“Differences Across Country” In Superfast Broadband Rollout

A recent report by communications regulator Ofcom has found that although superfast broadband is on the rise in the UK, the rollout is uneven across the country.

The organisation claims that the proportion of superfast connections, defined as speeds of 30Mbit/s or more, has risen from 5% in November 2011 to 25% in November last year.

In addition to this, the average connection speed has also seen a 47% rise to 47.0Mbits/s in the same time period.

However, Ofcom has highlighted that there are large variations in the quality of the service received, depending on location.

Compared to the average urban download speed of 31.9% in May 2013, suburban areas only receive an average of21.8Mbits/S. For rural areas, the speed is lower still, at 11.3Mbits/s.

However, the regulator says that the areas from which this figure was taken are too small to be deemed statistically significant.

“The growth in superfast broadband and the rise in average speeds is testament to the investment in the sector,” claimed Ed Richards, Ofcom CEO.

“But the benefits are not shared evenly across the UK. There is more work needed to deliver wider availability of broadband and superfast broadband, particularly in rural communities but also in some locations within cities to enable wider access to fast Internet,” he added.

Communications Minister Remains Optimistic

Communications Minister Ed Vaizey remains positive in spite of the news.

“The news that average speeds continue to rise is tremendous news for home and businesses alike,” he claimed.

“We are working hard to close the digital divide between urban and rural locations and are investing £790m to ensure that 95% of the UK will have access to superfast speeds by 2017,” he added.

Ofcom recently announced that Britain has the best broadband of the five leading European economies.

© 24N.biz