A recent report has found that 98 percent of people in the U.K. rely on using the Internet every single day. However, the demand for Internet access and the availability of reliable broadband and mobile data coverage varies greatly.
The analysis comes from the company Uswitch mobiles and it looks at where in the U.K. people require Internet access, the reliability, and availability of mobile data and broadband to them.
While the majority of the population relies on fast and reliable internet access, in some areas broadband providers are few and far between. Therefore, mobile data reliance can become essential, with network coverage becoming a valuable perk of areas throughout the U.K. in order to carry out day-to-day work and stay connected to the outside world.
Data reliance amongst cities will fluctuate, due to many factors including the quality of broadband coverage, commuting time and how many people visit the area, who will naturally not have a Wi-Fi connection or be relying on non-secure or poor hotel Wi-Fi connection. In areas with slower broadband speed and fewer providers such as Newry in Northern Ireland, ensuring the best data coverage to stay connected is essential.
Therefore, out of all ten of the cities ranked as the lowest data reliant cities in the study, Stirling is the only city that currently offers 5G coverage by all four of the major networks. While the max broadband speed for 7 of 10 of the cities is below 1000 Mbps, by focusing on coverage in these cities, residents will naturally become more data reliant, being able to replace poor broadband speeds with data when needed.
Data was collected for the following metrics:
- Internet usage (based on government statistics).
- 5G coverage (relating to coverage provided by the leading network providers).
- Broadband speed (collected from fairinternetreport.com).
The study’s rankings were based upon the percentage of residents who access Internet, availability of 5G coverage, availability of broadband providers and the average speed of broadband connection in each location.
In terms of the outcomes, the most data reliant cities are:
| Rank | City | % of population that used internet in past 3 months | No of 5G networks available | Max broadband speed (Mbps) | Typical speed range (max) (Mbps) | Typical speed range (min) (Mbps) | No. of available broadband providers | Data reliance score (out of 100) |
| 1 | Brighton & Hove | 97.70% | 3 | 1763 | 193 | 46 | 27 | 86.2 |
| 2 | Coventry | 96.80% | 4 | 3657 | 148 | 46 | 19 | 82.1 |
| 3 | London (inc. City of) | 94.90% | 4 | 5156 | 191 | 48 | 79 | 81.8 |
| 4 | Portsmouth | 96.50% | 4 | 1136 | 225 | 61 | 18 | 81.0 |
| 5 | Oxford | 96.50% | 3 | 3014 | 161 | 42 | 32 | 80.3 |
| 6 | Southend-on-Sea | 96.30% | 4 | 4560 | 201 | 41 | 15 | 77.5 |
| 7 | Bristol | 94.70% | 4 | 1511 | 214 | 53 | 24 | 75.7 |
| 8 | Chichester | 96.70% | 4 | 1144 | 124 | 36 | 32 | 74.8 |
| 9 | Winchester | 95.70% | 4 | 1143 | 144 | 39 | 39 | 73.2 |
| 10 | Dundee | 96.10% | 4 | 942 | 203 | 45 | 13 | 71.1 |
With 97.7 percent of the population using the Internet in the past three months, yet a lower available number of broadband providers, Brighton & Hove residents rely on mobile data coverage more than anywhere else in the UK, based upon their data reliance score.
Similarly, Coventry is the second most data-reliant city. Residents have fewer broadband providers to choose from and lower maximum speeds, despite 96.8 percent of the population relying on the internet. However, residents in Coventry have access to 5G coverage from the main four network providers (O2, Vodafone, Three and EE), which is still not fully available at a national scale across the U.K.
Dundee is the only Scottish city to appear in the top ten most data-reliant cities. With only 13 available broadband providers and a lower than average maximum broadband speed, residents of Dundee have a high demand for internet access but good availability of 5G coverage across the four major providers.
In contrast, the cities found to be least data reliant are:
| Rank | City | % of population that used internet in past 3 months | No of 5G networks available | Max broadband speed (Mbps) | Typical speed range (max) (Mbps) | Typical speed range (min) (Mbps) | No. of available broadband providers | Data reliance score (out of 100) |
| 1 | Durham | 84.90% | 3 | 941 | 73 | 33 | 15 | 9.9 |
| 2 | Stirling | 86.50% | 4 | 937 | 66 | 25 | 11 | 10.1 |
| 3 | Armagh | 85.50% | 2 | 932 | 141 | 39 | 13 | 13.0 |
| 4 | Perth | 86.50% | 3 | 1135 | 131 | 32 | 12 | 15.4 |
| 5 | Hereford | 89.50% | 2 | 940 | 71 | 33 | 18 | 17.5 |
| 6 | Truro | 90.00% | 2 | 942 | 74 | 30 | 18 | 19.4 |
| 7 | Newry | 90.40% | 2 | 927 | 136 | 32 | 12 | 21.4 |
| 8 | Exeter | 89.20% | 2 | 1105 | 101 | 32 | 23 | 21.6 |
| 9 | Lincoln | 87.60% | 3 | 1109 | 101 | 33 | 23 | 21.6 |
| 10 | Wrexham | 90.20% | 2 | 937 | 139 | 35 | 13 | 22.4 |
With the lowest percentage of the population using the internet in the past three months, Durham is the least data-reliant city in the U.K. Despite low demand, internet connectivity in Durham ranked as some of the poorest, with low broadband speeds and a small number of available providers compared to the rest of the country. Although Durham is a bustling university town, the average age of residents is one of the highest in the country with 21.3 percent of the population in retirement age.
Ultimately, for the majority of people, Internet connectivity for both broadband and mobile varies greatly depending on location. For cities with a huge demand for fast and reliable internet, availability of 5G coverage on mobile is more important to ensure residents can maintain a reasonable connection.
In locations such as Truro, Cornwall, the maximum broadband speed on average is under 1000 Mbps (megabytes per second) and only two of the major networks (EE and Three) offer 5G coverage at present. Whilst the population is one of the lowest in terms of internet usage, that’s still below average connectivity for 90 percent of Truro’s population who are more regular Internet users.
