By Tim Ferguson, 18 July 2007 10:15
NEWS
The UK is lagging behind its peers in terms of broadband download speeds as well as value for money where it comes to 'always on' internet access.
In terms of the maximum broadband speed offered, the UK is 16th out of the 30 member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), with maximum speeds under 20Mbps.
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Japan and Korea lead the way in maximum broadband speed in the OECD Communications Outlook 2007 report, both having services of up to 100Mbps.
The lowest maximum speeds were found in Australia and the Slovak Republic, with just over 10Mbps.
In terms of value for money, the UK again trailed in 19th place with a lowest monthly subscription price of $29.00.
The lowest monthly subscription charge was found in Sweden at $10.79 per month.
In terms of price per 1Mbps, Japan was the cheapest with the UK in 16th place.
The figures are from October 2006, when 178 million people in the OECD countries were estimated to be broadband subscribers.
Comments
There are 4 comments. Join the discussion
1. Karen Challinor
gosh there's a surprise
and with the ISP's having the mentality of "how much can we charge for how little" too
2. anonymous
Only got 8mb at home and in all honesty I don't need any more, anything more for home use is just an extenition to a lacking part of one's anatomy.
Most small to medium businesses don't need much more.
3. Simon
Well it's a logical result of what happens when you define value on one quantity - price.
For years we've had consumer groups, and even the industry itself, calling for "cheaper, cheaper, cheaper" and the result is ... cheaper. So now there isn't the margin to pay for a proper service and everyone acts surprised when a proper service doesn't materialise ?
4. Derek Overton
Tiscali have gone even slower. They moved lines from BT to their own servers and lost the lines! 8 days of constant calls have got nowhere except to finally get them to agree they have a problem.
They have no UK contacts to complain to and the polite Indian Call Centre fail 100% to return calls.
This company deserve to go out of business.
This is business braodband and the losses continue to mount.