UK broadband speeds falling behind overseas competitors

The latest “State of the Internet” report by research firm Akamai has thrown up a number of concerning figures regarding the UK. The report reveals that, while the average Internet speed around the globe is a disappointing 1.5Mb, nearly 20% of the world’s broadband users have access to speeds greater than 5Mb. However the situation in the UK is perhaps not as expected, with countries such as Ireland having greater penetration.

While there has been a considerable improvement of broadband service/broadband quality in the UK, the delay in implementing BT’s fiber-optic network is starting to impact upon future broadband speed forecasts for the UK. The multi-billion pound project should see around 40% per cent of the UK population enjoying speeds of between 40Mb and 60Mb by 2012. The recent development of Virgin Media’s Broadband fibre-optic network, which is attracting significant interest from UK broadband users, should push the UK back up the broadband speed league table in the short term.

However, the fact that countries such as South Korea (69 per cent of Internet users accessing above 5Mb speeds), Belgium (31 per cent) and Ireland (10 per cent) are ahead of the U.K.’s paltry 8 per cent penetration is a worry.

Source : BroadbandGenie

Tags: Broadband, fibre-optic network, UK broadband speeds