Town is still stuck with the slowest net connection in UK

The Winchelsea postcode TN36 featured in the national press as having the slowest broadband speed in the country.

The county council say the town will be covered by BT from the Rye exchange.

Winchelsea councillor Richard Comotto said: “This is despite the County last year urging Winchelsea residents to register their interest on the County’s website, so that potential demand could be demonstrated to possible commercial partners.

“Winchelsea clearly needs faster broadband. The survey we did last year showed an average download speed of only 1.6 Mbps and upload speed of 0.4 Mbps. It’s even slower when it rains!”

Winchelsea is not alone - a third of homes in the UK have broadband speeds well below the national average, according to research from price comparison site uSwitch. But it is the slowest by far.

Richard Comotto said: “I know we’re supposed to be an ancient town but this is ridiculous.

Cllr Comotto has previously carried out broadband speed tests in the town in response to the county council asking for data.

He said: “I asked a number of households at various locations across Winchelsea to measure and record their broadband speeds over a number of days. Our average so far is 1.5Mbps, but the average is skewed by a couple of high speeds and our slowest is 0.53Mbps. In addition, many respondents report that the speeds slow down when it’s raining!”

The government wants super-fast broadband in most UK homes, and has pledged to make the UK the fastest broadband nation in Europe by 2015.