Broadband in Croydon

Taken as a whole, Croydon looks conventional. Superfast coverage is 96.9%, gigabit availability 86%, and a mere 0.2% of postcodes sit below 10Mbps. The full fibre map underneath is anything but uniform. In SW16, more than nine postcodes in ten have fibre to the premises recorded, with SE25 close behind and SE19 at roughly three quarters.

Move to the CR codes and the picture flips. CR0, CR2 and CR3 all record zero full fibre, pulling the town-wide figure down to 28.9%, well under the UK average of roughly 69 per cent of premises passed. Gigabit coverage of 86% suggests many CR postcodes still reach top speeds by other routes. For buyers, the outward code is the first thing to look at, because the same town holds postcodes with near-total fibre and postcodes with none on record.

A split like this changes how to read averages. The 28.9% headline understates what SW16 or SE25 residents can actually order, and overstates CR0, CR2 and CR3, where fibre is recorded at zero. The floor, at least, is solid everywhere: 99.8% of postcodes reach 10Mbps or more. It is the ceiling that shifts with the outward code, and by a very wide margin.