Broadband in Epping Forest

Two of the nineteen outward codes carry almost all the recorded fibre. E4 reaches 87.9 per cent of its postcodes and RM4 sits a whisker behind on 87.8, yet the district-wide full fibre figure is just 7.1 per cent. That mismatch means fibre is dense where it exists and missing almost everywhere else, with CM15, CM16 and CM17 all recording zero.

The rest of the picture is comfortable. Superfast covers 96.2 per cent of postcodes, essentially level with the national norm. Gigabit-capable lines reach 84.7 per cent, and where fibre is absent that availability points to cable network coverage. The slow end has nearly vanished too: 0.9 per cent of the district's 3,434 postcodes sit below 10 Mbps. Only the fibre map looks lopsided. Everything else reads like a well-served district whose averages can broadly be trusted.

A household choosing between addresses here faces two different markets. In E4 or RM4, full fibre is a realistic expectation and gigabit speeds a straightforward order. In the CM codes, cable or a superfast line is the practical option, and 30 Mbps or better remains available at the overwhelming majority of postcodes. With under 1 per cent of postcodes below 10 Mbps, genuinely poor connections are rare whichever side of the divide an address lands on.