According to the reports, a UK broadband Website, Samknows had worked out inroads into the problem as it not only aided the BBC in the survey, but also have been successful in issuing a map that shows the homes that are below the line of expectation of the government’s Digital Britain concept. The map can also be used by the government to reach out to these homes to provide them faster broadband connections.

The Samknows map was materialized by the comparison of information on the database of the services offered by the providers in the 85,000 telephone exchanges across Britain, with a UK postcodes sample. The website then worked out the distance of the properties from a specified exchange to come up with a picture of services  speed. This method very much relies on the fact that line length remains a critical factor in determining the defacto operation speeds of the services.

It is also fair to reckon the promise of the UK government, in the circumstances, of providing every household in the country with a broadband connection of at least 2Mbps speed by 2012. It is also worth pondering over another intriguing fact that a home needed to be located, in a radius lesser than 4 kilometers from an exchange to get the speeds of anything up to or above 2Mbps.

Some of the online activities like streaming & downloading videos, file sharing require faster speeds, however, the average broadband speeds available in the UK are pretty lower than what is required, the research shows. As for the broadband performance, Japan was placed in first position while the UK, Australia, Italy and Spain are a few broadband developed nations that are yet to improve their standings in terms of speeds and performance.

This research, funded by New Cisco Systems used the speeds results from speedtest.net and broadband network in these nations were tested more than 8 million times. Japan topped the table with an average speed of 16Mbps while Sweden was placed in second position with 9Mbps. Russia, which is placed in 10th position offered broadband services of average speed 6Mbps. As for the broadband service quality or performance, Japan again leads other nations while Sweden, Romania, Netherlands and Germany could find a place in the list of top ten nations.

Alastair Nicholson, a member of the research team from the University of Oxford’s Said Business School spoke to the Guardian:

“Average download speeds are adequate for web browsing, email and basic video downloading and streaming, but we are seeing more interactive applications, more user-generated content being uploaded and shared, and an increasing amount of high-quality video services becoming available,”

“Moreover, because the study also found significant correlation between a nation’s broadband quality and its advancement as a knowledge economy, policy makers may need to consider how to create an environment to improve key broadband performance parameters in the future.”

In the UK, the average broadband speeds are yet to improve to match the standards in nations like Japan, Sweden, or Germany where fibre based, cheap unlimited broadband networks provide faster broadband connections to the growing broadband population. While Virgin Media, the cable broadband provider has planned to launch its 50Mbps service nationwide by the year end, BT has recently revealed its investments plans to deploy fibre broadband network in the UK to provide 100Mbps broadband service to more than 10 million households in the next four years.

The study also shows the latest change that is taking place amidst the wi-fi hotspot providers who now see the potential business opportunities of wi-fi and have started to offer the service free of cost or at affordable prices to their customers who take up other services.

Stan Schatt, the Research Director of ABI says:

“Starbucks’ decision to go to a virtually free Wi-Fi hotspot model is having a profound impact. Hotspot owners are beginning to see Wi-Fi as a cost of doing business and an operational expense, rather than as a profit center.”

Further, many wi-fi hotspot providers are expected to follow this trend which is more likely to increase their business prospects of the other services they offer.

It should be noted that the UK already has the largest number of wi-fi hotspots in Europe while the report also shows that other European countries like Germany, Russia and France have also seen spectacular growth in wi-fi during the last two years.

Stan Schatt, has further commented:
“The first phase is likely to be a free or almost free service for good customers, those who have signed up for loyalty cards. Charging for service is counter-productive in the long run because the real money will be in value-add content downloads.”

Many research reports on the progress of broadband in various regions indicate one common thing – Western Europe is heading towards higher and higher broadband uptake.

Recent Forrester Research confirms this trend, especially in consumer broadband in most nations in Western Europe region. The report says that there will be over 48 million home broadband users by the year 2013 indicating a penetration of nearly three-fourths of total households in this region. This rise on broadband uptake compares with the present 44% of penetration in home broadband.

However, the major concern of the ISPs will be, as Pete Nuthall points out, managing customer churn. He further commented on this issue:

“In 2008, we estimate the level of churn to be 23% across Western Europe, this will peak in 2012 at 31%. Most at risk are incumbents such as BT internet provider, France Télécom, Deutsche Telekom, and KPN, due to regulatory action that force them to open up their networks to competition through local loop unbundling. Incumbents will need to reassess existing retention strategies in the light of increased price-based competition from alternative ISPs.”