UK and US are way behind the rest of the world for broadband speed

A new report has found that because neither the UK or the US are making the necessary investment into their broadband infrastructure they are dropping further behind other parts of the world.

The report found that the US currently place 28th in the world for average broadband speeds and the UK have not even got into the top 30 list and it has blamed inadequate funding allocated to improve their respective broadband networks.

The top place went to South Korea with an average broadband connection speed of 20.4Mbps whilst the US managed an average broadband speed of just 5.1Mbps according to the findings of the Communications Workers of America (CWA).

A recent Ofcom survey found that the UK had achieved an average connection speed of the 4.1Mbps, which is an improvement compared to the average connection speed of just 3.6Mbps in January 2009, although this is still a significant amount slower than the average broadband speed in the US.

The recent high publicised announcement by Virgin Media of its new 50Mbps broadband service is likely to have had an impact of the overall average connection speeds in the UK and places it above both the national average and other ISPs with an average broadband speed of 6.73Mbps.

Commenting on the latest report the editor of a popular broadband website said “Virgin Media’s exceptional performance has saved the UK average from an even steeper drop.”

This latest report has been seen by many industry expert in the UK as huge blow to proposals made by the government in its Digital Britain report to offer 2Mbps or higher broadband access to everyone in the country by 2012, which many have already said is unlikely to be enough to bring the UK in line with the kind of broadband speed being seen in the rest of the world.

Source – Tech Radar