Improvement rate slows as UK joins broadband leaders

The UK stepped up a couple of places in Cisco's third annual broadband quality survey, but is falling behind in its rate of improvement.

The survey of 72 countries and 239 cities by the universities of Oxford and Oviedo ranked the UK 18th in terms of the quality and reach of its networks, up nearly 20% in less than three years, and ahead of Spain, Bulgaria and Australia in "comfortably enjoying today's applications".

But when quality scores from 2008, the first year of the survey are compared, the UK slips to 38th, being eclipsed by Malta, the United Arab Emirates, Latvia and Iceland.

The study, which measured speeds for downloads and uploads as well as latency found that global averages had improved to 5.92Mbps, 1.78Mbps, and 142ms respectively. This was a total quality improvement of 48% in three years, it said.

South Korea, which last year announced plans to deliver a 1Gbps universal broadband service by 2012, was the top country for both quality and rate of improvement.

The UK government has set a universal service target of 2Mbps download speed by 2015, and announced an ambition to have the "best broadband" in Europe by 2015. The European Commission last month targeted 30Mbps for all Europeans by 2020, with half getting 100Mbps.

According to the study, the UK in 2010 showed download throughput went up 39% from 2009, and almost doubled from 2008. Upload speeded were up less at 17% since 2009, and 59% since 2008. But latency dropped by 28% in just one year.

The report place UK among the leaders in terms of broadband penetration. It found 75% of UK households had broadband access, up 7% since 2008. However, Ofcom figures suggest penetration rates of 99%+.

The study revealed no difference in broadband quality between the most populated cities and those in rural areas. This will surprise many who have attended government and industry briefings on the issue.