A new Ofcom research bemoans the state of UK broadband, with less than one per cent of British homes having super-fast broadband offering speeds of up to 100Mbps (megabits per second).
Britain is lagging behind a number of other countries, with the report noting that over a third of Japanese consumers already have super-fast broadband.
The broadband challenge
Ofcom's annual International Communications Market report, says that more needs to be done to develop and promote a super-fast broadband network across the UK.
"We still have challenges on superfast broadband take-up. We are not where we want to be but plans are well under way and, if they are fully met, will take us to a strong position," said chief executive of Ofcom Ed Richards.
In slightly more positive news, the UK has seen a considerable growth in smartphone take-up over the last few years with a 70 per cent rise in subscriber numbers in 2009.
Ofcom claims that Brits are leading the way in using mobile mapping and sat-nav apps on mobile.
However, UK mobile users are still being offered some of the slowest average speeds of mobile broadband when compared with other nations.
Ed Richards explains further: "There has been a big change among mobile operators and an increasing consensus that UK consumers are early adopters and need lots of data. We are in a much better place than we were a year ago."
The maximum mobile download speed in the UK is 7.2Mbps compared with 42Mbps in Japan and 100Mbps in Sweden.
TOP MOBILE SPEEDS AROUND THE WORLD
- UK - 7.2Mbps
- France - 7.2Mbps
- Canada - 21Mbps
- Spain - 21Mbps
- Ireland - 21Mbps
- Russia - 21Mbps
- Germany - 28Mbps
- Italy - 28Mbps
- USA - 30Mbps
- Japan - 42Mbps
- Austria - 42Mbps
- Poland - 42Mbps
- Sweden - 100Mbps
TAKE-UP OF SUPERFAST BROADBAND
- UK - 0.2% of homes
- Spain - 0.3%
- Austria - 0.4%.
- Italy - 1.4%
- Germany - 2%
- Netherlands - 5.2%
- USA - 7.1%
- Sweden - 12%
- Japan - 34.4%
Via BBC News
