British broadband "among slowest in Europe"

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 1 Oct 2007 at 10:31

The UK has one of the slowest average broadband speeds in Europe, according to a new report.

The study shows that Britain has an average connection speed of 2.6Mb/sec, placing it below countries such as Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and Holland.

In fact the UK comes in a miserable ninth in the table of 16 European countries studied by the Information Technology Innovation Foundation (ITIF).

The study's figures contrast sharply with regulator Ofcom's current appraisal of British broadband. In a consultation paper looking at the future of broadband published last week, Ofcom claimed the "the average headline speed has doubled in a year to reach 4.6Mb/sec."

This is, of course, based on the theoretical maximum speed of the connection - which not a single line in the country actually receives. A Moneysupermarket.com survey earlier this year revealed that just a fifth of British broadband customers felt they were receiving the speed they paid for.

Finland came out top in the ITIF study, with an average connection speed of 21.7Mb/sec - over eight times the UK's average speed.