But on the other hand, another part of the city has one of the slowest speeds in the country. In Northern Ireland’s fastest street, Old Ballynahinch Road in Lisburn, average download speeds reached 708Mbps over the past year but in Meeting House Road, Ballinderry Upper, speeds only reached a sluggish 5.67Mbps, making it the ninth slowest in Northern Ireland. Old Ballynahinch Road is 144Mbps quicker than last year’s fastest street, showing the improvements in ultrafast broadband infrastructure across Northern Ireland with the rollout of full fibre broadband. It is also a staggering 1,200 times faster than the slowest street in the country, Ringhaddy Road in Killinchy. For the unfortunate residents of Ringhaddy Road suffering slow speeds, it would take more than 19 hours to download a two-hour HD film. By contrast, the people of Old Ballynahinch Road could download the same film in just 58 seconds. The slowest and fastest UK streets have been revealed through the analysis of 276,083 speed tests run by broadband users over the last year. The number of speed tests is up 124% on 2019’s tally of 122,845, with the dramatic rise suggesting that consumers have been paying closer attention to the performance of their home broadband since the start of the pandemic. Ernest Doku, broadband expert at Uswitch.com, said: “Northern Ireland’s broadband keeps getting quicker every year, but parts of the country continue to be left behind. “At a time when so many of us rely on our broadband for work, streaming films and TV, and gaming, it’s not hard to imagine how frustrating such a slow connection must be. “It’s great to witness the increased uptake of ultrafast broadband, but we don’t want to see large swathes of the country left behind on shoddy connections that aren’t cutting it for modern life. “Initiatives like the Universal Service Obligation and Project Gigabit are helping improve connections at both ends of the spectrum, but there is a lot more to be done so consumers don’t get left behind. “Of the UK’s ten slowest streets, nine could have access to faster broadband, so we urge residents there — and anyone else unhappy with their broadband speeds — to do a quick search online to see what speeds they could be getting with another provider.” Anyone frustrated with their broadband service can test what speed they’re getting at www.uswitch.com/broadband/speedtest
