The UK is lagging behind on broadband speed, with even formerly Communist countries such as Romania outstripping us, according to new data from content delivery network Akamai.
Akamai, which streams its customers' video and other digital content over the Internet, says the UK's average broadband speed is a sluggish 6.3Mbps, compared to 6.4Mbps in that Web-savvy, high-tech hotspot Romania.
The UK also languishes behind comparable European countries such as Ireland (6.7Mbps), Belgium (also 6.7Mbps), Sweden (6.8Mbps) and the Netherlands (8.5Mbps).
The US averages 7.2Mbps, Japan a speedy 10.5Mbps and South Korea a lightning-fast 14.7Mbps -- more than double the UK's sloth-like average.
The fastest average in the world is currently held by Hong Kong, with a staggering 54Mbps.
I asked BT for comment on Britain's standing outside the top 10 countries in the world, and what it was doing to bump up our average.
"There are lots of companies comparing broadband speeds across the world using a variety of different measures," a BT spokesperson told me. "The results of this report are contrary to those from Ookla which recently found that the UK is second only to Japan for average broadband speeds amongst the G8." True enough, although Ookla ranks the UK 23rd in the world, again behind Romania.
It could be worse. Britain's connections tend to be faster than those in Germany (5.9Mbps), France (4.8Mbps) and Italy (an addormentato 3.9Mbps). Bottom of the heap is Eritrea, in eastern Africa, whose few Web-connected citizens have to put up with sub-dial-up speeds of 132Kbps.
Akamai's data comes from the third quarter of 2012. The company said speeds across Europe are generally improving, whereas worldwide the quarter saw a slowdown to an average of 2.8Mbps -- less than half the UK's average.
Security threats were also measured, with fully a third of all 'attack traffic' originating in China. The US was second on the list with 14 per cent of attacks originating there, with Russia far behind in third on 4.7 per cent.
British broadband sped up by 20 per cent last year, according to the telecoms watchdog Ofcom, boosted by superfast packages from BT and Virgin, with its Double Your Speeds programme. Sky admitted this week that its broadband was crawling to a halt, however, weighed down by too many new subscribers attracted to its unlimited downloads.
How's your broadband speed? Are you stuck in the Eritrean slow lane? Or faster than a Korean? Ping me a comment below, or over on our superfast Facebook page.
Update 25 January: Added comment from BT.
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Comments 18
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anonymous 24 January, 2013 17:44
Tell us something we don't know.
Even though BT have been asked lots of times we still have Aluminium wires where I live and only one exchange for three hundred homes nearly a mile away.
WE ARE BEHIND THE REST OF THE WORLD ENTIRELY DOWN TO BT AND ITS GREED AND LAZINESS
Meleagru 24 January, 2013 17:46
Is this an excerpt from the Daily Mail? Why the gratuitous attack at Romania? Most of Eastern Europe has better data infrastructure than Western Europe simply because it's more recent and they didn't have to go through the costly process of stripping the old one out. You're not even comparing the rate of internet penetration.
A really ignorant article that does nothing but slander Romania. But xenophobia is the last socially accepted form of hate in Britain, so what can you do?
anonymous 24 January, 2013 18:42
Information like that provided in the survey is pretty much meaningless.....to a large degree it's comparing apples and oranges. Let's take the actual speeds given, for example.........the UK is being criticised for 'languishing' behind countries that are 0.1 or 0.2 mbs faster - a difference that would be unnoticable to the user? In real world useage you can stream realiably at these speeds and a difference of plus or minus a couple of mbs would hardly be noticed. You can get superfast speeds here in the UK....if you want to pay for it, most of us choose not to and that affects the average speed! A far more realistic and useful comparisson would be what speed you get in each country for a similar outlay - I've yet to see anything like that. And one final point.......the USA having an average speed of 7.2mbs is fairly pathetic given that they have a MUCH higher incidence of people with fibre-optic connections than we do. When I lived there the best I could get was 5mbs on fibre-optic compared to 8mbs here in the UK on copper for similar prices.
davefromwales 24 January, 2013 18:57
meh, i live in a small village in south wales which vodafone cant even sort with 3G and i get 70meg down and 20meg up with BT :)
CaptainPicard 24 January, 2013 20:47
When I do a speed test, I normally get 8 mbps, but it feels really fast streaming live HD programs and playing 3D games, from multiple devices in my house hold . I think hardware might be factor.
