According to Point Topic’s analysis at the end of 2006 65.3% of households in Swindon had a broadband connection, up 5.5% from the end of June 2006.

However the lead now looks shaky as Milton Keynes went from 62nd to 2nd place in just 6 months, displacing Cardiff as runners up, increasing by 15.4% to record 63.7% of households with broadband. Cardiff, now in 3rd, has 62.4% household penetration. For comparison the UK average is just under 46%.

“The introduction of ‘free’ broadband offers, increasing uptake of bundled services and migration from dial-up to broadband have all contributed to the rise of Milton Keynes,” says Dr Katja Mueller, Research Director at Point Topic, “as the town has a high proportion of families with children, one of the fastest growing broadband demographics.”

Milton Keynes has suffered since it was founded with aluminium phone lines, as copper prices were at a peak in 1967, and an unusual geography which means many of the broadband subscribers get more faults and have access to lower speeds than other parts of the UK. The good news is that this marks it out as an ideal candidate for the deployment of fibre, which offers speeds of up to 100 Mbps, 50 times faster than most consumer broadband connections in the UK.