Broadband News

Bygone Broadband Britain Bottom of the League

Monday, 14 July 2008

By Dan Drage

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Despite consumers spending a record £2.7 billion a year on broadband services, the UK is lagging behind the rest of the world in the broadband speed race.

UK broadband speeds have been put emphatically into context by recent worldwide speed reports.

"Broadband demands copper wires designed for analogue telephones transform into a conduit for digital services"

Japan boasts average connection speeds of 64Mb, with Korea not far behind at 50Mb.

France heads up the European challenge with an average delivery of 18Mb, with Sweden, Italy, Finland and Portugal not far behind. Britain has fallen far from contention with average speeds of just 4Mb.

The size of web pages has tripled since 2003. Couple this with technologically demanding new apps such as the BBC iPlayer and UK customers have never needed the speed so desperately.

Research conducted by YouGov has unearthed the primary reason these necessary speeds are not being delivered to UK broadband users. 7 million consumers, nearly half of all broadband customers in the UK, are technically incapable of experiencing standard headline speeds of 8Mb.

Broadband demands copper wires designed for analogue telephones transform into a conduit for digital services, and UK infrastructures are unable to cope with this.

Cable broadband, supplied via a fibre optic network, is not affected by this issue, and as a consequence Virgin Media (www.virginmedia.com) is set to launch a super-fast 50Mb in late 2008. The actual speed delivered by this service will still depend on such factors as where you’re connecting from and the equipment you’re using.

Michael Phillips, Product Director at Broadband Choices, is cautiously optimistic:

“Being at the bottom means that things can only get better. The new Virgin Media super-fast service, when introduced, should significantly boost our national average connection speed”

He continues:

“In order to reach the kinds of speeds experienced in Japan however, the whole UK broadband infrastructure needs a root and branch overhaul. A national rollout of Fibre to the Home networks, although being discussed, is unlikely to be happening this side of 2010 though.”

Related article - Test your Broadband Speed.