ALMOST all homes and businesses in the county are benefitting from superfast broadband, according to the latest figures.

The broadband guide Think Broadband has revealed that Oxfordshire has an ‘extremely high’ rate of coverage, with access for 96 per cent of homes and businesses.

This is above the Government target of 95 per cent.

However more than 10,000 homes and businesses have still been left without superfast download speeds of more than 30Mbps – needed for some streaming services.

Many broadband users also find their experience doesn’t live up to the advertised speed.

Think Broadband collects user-generated data from home speed tests, which shows the median download speed in Oxfordshire is 24Mbps.

Households with the fastest connections enjoy a download speed of at least 50Mbps.

But households with the worst broadband can only manage a download speed of up to 7Mbps - under the minimum speed required for a decent connection.

Think Broadband editor Andrew Ferguson said: “The last few years have seen dramatic changes in the availability of superfast broadband across the UK, but for those still to see any improvements it won’t feel like that at all.”

Communications regulator Ofcom defines superfast broadband as a download speed of more than 30 megabytes per second (Mbps), and 'decent' broadband as 10Mbps.

Downloading films, using multiple Netflix accounts, streaming ultra-high definition videos, using Skype and playing online games all require superfast broadband speeds.

Although you can watch HD content on BBC iPlayer with a speed of just 3Mbps, according to Broadband Choices an internet-using family will struggle without a superfast connection – particularly at ‘internet crunch times’.

The Oxford Mail recently reported broadband problems in Fernham, near Faringdon, where villagers report frequently struggling with connection problems.

The village was hooked up to superfast broadband in 2015 but while download speeds have improved, frequent drop-outs have forced residents to lose internet, making it difficult to run businesses and putting streaming services off-limits.

In March, the Government said that by 2020 everyone in the UK would have a legal right to request a decent broadband connection.

This means homes and businesses will be able to request a connection speed of 10Mbps for downloads and 1Mbps for uploads, within a reasonable cost threshold.