Internet speeds for up to 130,000 British homes are slower than in Libya, Cameroon and Namibia... so do YOU live in a broadband blackspot?

Internet speeds for 130,000 homes are slower than in Libya, Cameroon and Namibia.

Everyone in the UK has the legal right to get download speeds of 10mbps (megabits per second) – typically fast enough to stream TV programmes.

Video content will buffer below that, while picture-heavy websites will take longer to load.

Yet Daily Mail analysis naming and shaming England's broadband blackspots shows 9% of homes in West Devon reliant on fixed line connection can't physically get that speed. 

Last month for comparison, average download speeds were clocked at 10.7mbps in Libya, 11.9mbps in Cameroon and 15.6mbps in Namibia.

War-torn Syria (3.4mbps) ranked bottom of the global league table, said Speedtest, the industry-recognised broadband speed analyser.

Singapore clocked out at the highest with 400.68mbps.

The average figure in the UK was 147.4mbps.

Yet there were 72,000 residential premises which couldn't get 5mbps, latest figures published by Ofcom show. 

Under the 'universal service obligation', rolled out in 2020, consumers have a legal right to request a 'decent' broadband connection – as long as the necessary work wouldn't cost more than £3,400 to carry out.

This is defined as 10mbps download speed and 1mbp upload speed.

The House of Commons Library says this speed allows 'users to stream films, carry out video calls and browse the web at the same time'. At that speed, it would take 13 minutes to download an hour of high-definition TV.

When Ofcom's figures were analysed by local authority, behind West Devon came Torridge, where 8.5% of homes were unable to get 10mbps.

Rounding out the top five were Mid Devon (6.2%) and then East and West Lindsey in Lincolnshire (both 4%).

At the other end of the scale, 39 councils had no premises below the USO threshold. 

Ofcom data allows even smaller areas of broadband availability to be analysed, tiny pockets of the country made up of known as middle super output areas (MSOAs) – neighbourhoods home to around 10,000 people.

The worst one in the country for the 10Mbps connection was Lympne and Palmarsh in Folkestone and Hythe.

There, 47 out of 51 households on fixed line internet (92.2%) couldn't receive 10mbps download speeds.

Experts believe that much of England's connectivity woes can be traced back to a planning oversight of the Margaret Thatcher government in 1992. 

Throughout the 1980s, BT was rolling out fibre optic technology to connect the country in a programme known as the 'local loop'. 

However in 1991, Whitehall felt that American and Japanese companies should be able to buy into building the network too, so ended BT's roll out. 

To this extent, Britain's broadband capabilities have never recovered. 

Ernest Doku, a broadband expert at price comparison website Uswitch, told the Daily Mail: 'Despite the progress being made in the full-fibre roll-out, some can’t access fast broadband speeds because full-fibre has yet to reach everyone. 

'The connections in some rural and remote communities still rely on older copper wires, which were never designed for today's internet demands. 

'Laying fibre in these areas is often logistically difficult and expensive, meaning they are the last to benefit from the roll-out.'

Price comparison experts MoneySupermarket.com recommends a household with multiple internet users should have between 30-60mbps. 

Today, up to 85.5% of England has gigabit availability, regarded as the gold standard, according to internet service aggregator, ThinkBroadband.

A gigabit is 100 times faster than the USO.

Ofcom's figures looked at fixed lines and fixed wireless access.

The Universal Service Obligation (USO) covers fixed broadband and fixed wireless access services for 10mbps.

However the Ofcom figures analysed by the Mail relate to fixed wired lines only but not fixed wireless access.

This is because experts says fixed wireless is more likely to deliver a less reliable internet connection than a fibre optic cable.

The country comparison figures from Speedtest reflect download speeds in September.

An Ofcom spokesperson said: 'We don’t recognise these figures. Our data shows that more than 99% of UK premises can receive decent broadband as defined by the Universal Service Obligation. 

'We expect the number of remaining properties to continue to fall, and other options such as satellite broadband may be available where there’s not yet a fixed connection.'