Only 8% of British broadband connections above 5Mbits/sec

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 31 Mar 2009 at 08:34

Fewer than one in 12 British broadband connections achieve speeds greater than 5Mbits/sec, according to new research.

The figures come from Akamai's latest State Of The Internet report, which makes grim reading for British broadband users.

It claims the average British broadband connection achieves speeds of 3.5Mbits/sec - less than a quarter of the average speed available in world leader South Korea.

The report also puts Britain's average connection speed behind countries such as Belgium, the Czech Republic, Iceland, Norway and Hong Kong.

It also reveals how far the Government has to go to achieve its modest target of a 2Mbits/sec connection for every home by 2012. According to Akamai, only 81% of British lines are currently hitting that speed.

Even more alarmingly, 1.6% of the country's internet connections are dawdling along at below 256Kbits/sec. Those figures will include the laggards who remain on dial-up connections, as well as some customers in rural (and even urban) areas who suffer from appallingly slow broadband connections.

The news means breakthroughs like BT's fibre-to-the-cabinet rollout can't come soon enough for Britain to remain competitive in the world broadband league.

Although, as we revealed last week, all 29 of BT's initial fibre sites are already covered by Virgin's cable network, doing little or nothing to improve overall speeds in Britain.