Lancashire's speediest - and slowest - broadband areas

Are you superfast '“ or an internet slow coach?
Online speeds varyOnline speeds vary
Online speeds vary

According to online estate agents Urban.co.uk’s figures, Hornby in Lancaster has the fastest connection with Freckleton, Heysham, Leyland and Penwortham are not far behind.

But poor Weeton and Catforth are among the slowest with average speeds of 3,090 Kilobytes per second and 4,563 KBps compared to top-of-the-tree Hornby’s 57,056 KBps.

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The estate agency assessed the average speed of 5,000 places in the UK to find if internet speeds 
bore any relation to house prices.

It found the top speeds were found in Leeds and Scone, Scotland, which took the first and second spots with Hornby coming fifth in the whole country.

It plotted the data on a national map for householders to check out speeds in areas they were looking to move to.

Recent research carried out by GoCompare found that a reliable broadband connection and a good mobile phone signal were in the top 10 considerations when homeowners were looking for a new home (even above the location of good schools), identifying the importance homeowners are now placing on broadband and download speeds.

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Adam Male, founder of Urban.co.uk, said: “It’s no surprise that more and more importance is being placed on broadband, so it is fantastic to announce that Hornby has come out on top as one of the best towns in the UK for fast download speeds.

“Broadband is now undoubtedly a key consideration when people are buying and selling a home.

“With such a difference in speed between locations, the question really now is – how long before it starts pushing up house prices?

“Our map has been designed to help homeowners in Lancashire and keep them fully abreast of their connectivity network.

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“By correlating house price alongside download speeds, we have used a simple colour coding to make it easy for homeowners to see where the fastest and 
slowest areas are, and where they can get the best 
value for money on their property.”

The map can be found online and it used data collected between January 1 2015 and March 27 by Broadband.co.uk.

Edd Dawson, editor at broadband.co.uk said there could be many reasons for the difference in the average speeds.

He said: “Speeds within a town or area can vary wildly from property to property based on a few different factors.

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“It could be the broadband provider and technology that an individual property connects with. One house may be connected to an Ultrafast (over 100Mbps) service, whereas a neighbouring street may only have access to slower technologies.”

He said some homes may have a broadband speed cap related to the deal they 
are on and it could also depend on the distance from the superfast broadband cabinet or the telephone exchange if using the phone connection.