Two areas of Salisbury were found to have extremely low broadband speeds this Christmas, according to new research.

While Christmas 2020 will be remembered as the year we camped on the sofa to watch festive films, in between video-calling loved ones from our homes, it may have been a nightmare for some if their internet was too slow to cope.

For some families in Wiltshire, this year’s frustrations are set to continue with new figures revealing cripplingly low broadband speeds in some neighbourhoods.

Broadband speed test data

Across the Wiltshire Council local authority, broadband speeds range from a superfast 214.7 megabits (Mbps) per second to a snail-paced 0.001 Mbps, according to data from Uswitch.com.

It means families in some areas 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 Christmas movie classics 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.

Wiltshire broadband speeds - low and high areas

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

1) SP13DB, in Salisbury St Francis and Stratford, with an average speed of 0.001Mbps

2) SP11JW, in Salisbury St Edmund and Milford, average 0.1Mbps

3) BA147LL, in Trowbridge Adcroft, average 0.2Mbps

The postcodes with the fastest speeds were:

1) SP47PG, in Amesbury East, average 214.7Mbps

2) BA147SW, in Trowbridge Park, average 123Mbps

3) BA148NU, in Trowbridge Adcroft, average 116.1Mbps

'Digital divide' has grown

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.”

He added: “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.”

This week, 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."