UK broadband networks 'lag behind'

UK broadband networks have been ranked 31st out of 66 countries in terms of quality, according to a new survey by networking equipment firm Cisco.

Thursday, 1 October 2009

Nations such as Bulgaria and Latvia are ranked higher than Britain, while Japan and South Korea lead the way with regard to overall service.

The study, which was published today (October 1st), investigated both speed of broadband and penetration.

Joanne Hughes from networking equipment firm Cisco said that the systems in the UK are "good enough for today's needs", but will improve as cable networks are upgraded to meet the requirements set out in the Digital Britain report.

Hughes remarked: "It can be a bit misleading to look at the rankings. The important thing is whether the broadband quality of a country is good enough for today's needs and the UK falls well within this category."

Two further findings from the survey were the average global download speed is 4.75 megabits per second (Mbps) and average upload speed across the world is 1.3Mbps.

The Cisco research comes as consumer website uSwitch.com revealed that the average person in the UK spends more than 30 hours a week online.

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