Communications regulator Ofcom has revealed that the average maximum speed of UK broadband connections is just 7.5Mbit per second. While 68 per cent of UK residents have a broadband connection, there is a significant disparity across the nation.
The information is contained within the first ever interactive map of UK broadband performance and accompanying report. The map reveals that Edinburgh has the fastest average maximum speed at 10.1Mbit per second, with Bristol following at 9.9Mbit per second.
The availability of Superfast broadband (considered by Ofcom to be anything above 24Mbit per second) is increasing with 58 per cent of UK residents now able to obtain it, but Northern Ireland boasts 97 per cent availability thanks to a major investment programme.
In a speech last May, the secretary of state for culture, media and sport, Jeremy Hunt, set out the government's ambitions to provide at least 2Mbit per second broadband to all homes and businesses in the UK. In addition, it has allocated £530 million to assist in creating the best superfast broadband network in Europe by 2015.
Today, however, 14 per cent of UK broadband customers still receive speeds of less than 2Mbit per second. And according to Ofcom, the latest published figures from Virgin Media and BT suggest that there are fewer than 500,000 subscribers to superfast broadband, which equates to fewer than three per cent of broadband-enabled homes.
While latency is the major factor in an online game's performance, wide, fast bandwidth is key to providing the digitally distributed services, such as downloadable games and movies that console manufacturers continue to offer.
We've approached some key figures for comment and will follow up with a look at what Ofcom's report means for the game industry.
Comments
6I live in Northern Ireland and I would not believe the 97% availability of super fast broadband. I live half a mile from my local exchange and i'm getting 1meg. Maybe they'll get a few more subscribers when they decide to let 'the rest of us' into the party.
Can't believe the speeds to which some people are being subjected. Just thinking of the old dial-up days sends a shiver the length of my spine.....
Round my area it is practically unheard of to pay for less than 15megs. Even so, at least down my road, we certainly do not get the speed which we pay for. Was is Thailand or Korea which was getting 1000 megs?
Between 5 and 8 meg is all i get, depending on traffic. I love how virgin tries to promote 50 meg, like we can actually receive such a speed!
i live in Bristol (no.2 on the list) and have Virgins up to 50meg (chinny racon) connection. and still deal with somewhat sluggish connections at times (plus virgins peak times throttling). Best i have seen is about 15meg.
Tis lies all lies. All the time all the lies.
I'd kill for just 7.5 Mbit. I live in Milton Keynes and on a good day I can squeeze maybe 1.5 Mbit out of our line. It's just about sufficient, really. Not a heavy downloader of films/games, but sometimes I really suffer. Borderlands GOTY edition having codes for the massive DLC and not included on a separate disc was a particular annoyance.