UK broadband speeds leap ahead, according to Ofcom study
Just before you get excited please note I included this article because of the caveats to the headline in terms of rural areas – not because this increase in speed is universal in rural areas….
There has been a marked improvement in home broadband, according to an annual survey by the UK’s communications watchdog Ofcom.
It said that average fixed-line download speeds rose by 28% over the year to 46.2 megabits per second, while uploads gained by 44% to 6.2 Mbps.
It added that the typical household now consumed 190 gigabytes of data a month, in large part due to the use of Netflix and other streamed TV services.
But rural consumers still lag behind.
Ofcom said:
- in urban areas, 59% of connections delivered average speeds topping 30 Mbps over the 20:00-22:00 peak-time period – meeting the watchdog’s definition of “superfast” – while 17% were under 10 Mbps.
- but in rural areas, only 23% of connections surpassed 30 Mbps over the same hours, while 53% were under 10 Mbps.
The regulator said the primary reasons for the discrepancy were less availability and reduced take-up of cable and fibre services in the countryside.
Later this month, internet service providers will be obliged to quote average peak-time speeds in their adverts and other promotional materials, rather than the “up to” figures that have been more common.