SPENCER Close has the second fastest broadband speed in the country, it has been revealed, following a survey of two million connection speeds nationwide.

The results of the study, by USwitch, released yesterday, showed that on average, residents in the street, in The Prinnels, experienced speeds of 50mbps when using the internet compared to the national average of 17.8mbps. Spencer Close came second to a street in Derbyshire in the survey.

The Adver put the figures to the test and visited residents in the street to check the quality of their internet connection on a smartphone app.

John Cornock, a retail manager, who works from his home, uses Talk Talk and his wi-fi got a score of 38.8mbps when we carried out our test.

John, who lives with wife Elizabeth, said: “This reading is a little bit lower than the figures released but I’ve got the app myself and I’ve been doing readings and we’ve been getting between 50mbps and 70mbps which is very good. We both work from home so a good quality internet connection is essential.”

Residents living in Haydon Wick can only dream of internet speeds that those living in the Prinnels enjoy. For months, residents have been campaigning for an improved service after an administrative error, by service providers, left them without the option of having fibre-optic broadband.

Janet Lewis, who lives in Avonmead, tested her BT wi-fi on the smartphone app and the speed of her connection came back at 3.77mbps.

She said: “We do sometimes struggle for internet speeds and it would be nice to enjoy the quality available to those in Spencer Close. The positive thing for me is that if theirs’ is at such a high level hopefully ours will improve in the near future.”

David Renard, the leader of Swindon Council, who also represents Haydon Wick, said the organisation is working with service providers to offer a better quality of internet coverage in the town.

He said: “I’m pleased to hear that parts of Swindon receive such a high quality service but there are still many who have a poor one and the council is working with the internet providers and the Government to improve that situation.

“We seem to experience poor internet speeds in very old properties and quite new ones.

“I think one of the lessons that developers need to learn is that these days when people are buying a house the quality of internet is high up there with main considerations and developers should cater their plans to this.”