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GoFibre Quirkily Compares its UK Rural Broadband Speeds to Major World Cities

Tuesday, Feb 4th, 2025 (10:20 am) - Score 1,080
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Edinburgh-based UK alternative network ISP GoFibre has today published the results of a new study, which reveals how well (download speed) their new full fibre (FTTP) broadband network – present in parts of remote rural Scotland and Northern England – compares with a selection of major world cities. It’s interesting, if a bit on the random side.

Just to recap, GoFibre is currently busy rolling out their gigabit-capable broadband network across rural parts of Scotland, the Scottish Borders areas and also Northumberland in England. The operator has so far managed to build their network to cover over 120,000 premises (RFS) across 40 “local areas” and today’s focus is on how that compares with a bunch of international cities.

NOTE: GoFibre previously aimed to cover 500,000 premises by around the end of 2025 and is supported by an investment of £164m from Gresham House (here). The operator also holds the Project Gigabit contracts for Teesdale (Lot 4.01) and North Northumberland (Lot 34.01), which are worth £12.64m in state aid.

Citing research from the Ookla’s Speed Test Global Index, as well as a couple of other studies and their own data, the operator has today attempted to “shine a spotlight on the lightning fast speeds” available on their new network by comparing its performance with some of the world’s major cities, which they say are “lagging behind when it comes to broadband speeds“.

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However, we should stress that country to country comparisons like this are often rather simplistic and don’t offer a detailed picture of each local market, where different geographies, network maturity, regulation, consumer adoption, underlying infrastructure and levels of investment or competition may have a significant role to play. Not to mention any differences between testing methodologies (e.g. it’s unclear if all the results are using a ‘median’ or ‘mean’ average, but Ookla’s are usually median). Suffice to say it’s a bit of a random study, but if you want to know the results then they’re below. Just take with a pinch of salt.

GoFibre Rural UK Locations vs International Cities – Jan 2025
Scotland/UK Location Actual average download on GoFibre (Mbps) World city Average speed as listed by Global Index (Mbps)
Cupar 363.902 Copenhagen, Denmark 227.14
Falkland 358.206 Frankfurt, Germany 94.73 (Fair Internet Report)
Haddington 370.891 Helsinki, Finland 104.12
Jedburgh 414.375 Jakarta, Indonesia 35.54
Laurencekirk 495.979 Lisbon, Portugal 115
Melrose 431.41 Monaco 154.42
Portlethen 393.53 Paris, France 199.61
North Northumberland 269 New York, United States 270.79
West Fife 421.942 Washington D.C., United States 232 (CNET report)
Ballingry 400.236 Berlin, Germany 86.41

Neil Conaghan, CEO of GoFibre, said:

“While our new campaign is having a bit of fun with some very famous cities, it has a serious message too; it’s about empowering people and places to realise their full potential.

Our rural areas can be better connected even than international capitals, and that’s a great thing for everyone – whether you’re running a business, working from home, studying, getting through your admin or even gaming. It’s time we took advantage of the speeds at our fingertips.

We’re proud to see our cutting-edge technology help smaller towns to outpace some of the world’s leading cities, ensuring that local businesses can compete on a global stage and families can enjoy seamless online experiences.

We encourage anyone not yet signed up to GoFibre to check if you’re eligible – we can’t promise you a cycle and canal network like Copenhagen’s, but our broadband network leaves the Scandis standing!”

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Mark-Jackson
By Mark Jackson
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and .
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5 Responses

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  1. Avatar photo Clearmind60 says:

    Well it is about time that the rural parts of the UK get FTTP.
    This will boost mental, physical and emotional health which leads to a country that is far better off.

    1. Avatar photo Sonic says:

      It’s about time some of the forgotten urban areas of the UK get FTTP too. But sadly for many of us, it could mean another 4 or 5 years of waiting till something better comes along. Same applies to decent mobile connectivity. It’s shocking how poor the digital connectivity is in certain parts of the country.

  2. Avatar photo Name says:

    Then you run iperf on ipv4 and ipv6 and the magic is gone 😉

  3. Avatar photo bob says:

    They overbuilt in my town where openreach and virgin already were and stopped before my road where I can only get FTTC @ 40mbps after leading me on for a year that I’d get it. Waste of time company

  4. Avatar photo Jazzy says:

    BT (Openreach) won’t come to where I live but they did and now I have the 500mb service

    Brilliant company and we’re so rural, it’s 8 miles to the nearest shop

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