Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008
A report on average broadband speeds in the UK has just been released by Thinkbroadband. You can’t miss the survey it is all over their front page.
London does best with an average speed of 4.5mbps and the rural areas fare worst with average speeds of 2.5 mgbts. The overall UK average was found to be 3.2 mbps. Although the speeds are not dramatic, most people are happy with the service provided and the speeds obtained. And this was based on 6,000 speed tests so it is a significant survey. And unless they did the tests at 3am, it provides a realistic snapshot of digital life in the UK.
Contrast Australia. Living in a big city (the second largest) I pay through the nose for an 8 mgbt service and rarely get more that 2.5mgbts and often get speeds ten times slower. I just did a test and currently I am running at 2577kbps download and 515 kbps upload speed. And that costs over £40 per month. You can test your own speed here.
Only Northern Ireland does worse than I do at 2.26 mbps and they are not far behind. It is faster in Worcestershire, or Fife!
The sense of frustration is everywhere around; only the current tender request by the Government for a fibre to the node service holds out any hope of things improving and that is years away.