October 2, 2014 2.17 pm This story is over 112 months old

Lincoln tops list of UK’s worst cities for peak time broadband speeds

Crowd browsing: Lincoln broadband suffers the fourth biggest drop offs in speed between peak and off-peak hours in the country, a survey indicates.

Lincoln broadband suffers the fourth biggest drop offs in speed between peak and off-peak hours in the country, a survey has shown.

According to broadband speed test data conducted by price comparison and switching service uSwitch.com, surfers in Lincoln experience speed drops of almost 50% between 5am and 9pm.

On average, the 50 largest towns and cities surveyed, showed a drop of 21% by 9pm.

Busy evening hours are usually the slowest time of day to go online. Across the UK, broadband download speeds are fastest at 5am, averaging 18.1 Mbps, but drop by over a fifth by the peak time of 9pm to 14.3 Mbps.

The study, based on more than three million consumer speed tests over the past 12 months, reveals that Manchester (19.2 Mbps) and Birmingham (18.8 Mbps) enjoy the fastest evening peak time surfing.

Other than their Roman roots in common, the cities of Exeter, Chester, Bath and Lincoln have the biggest speed decline.

Average broadband speed in Lincoln decreases from 25.5 Mbps at 5am to 13.1 Mbps at 9pm, a drop of 49%.

The slowest speed recorded at 9pm is Aberdeen with an average 7.9 Mbps.

Data: uSwitch

Data: uSwitch

Data: uSwitch

Data: uSwitch

Customer research conducted by uSwitch.com found 45% of people were affected in their leisure time by slow connections, 43% said it stopped them from watching TV, films or listening to music and 38% said it stopped them from working.

Ewan Taylor-Gibson, broadband expert at uSwitch.com, says: “It won’t come as a surprise that your internet is bright eyed and bushy tailed in the early hours when it’s not groaning under the weight of evening demand. What will surprise many people is by how much speeds drop.

“Given that most of us want to use our home broadband in the evening, it may be concerning to find out that the speed advertised when we sign up won’t necessarily be the speed we get at peak hours.

“It’s worth running an online speed test at home to check that you are getting the best possible service available in your area.”