Broadband in County Durham

The strongest fibre codes are all DL prefixes. DL16 records full fibre at just under nine postcodes in ten, with DL4 and DL14 close behind at more than eight in ten. At the other end, DH1, DH2 and DH3 show no full fibre at all. The county average of 40.9% sits well below the UK's roughly 69% of premises passed, though four in ten is a meaningful base. Gigabit-capable coverage reaches 71.4% of postcodes and superfast 92.4%, a little under the national norm of about 97%. The below-10Mbps tail is 2%, small in percentage terms but not in absolute ones across 15,974 postcodes. Where an address sits between the DL and DH extremes decides most of this.

Households comparing locations inside the county face a lopsided market. A DL16, DL4 or DL14 address will usually have a fibre line on offer, while the listed DH codes have none recorded. With gigabit at 71.4%, most postcodes still have a fast option of some kind. The 2% below 10Mbps deserves attention, since at this scale that share covers several hundred postcodes.