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Broadband almost
twice as fast in cities
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Towns top broadband speeds
Garnet Roach garnet@consumerchoices.co.uk
Broadband speeds in London are, on average, nearly twice as fast as those in Wales and Northern Ireland new data has shown (04-06-08).
The UK averages a speed of 3.2Mb, but speeds in the capital reach 4.5Mb on average, while those in Northern Ireland fall towards the bottom of the scale with only 2.3Mb according to research conducted by ThinkBroadband.com for the BBC.
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The average figure for Wales was 2.6Mb and in Scotland it was 2.9Mb.
Although unsurprising, this research once again contradicts Ofcom’s claim last month that the digital divide between rural and urban areas had been closed after it found that 59 per cent of homes in the country had a broadband connection, compared to 57 per cent in towns and cities.
Brendan Dick, BT’s director for Scotland - where many residents still struggle to get an adequate broadband connection - told the BBC that more homes in Britain now had broadband access than had running water.
“The UK has been at the forefront of the broadband revolution,” he said. “It’s been an amazing journey from less than 150,000 broadband connections in 2002 to around 13 million now.”
But despite claims by BT (www.BT.com) that more than 99 per cent of the country now has access to broadband, Michael Phillips, BroadbandChoices.co.uk said that the digital divide had most definitely not closed.
“This data clearly shows that despite widespread access to broadband, there is still a clear divide between rural and urban broadband. Not only do those in the countryside suffer far slower speeds than those in towns and cities, but they often have to pay more for their broadband too.
“Because of ‘regional pricing’ policies by local loop unbundled providers such as AOL (www.AOL.co.uk) the same broadband package will cost those in unbundled areas - namely those in remote areas with fewer people connected to the local exchange - £5 a month more. They will also not be able to take advantage of ‘free broadband’ and ‘free line rental’ offers from the likes of TalkTalk (www.TalkTalk.co.uk) and Tiscali (www.Tiscali.co.uk), meaning that they essentially pay more for slower speeds,” he explained.
Related article - Boost your broadband speed.
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