The government may claim to be promoting a digital Britain, but they are failing to either invest in pushing the broadband speeds upwards in the country, or pushing private companies to do so – and the UK is falling behind other countries around the world as a result.
According to Akamai’s latest State of the Internet Report, the UK is languishing at 25th in the world when comparing the fastest high-speed internet access – behind European countries such as the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, and Switzerland. High speed access may have improved by 70% year-on-year, but still only 30% of UK broadband users get a speed over 5Mbps compared to 68% in the Netherlands – we rank at 15th in Europe, and that quite simply is not good enough if we want to compete in this digital economy.
South Korea, as it has done historically, tops the list with an average 13.8Mbps broadband speed, with Hong Kong in second with 10.3Mbps, then Japan at 8.9Mbps. Then cam some European countries with the Netherlands in fourth with 8.5Mbps, the Czech Republic in fifth with 7.4Mbps, and Switzerland in sixth with 7.3Mbps. On a city level, Asia also dominates the list with 59 cities in Japan and 10 in South Korea all within the top 100 fastest cites.
The UK placed 11th in terms of general broadband connectivity, and it is great that we have over 91% of users getting a speed over 2Mbps – but such speeds are available through traditional copper lines at great length with little investment. We need investment in fibre optics, such as that going to be offered by Hyperoptic within London, but we need it sooner rather than later and on a larger scale. The EU is proposing to use a carrot and stick approach, but we need to do more on a national level.
However, the UK was placed 11th worldwide in terms of general broadband connectivity, with over 91% of users having a speed of 2Mbps or greater. Bulgaria with 97% was the top ranked country, while the Czech Republic with 95% was placed at the second rank in general broadband connectivity.