Howard10000 24 January, 2013 21:31
This just shows how silly averages are.
Our average speed is slower than Romania's but there are only 3 people with a connection in Romania.
You know what they say; the average human being has one breast and one testicle....
anonymous 24 January, 2013 22:29
Oh how I'd love to get 6.3! I get 4 on a good day!
James Knight 25 January, 2013 01:12
My folks live in west Wales and live on the outskirts of a medium-sized town - not in a remote cottage on the side of a mountain. Their top speed is 465 Kbps. The house next door is the same. BT doesn't want to know.
Having fast internet (at least 10 Mbps) is now a basic necessity for communication, shopping, research and entertainment. It's no longer a luxury or something which is 'nice to have' which it was around 15 years ago.
anonymous 25 January, 2013 01:28
jealous much lol
anonymous 25 January, 2013 05:19
This article was written by an amateur, but i have to say the ignorant comments were entertaining.
Romania actually has a higher broadband adoption rate than UK. With an average peak speed of 37.4 megabits per second,they are also the fifth country in the world in terms of the highest broadband speeds. Not the best country to compare yourselves to, but I guess the thought of being surpassed by those "second class" people is supposed to be provocative in the minds of the superior British. I don't agree with this view, but it seems to have captured the attention of some interesting people.
Some people should at least attempt at learning some facts before writing nonsense.
Matthew 25 January, 2013 14:09
I get a 11mbps through utility warehouse and it could be faster at other times.
anonymous 25 January, 2013 21:58
I'd be interested to see what Data "anonymous 25 January, 2013 05:19" is quoting - as no report that I can find shows Romania with a higher adoption or penetration rate for broadband than the UK (whether as an absolute number or as a % of population). Also the average peak speed quoted would make them faster than Korea which currently has the highest average connection speed.
edex67 26 January, 2013 18:36
anonymous 24 January, 2013 17:44 - What about TalkTalk, Virgin Media, Sky etc?
anonymous 27 January, 2013 22:02
I'm lucky that i'm able to get fibreoptic broadband in my area. This means i can get speeds which are usually between 31-34Mbps. Unfortunately i pay a high price for this from BT but i do also get unlimited usage. If i didn't have fibre optic then the fastest possible speed i couls achieve would only be 2.5Mbps. Absolute rubbish, I choose to pay the high price simply because i refuse to have such a slow connection. I BT could do something about the speeds available through the phone line then i may be able to save some money. Somehow i doubt BT will be doing this anytime soon.
anonymous 28 January, 2013 14:44
Hello! Maybe you don't know how many Romanians work at Microsoft?! Maybe you don't know, but they are the largest minority there! So, please STOP refering about Romania that would deserve a low position when it's about IT! You are so ignorant!
anonymous 28 January, 2013 15:01
Howard10000 - if you say that, it seems you are the silly one! So, if you have a connection, please, get more informed! And what does communism have to do with internet, ignorant Nick Hide? Internet exploded much after there was no more communism! Or maybe you were not even born by then!?
anonymous 8 March, 2013 06:26
all european countries have to connect to the uk as their is a TB Fibre cable from the us to the uk then people connect to the uk to the us
anonymous 12 March, 2013 01:39
"sub-dial-up speeds of 132Kbps" I don't remember dial up ever being this fast...
I can remember ordering new ROMs from the US ca 1994 to upgrade my Supra fax modem from 9600 to 14k4 and I can remember cheap WinModems claiming 56k at the end of the decade, but nothing faster than that. I had a really expensive 128k Tele2 wireless link ca 1997 and Home Highway ca 2000 topped out at 128k if you used both channels. If only I'd known...