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Shipston-on-Stour is home to the best broadband in the West Midlands

October 2024

Shipston-on-Stour

Does YOUR town make the top 10 broadband hotspots? The region's hotspots and 'not-spots' are revealed

  • Shipston-on-Stour is the West Midlands town with the best broadband in the region, according to new research from broadband provider LightSpeed

  • The company analysed data on the coverage of Gigabit internet – with speeds of at least 1,000 Mbps (Megabits per second) – finding there is 97% coverage for the town

  • Staffordshire, meanwhile, is the county in the region with the best average coverage, averaging at 74% across its towns

  • Kidderminster has the poorest broadband speeds in the region – there is no Gigabit internet coverage for the town – but Shropshire is the worst county for broadband, with an average coverage of just 53%

  • It comes as LightSpeed Networks rolls out full fibre broadband across the West Midlands, with towns including Tamworth (which Gigabit broadband currently covers 68% of) set to benefit from lightning-fast speeds

Shipston-on-Stour has been revealed as the West Midlands’ broadband hotspot with the fastest speeds, in new research from broadband provider LightSpeed.

Analysing BroadbandExposed data on the percentage of each West Midlands town with access to Gigabit broadband (some of the fastest speeds on offer in the UK of at least 1,000 Megabits per second (Mbps)), the company found that Shipston-on-Stour leads for the region with 97% coverage.

Following the market town are Wem (96%), Stone (94%) and Whitchurch (93%). Also in the top 10 for speed hotspots are Ludlow (91%), Ross-on-Wye (89%), and Malvern (89%), with only around 10% of the areas not being served by the fastest speeds.

The top 10 towns for Gigabit internet in the West Midlands:

  1. Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire – 97%

  2. Wem, Shropshire – 96%

  3. Stone, Staffordshire – 94%

  4. Whitchurch, Shropshire – 93%

  5. Ludlow, Shropshire – 91%

  6. Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire – 89%

  7. Malvern, Worcestershire – 89%

  8. Henley-in-Arden, Warwickshire – 86%

  9. Cannock, Staffordshire – 86%

  10. Market Drayton, Shropshire – 85%

Despite Shipston-on-Stour belonging to Warwickshire, the county is not home to the best overall Gigabit coverage of the region. Staffordshire leads with an average coverage of nearly three-quarters (74%), followed by Warwickshire at a much lower 66%. It’s Shropshire, though, with the lowest average coverage at just 53%.

How the West Midlands’ counties rank for the fastest broadband speeds:

  1. Staffordshire – 74%

  2. Warwickshire – 66%

  3. West Midlands Metropolitan County – 66%

  4. Herefordshire – 64%

  5. Worcestershire – 58%

  6. Shropshire – 53%

Every town in the region has at least some access to Gigabit broadband bar one – Kidderminster – which only has access to superfast speeds of less than 300 Mbps, just one level up from standard broadband.

Just 10% of Bridgnorth is covered by the fastest broadband, while other ‘not-spots’ in the West Midlands are Church Stretton (20%), Craven Arms (23%) and Polesworth (24%).

The 10 worst towns for Gigabit internet in the West Midlands:

  1. Kidderminster, Worcestershire – 0%

  2. Bridgnorth, Shropshire – 10%

  3. Church Stretton, Shropshire – 20%

  4. Craven Arms, Shropshire – 23%

  5. Polesworth, Warwickshire – 24%

  6. Bishop’s Castle, Shropshire – 26%

  7. Much Wenlock, Shropshire – 31%

  8. Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire – 32%

  9. Cleobury Mortimer, Shropshire – 33%

  10. Atherstone, Warwickshire – 33%

It comes as LightSpeed Networks recently announced a brand new rollout of full fibre broadband in the West Midlands in an effort to boost speeds for the region. Under the rollout, 55,000 homes and businesses in areas including Tamworth, Knutsford, Werrington, Oakham and Blythe Bridge are set to benefit from Gigabit broadband. Following the initial expansion, the network plans to continue expanding further across the area before setting sights on other UK regions.

Chris Tagg, Chief Technology and Information Officer at LightSpeed explains:

“Gigabit internet is any broadband connection with a speed of 1,000 Mbps (or 1 Gbps) – far superior to the superfast speeds of 70 Mbps which are currently available to 97% of the country. This number drops to 75% when we look at the access to Gigabit broadband across the country.

“At LightSpeed Networks, we’re building full fibre broadband in the West Midlands with a focus on unserved towns to close the gap in areas where little Gigabit broadband is available. Our unique rollout into the region will see the new areas being served have access to speeds of up to 2,000 Mbps (AKA 2 Gigabit broadband).”

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© LightSpeed 2025. LightSpeed Broadband Limited is registered in England and Wales (Company Registered number 12487672) and its Registered Office Address is LightSpeed Broadband Ltd, Office 2B, Westpoint, Lynch Wood, Peterborough, PE2 6FZ
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