A street in Runcorn has one of the slowest internet speeds in the country, with residents having to wait 10 minutes to load their Netflix.
Average download speeds in Malmesbury Park, Sandymoor , crawl along at 0.54Mbps, according to a survey by price comparison company USwitch.
This speed, 100 times slower than the national average, put the street 10th worst in the country.
One resident, Amanda Day, told the ECHO it was “an annoyance”.
She said: “There are dead spots. When the kids are home and everyone’s on their apps, it’s just annoying.
“You move to a different provider thinking you’re going to get a better service but it doesn’t make a difference.”
Another Malmesbury Park resident, who gave her name as Kate, said: “It’s a problem, absolutely.
“When you open Netflix, for instance, it takes like 10 minutes to load.”
While the national average download speed is 54.2Mbps, some streets in the USwitch survey had download speeds of more than twice that, which the company’s broadband expert Dani Walker said highlighted a “digital divide” in the UK.
She said: “Residents living on one side of a city can be struggling with broadband as slow as molasses, while people just miles away are enjoying ultrafast speeds.”
In the case of Malmesbury Park, the difference in speed can be a matter of yards rather than miles.
Superfast fibre broadband is available in the area, and some residents told the ECHO they had “no problems” with their internet, which was as fast as the national average.
This “digital divide” has also filtered through into the General Election campaign, with the Labour Party promising free, fast broadband for everyone under its plans to nationalise parts of BT.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: “A new public service delivering the fastest broadband free to everyone is at the heart of Labour’s plans to transform the future of our economy and society.
“The internet has become such a central part of our lives. It opens up opportunities for work, creativity, entertainment and friendship. What was once a luxury is now an essential utility.
“That’s why full-fibre broadband must be a public service, bringing communities together, with equal access, in an inclusive and connected society.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson described the policy as “a crazed communist scheme” and rowed back on his own party’s pledge to subsidise the roll-out of full fibre broadband to the tune of £5 billion by 2025, committing only to “gigabit internet” with no firm deadline.
The Liberal Democrats have promised “a programme of installing hyper-fast, fibre-optic broadband across the UK – with a particular focus on connecting rural areas” and would require all new homes built from 2022 to have ultra-fast broadband.
