THE areas with the best and worst internet speeds in the Braintree district have been revealed.

Across the area, broadband speeds range from a superfast 75.2 megabits (Mbps) per second to a snail-paced 2 Mbps, according to data from Uswitch.com.

It means some families using Zoom, Skype or Facebook to speak to relatives and friends are faced with annoying freezes, cut-outs and sound delays.

Meanwhile, those downloading films 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.

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

1) CM82PB, in Witham North, with an average speed of 2Mbps

2) CM778LZ, in Great Notley & Black Notley, average 2.5Mbps

3) CM82XT, in Witham West, average 3.2Mbps

The postcodes with the fastest speeds were:

1) CM79UR, in Bocking Blackwater, average 75.2Mbps

2) CM71XA, in Braintree South, average 73Mbps

3) CM71HW, in Braintree West, average 72.1Mbps

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."