Britain’s broadband may be getting better but it seems we’re still well behind when it comes to average speeds.
New research from cable.co.uk has revealed the latest Speed League for broadband with the UK outperformed by countries including Spain, Romania and Switzerland.
In fact, the UK has actually slipped one place in the league and now comes 35th overall for speeds.
Topping this year’s best broadband is Singapore with average speeds of 60.39Mbps.
This is followed by Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Romania who all get to download files at over 38Mbps.
In Britain, our average is just 18.57Mbps which means downloading a full HD movie would take around 36 minutes – over three times as long as those living in Singapore.
Although UK residents may not get the best service it’s worth remembering that some countries get an even worse deal.
Those living in Yemen can expect speeds of just 0.31Mbps meaning a movie takes 36 hours to download.
36 of the top 50 fastest-performing countries are located in Europe, with nine in Asia & Pacific, two in North America, two in South/Latin America and just one in Africa.
By contrast, 25 of the 50 slowest-performing countries are located in Africa, 12 in the Arab States with ten in Asia & Pacific, and three in South/Latin America.
The data was collected for the second year in a row across the 12 months up to 29 May this year by M-Lab, a partnership between New America’s Open Technology Institute, Google Open Source Research, Princeton University’s PlanetLab and other supporting partners, and compiled by Cable.
TOP TEN FOR SPEEDS
1. Singapore • 60.39Mbps
2. Sweden • 46.00
3. Denmark • 43.99
4. Norway • 40.12
5. Romania •3 8.60
6. Belgium • 36.71
7. Netherlands • 35.95
8. Luxembourg • 35.14
9. Hungary • 34.01
10. Jersey • 30.90
Speaking about the UK’s position in the league, Dan Howdle, consumer telecoms analyst at Cable, said: “It’s been very interesting looking at the data for a second year running, not least because we have three times as much of it this time around. It is, however, somewhat sad to see the UK not faring better.
“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 come too late to a full fibre (FTTP) solution. Despite plans to roll out FTTP to UK homes across the next decade or so, the UK is likely to fall further behind while we wait.”
And Chris Ritzo, Senior Technologist at the New America Open Technology Institute, added: “We’re pleased to see the continued use of open internet measurement data in this research, which supports public understanding of global broadband development.”