With London and other British cities pursuing wider internet availability, Brighton has also become the home of the UK’s largest independent fibre platform from CityFibre. Now, new rounds of Ofcom data taken from between May 2022 and May 2023 give us a clearer picture of Brighton’s internet status, compared with the wider Sussex region.
Last weekend we supported the Mayor’s Big Tidy Up in #Brighton&Hove. Both @BHCC our #GigabitBH team were busy litter picking on Sunday – just another way of how we are helping transform Brighton! To find out if you can get access to full-fibre click here: https://t.co/FWpcHrOzX9 pic.twitter.com/cIClBCWkqQ
— CityFibre (@CityFibre) June 7, 2021
The Push for Internet Access
As stated, many British cities have committed to improving internet access in their constituencies. The internet has become more important over time, meaning it’s vital for work, information gathering and finding entertainment. While remote online work doesn’t make up the majority, the entertainment sphere has been dominated by the internet for several years now.
Netflix has the most paid subscribers of any streaming service, and general streaming service popularity has led to the creation of British alternatives like ITVX. Then there are many online businesses that operate from a website, relying on their customers’ internet connections. iGaming is one of those instances where a live casino broadcast, alongside other activities hosted on-site, work best when the audience can connect easily, without issues. These services, and many more, have shaped the internet and how we use it.
Not everyone enjoys the same standard of internet, which is why many countries are arranging infrastructure upgrades. Brighton was ahead of the curve, greenlighting an £80 million private investment in 2021, where CityFibre established a full fibre network across the city. Meanwhile, London mayor Sadiq Khan introduced the Get Online London campaign in early 2023. The campaign aims to donate laptops and training to Londoners classed as digitally excluded, but also includes fibre upgrades across various boroughs of the city.
The Internet in Brighton
That brings us to Brighton’s own internet figures, which are divided into two categories. The first is gigabit availability, meaning the percentage of premises that are capable of receiving one gigabit per second in the area. Then there’s the average download speed, a mean taken from fixed broadband lines and measured in megabits per second (Mbps).
Per this constituency data, Brighton is split between the Kemptown and Pavilion regions. Both enjoy similar internet availability – 80.4% and 82.8% respectively. When it comes to download speeds, Kemptown lags behind with 119.2 Mbps against the Pavilion’s 136.1 Mbps.
As a side note, the national average gigabit availability sits at 73.6% and the average download speed is 111.6 Mbps. Generally, southern constituencies enjoy better internet quality than the north, particularly Scotland where some of the lowest stats reside.
Back to Sussex, Hove posted a 73.7% gigabit availability, though its speeds were better than Kemptown at 129.7 Mbps. It’s the East Worthing and Shoreham constituency that leads the local area, however, at 94.0% and 136.6 Mbps.
These four constituencies were the best in Sussex. This is unsurprising, given that we’re the urban heart of the region. The lowest stats were found in other seaside areas like Eastbourne, Hastings and Bognor Regis. While Eastbourne has 72.3% availability, its speeds were lowest at 52.7 Mbps. The Hastings and Rye constituency has 32.4% availability with 52.9 Mbps while Bognor and Littlehampton constituency has slightly better numbers at 37.9% and 60.5 Mbps.
As the rollout of broadband infrastructure continues, there’s no doubt that availability and speed will continue to increase. This will include targeted improvements made to those areas that are behind the national averages, where people are most affected by slower internet.
