UK broadband needs to improve its quality and speeds – Broadband Research

The UK broadband providers are lagging behind their counter-parts in other broadband developed nations like Japan, South Korea, Sweden and Netherlands in terms of broadband speeds, according to the research conducted by the University of Oxford’s Said Business School.

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, 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.