New OECD statistics shows UK behind on high-speed broadband

The latest figures from the OECD have shown recently that in terms of access to high-speed next-generation broadband the UK has fallen way behind other countries.

Out of the 30 countries that were used, the UK came in 21st place in terms of broadband speed, which puts it below countries like Spain, Greece and Portugal according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

Better economic returns are seen in various other areas from the countries that invest more in the deployment of fibre-optic broadband networks said the new OECD report.

Although the UK fell short when it came to broadband speed it placed in 13th position out of the 30 OECD members in terms of broadband penetration, which means it is doing reasonably well in this area.

One concern is that rather than using super-fast fibre-optic broadband many broadband subscribers still use a Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) and the use of next-generation fibre optic broadband only accounts for one in every ten OECD subscribers at the moment.

There is currently a significant increase in the number of users connecting over fibre optic broadband in Norway, the US, Denmark and in Sweden, whilst in countries like Korea and Japan it is already used by most people.

The rollout of new broadband infrastructure is currently subsidised mainly by the government of many countries, although the benefits that these broadband improvements can bring in the four main sectors of the economy, which are transportation, health, education and electricity easily justify the subsidies concluded the report.

Taylor Reynolds of the OECD’s technology division said “If you cut 1% off the costs of education, electricity, health and transport you would more than pay for a fibre network. That is the type of thinking required by countries considering rolling out next-generation networks.”

Source – BBC