The average broadband speed for people in the UK has fallen to 35th place in global rankings, according to a critical report released amid ongoing government turmoil.
As many people look to stream more video and use data-heavy services, the UK’s position has slipped past countries such as Bulgaria and Madagascar, underscoring concerns about the nation’s digital infrastructure.
This decline highlights a broader issue for the Conservative government: progress on delivering future-ready broadband infrastructure has not kept pace with expectations.
Earlier this year, the government announced it had met its target of providing “superfast” broadband access to 95% of the UK. However, the same organisation that compiled the coverage figures warned that the UK is likely to fall further behind other countries in terms of actual connection speeds in the coming years.
Singapore remains the leader in average broadband download speed, followed by Sweden, Denmark and Norway. At the bottom of the list sits Yemen.
The UK’s average download speed is 18.57 Mbps, which means downloading a 5 GB movie would take roughly 44 minutes.
By comparison, Singapore’s average download speed is 60.39 Mbps, so the same 5 GB file would take around 14 minutes — roughly three times faster than in the UK.
Dan Howdle, an analyst at Cable, commented on the findings:
“A number of other countries have leapfrogged us since last year, including France and Madagascar.
Compared to many other countries both in and out of Europe, the UK has simply been too slow to adopt a full fibre solution.
Despite plans to roll out FTTP [fibre to the premises] to UK homes over the next decade or so, the UK is likely to fall further behind while we wait.”
In Europe alone, 25 countries now outrank the UK, including 20 members of the EU. This trend raises questions about the UK’s future competitiveness, especially as it navigates its exit from the European Union.
While the UK remains above the lowest-ranked countries for now, the report serves as a warning that investment and accelerated deployment of modern broadband technologies are needed to improve average speeds and close the gap with leading nations.
The full 2018 worldwide broadband speed research is available from the study’s publisher.
What are your thoughts on the latest global speed rankings? Let us know in the comments.