The UK is rubbish at broadband – study

Millions of broadband speed tests in 221 countries, commissioned by Cable.co.uk, have revealed that average UK download speeds are among the slowest in Europe.

The UK fell 13 places since the last time this study was done and is now 47th in the world, behind significantly poorer countries including Bulgaria and Portugal. Our average download speed is 38 Mbps, compared to first-placed Liechtenstein at 230 Mpbs. To be fair most of the top countries are tiny ones that were probably able to roll out fibre on a Friday afternoon, but that’s presumably always the case.

Among equivalent Western European countries Spain leads with 56 Mbps, France has 51, Germany has 42 and Italy has 23. The US beats them all with an impressive 71. You can see how every country did in the handy interactive map below and access the whole data set here.

Speed Test 2020
Infogram

“Countries and territories with a heavier reliance on or ongoing investment in pure fibre (FTTP) networks, or are upgrading to fibre or LTE from even more aged technologies, continue to see their averages rise,” said Dan Howdle of Cable.co.uk. “Those that are somewhat late to that particular party, however, the UK being a case in point when it comes to pure fibre networks, have slipped back as others have risen faster.

“While around 60% of the UK has access to the Virgin Media network and can get speeds of up to 516Mbps, and there is limited availability of smaller networks such as Hyperoptic offering gigabit speeds, the Openreach network remains the anchor that keeps average speeds in the UK comparatively low. Entry-level fibre packages and ‘fast’ fibre packages on Openreach have been set at around 30-35Mbps and 60-70Mbps respectively for more than five years now with no significant changes beyond how those speeds are advertised.”

This is useful context through which to view the next Openreach press release saying what a great job they’re doing. This study comes soon after Opensignal revealed what a rubbish job we’re doing at 5G too, so it seems like the UK telecoms consumer is not currently being well served by its telecoms players. Considering the obscene amounts of money being spent by the government on coronavirus stuff, there seems little chance the telecoms begging bowl will be filled in the next decade or two.