcode areas with more than 50 addresses through at least one test in the 12 months up to October this year. In total, nearly 400,000 tests were done.

They revealed, in Blackpool the postcodes with the slowest speeds were:

1) FY3 8AG, in Brunswick, with an average speed of 2.4Mbps

2) FY2 0ER, in Ingthorpe, average 3.1Mbps

3) FY2 9JH, in Bispham, average 3.5Mbps

The postcodes with the fastest speeds were:

1) FY2 0NA, in Ingthorpe, average 224.2Mbps

2) FY1 2NX, in Claremont, average 208.1Mbps

3) FY4 4AB, in Hawes Side, average 176.6Mbps

Ernest Doku, broadband expert at Uswitch.com, said: “The digital divide that runs through Britain has grown dramatically in the last year, with the fastest street’s broadband more than 5,000 times quicker than the slowest’s.

“It’s great that more of us are enjoying ultrafast broadband, but we don’t want to see large swathes of the country left behind on shoddy connections that aren’t suitable for modern life.”

The figures come just weeks after a new transatlantic cable connecting Blackpool to the north Atlantic Loop - which will offer access to some of the best internet speeds in the world - landed in the resort.

This month, the Government set out a draft strategy to connect 1 million homes and businesses with 1,000 Mbps broadband in the hardest-to-reach areas of the UK.

It is part of a plan to provide 85% of the country with broadband capable of the speed by 2025.

Minister for Digital Infrastructure, Matt Warman, said: "We will begin these procurements rapidly so broadband providers big and small can move quickly to get the job done and level up communities with this much faster, next generation broadband."